SYRACUSE - The same problems that plagued the Wawasee Warriors all season long, ended their football season Friday at Warrior Field.
Turnovers, dropped passes and missed opportunities all contributed in Wawasee's 30-9 loss to the Columbia City Eagles in the first round of sectionals, ending the season at 1-9."That was kind of a microcosm of what our entire season's been like," Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon said. "The times we had opportunities, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot. It's kind of been the pattern. One wheel comes off, then two, three and four seem to follow."
Despite getting the ball inside Columbia City territory on three-straight possessions to close the first half, the Warriors managed just three points, resulting in the 14-3 halftime deficit.
After giving up another three points midway through the third quarter, Wawasee got some things going, thanks to some trickery.
On fourth-and-eight from the Columbia City 42-yard line, Wawasee went with a fake punt, allowing sophomore Trevor McKibben to take the direct snap 23 yards to the 22. A play later, freshman quarterback Bauer Schmeltz found senior Dylan Ringler in the end zone for a score.
Even with the touchdown, the extra point was blocked, leaving the Warriors behind 17-9 with 3:36 remaining in the third quarter.
The Wawasee defense forced a three-and-out on the Eagles next possession, but without scoring another point the rest of the way, the Warriors saw their season come to a close.
"The one thing we need to learn is to overcome things, and it's too late for 2008," Wogomon said. "We've got a lot of positives we can look at for the next year. The one thing we have to work on is dealing with adversity and being able to overcome it."
Facing the Eagles, Wawasee mustered just 87 rushing yards, 46 coming from a first-quarter run by junior Travis Patterson and another 23 coming off the McKibben run on the fake punt.
"Columbia City absolutely took care of everything in the middle," Wogomon said. "We could not get any run game established whatsoever. Really, this is a long time in a while where we've had to totally abandon our run. We just couldn't get anything at all inside the tackles."
The run defense was staunch against the Warriors, even though its given up 160 yards a game this year.
"Our defense has done a real nice job of stopping the run between the tackles all year long," Columbia City coach Brian Lewis said.
The Eagles 218 rushing yards set a season high for the 3-7 team, and sophomore quarterback Logan Rehrer's 113 rushing yards shattered the previous individual game high of 76, set by senior Kenny Steele on Aug. 22 against Warsaw.
