KENDALLVILLE – With a 12-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, Andrew McCormick put the dagger in Warsaw’s varsity football team Friday night. In reality, he cut and sliced the Tigers all night long, leading his East Noble Knights (2-0) to a 34-23 win. Playing behind an offensive line that returned all five starters from a year ago, McCormick, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound sophomore quarterback, rushed for 181 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, threw for 273 yards and a score, and caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from backup signal caller Zack Jenkins. “He looked good,” Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said of McCormick. “Up front, they’re physical. Their running back is good too. Both those kids played really well, and that’s a good football team. They got some things going.” With the loss, the Tigers fell to 1-1 on the season, as they turn their attention to Friday’s Northern Lakes Conference opener against Class 4A No. 2 Plymouth. “They’re just really good,” Jensen said of Plymouth, now 2-0 after Friday’s 43-0 win over Rochester. “Conference play ... we gotta get better, we gotta move forward. It’s at our house, it’s at home. We take great pride in defending the house. We gotta regroup. It’s a challenge to them to see how they regroup and do all the things we have to do on Saturday after a loss. That’s a great opportunity for growth for them, and I have all the confidence in the world in them.” After each East Noble touchdown, a loud cannon was fired. Both teams certainly provided plenty of fireworks Friday night. Led by McCormick, the Knights racked up 590 yards of total offense. The Tigers, who got on the board first when senior linebacker Dylan Childers picked off McCormick and returned it 85 yards for a touchdown, racked up 440 yards of offense in the loss. Junior Michael Jensen broke two Warsaw school records, as he completed 27 of 52 passes for 321 yards. Jake Mangas, set the previous marks last year, completing 24 of 49 passes in a game. Jensen was just three yards off Paul Wiley’s school record of 324 passing yards in a game, which he set against Northridge in 1987. “The one thing we learned is the kids didn’t quit,” said the elder Jensen. “We gotta get better at putting the ball in the endzone. We moved the ball up and down the field several times and came away empty. We gotta do a better job helping them figure out how to get the ball in the endzone.” Junior Jeremy David caught five passes from Jensen for 99 yards, while Thomas Hickerson reeled in seven catches for 92 yards and senior Riley Rhoades caught 8 passes for 54 yards and a score. Warsaw sophomore Will McGarvey carried the ball 18 times Friday for 118 yards, including a 30-yard scoring scamper that gave the Tigers a 14-7 lead with 7:08 remaining in the second quarter. The Knights tied the game on McCormick’s 11-yard pass to Dylan Hunley with 5:00 left in the first half, and then went to the locker room at halftime with a 28-17 lead after scoring two touchdowns in 48 seconds. The first of the two quick scores came on a 1-yard plunge by junior running back Charlie Miller. The other was a 24-yard pass from Jenkins to McCormick. The Tigers trimmed the deficit to 28-23 with 6:01 left in the final frame on a 7-yard pass from Jensen to Rhoades. The two-point conversion run failed. Four minutes later, McCormick iced the game for East Noble with a 12-yard touchdown run. “We moved the ball well,” said East Noble coach Luke Amstutz. “We had some holding penalties kill us. We wanted to run the ball, and we did. We ran the ball well. We didn’t make any huge plays, but it was a field-position game in the second half and we came out from our own 1-yard line twice and made it tough on them.” David Salazar added 55 yards on 11 carries for East Noble, while Miller finished with 39 yards on 15 attempts. Jake Torrie caught nine passes from McCormick for 138 yards, while Hunley finished with 101 yards on seven receptions.
EAST NOBLE 34, WARSAW 23 War 7 10 0 6 — 23 EN 7 21 0 6 — 34
War EN 1st downs 17 34 Rushing yds 119 285 Passing yds 321 305 Comp-Att-Int 27-52-0 21-42-1 Total yds 440 590 Fumbles/lost 0/0 2/1 Penalties/yds 8/85 10/85 Punts/avg 4/51 5/44
First Quarter W – Dylan Childers 85 INT (Andrew Mevis kick) 9:59, 7-0 EN – Andrew McCormick 22 run (Leandro Karst kick) 4:10, 7-7 Second Quarter W – Will McGarvey 30 run (Mevis kick) 7:08, 14-7 EN – McCormick 11 pass to Dylan Hunley (Karst kick) 5:00, 14-14 W – Mevis 34 FG 2:59, 17-14 EN – Charlie Miller 1 run (Karst kick) :52, 21-17 EN – Zack Jenkins 24 pass to McCormick (Karst kick) :04, 28-17 Fourth Quarter W – Michael Jensen 7 pass to Riley Rhoades (conversion failed) 6:01, 28-23 EN – McCormick 12 run (kick failed) 2:13, 34-23 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing — Warsaw, McGarvey 14-118, Jensen 4-4, Rob Sullivan 3-(-3); EN, McCormick 18-181, David Salazar 11-55, Miller 15-39. Passing — Warsaw, Jensen 27-52-321, 1 TD, 0 INT; EN, McCormick 19-38-273, 1 TD, 1 INT, Jenkins 2-4-32, 1 TD, 0 INT. Receiving — Warsaw, Rhoades 8-54, Joey Hickerson 7-92, Jeremy David 5-99, Sterling Hay 3-17, Zach Riley 1-36; EN, Jake Torrie 9-138, Hunley 7-101, Justin Galaviz 3-31, McCormick 1-24, Salazar 1-11
