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"It feels awful good to win in the Northern Lakes Conference," Jensen said. "You look at the history and some of the things some of these teams have done in the past, and I still contend this is one of the toughest conferences around."
Saying several times his team could beat anyone, but also lose to anyone, Jensen's Tigers came out flat Friday and allowed the host Raiders to move the ball down the field, including a 27-yard run by senior Robert Kindle to start the game.
Northridge moved the ball down the field in impressive fashion on the game's first possession, connecting on a 14-yard pass on the game's second play, and a 12-yard pass five plays later, but the Tigers clamped down in the second half and turned a 7-0 lead at intermission into their first conference win of the year.
Warsaw is now 3-2 overall and 1-2 in the NLC, while Northridge lost for the 16th straight time and fell to 0-5 and 0-3 in the NLC.
The Tigers have now won 12 straight over Northridge and lead the overall series 13-4.
Starting a drive at its own 33 with 3:50 on second-quarter clock and no first downs to their credit, the Tigers got 10 yards on a quarterback keeper from Erickson, an 18-yard pass from Erickson to classmate Adam Suchecki, and an Erickson 16-yard run followed three plays later by a 15-yard Erickson pass to Nate Miller to set up a five-yard scoring scamper by Balestri that broke a scoreless tie with 2:00 remaining.
After Balestri lost two yards on the first play of the second half and Erickson followed with an incomplete pass, the shifty senior signal caller broke free for a 15-yard run that gave the Tigers a first-and-10 at the Warsaw 41. Tyler Colt ran up the gut for four yards on the next play, and then Erickson put the Tigers on the board again with an impressive 55-yard touchdown trot with 10:05 left in the third quarter.
Erickson started the first three games of the season, showcasing shifty moves and a nack for escaping defenders, but had to sit out last week's 10-7 loss at Elkhart Memorial with a shoulder injury.
He returned last night and rushed the ball 13 times for a team-high 117 yards, as the Tigers pounded out 227 yards on the ground.
"I got to admit, I was awful nervous in the first quarter," Jensen said. "Dan was struggling a little bit to find his shoes, but once he got going and got hit a couple times he seemed to feel better. He did a nice job."
To compliment Erickson's 117 rushing yards, Balestri added 94 of his own on 16 carries, including 30 on a touchdown trot with 3:05 left in the third that gave Warsaw the 21-0 lead.
Balestri took the handoff from Erickson, squirted past the linebackers, and turned on the speed to easily dice his way through the Raider secondary on his way to paydirt for the second time of the evening.
Just as the Tiger offense came to life in the second half, so did the Warsaw defense, holding Northridge scoreless for the second straight year.
The Tigers entered Friday evening's game with four sacks on the season. Against the Raiders, the Warsaw defense stepped up to the plate and sacked Crawford seven times. Senior inside linebacker Brandon Cordell, already among the state leaders in tackles this season, tallied four sacks.
Northridge was held to just 75 rushing yards on 23 carries, and limited to 83 yards through the air for a total of 158 offensive yards.
"We're all about team first, and it's been a long time since I've been a defensive coordinator, but there's something special about a shutout," said Jensen. "It means a lot to the kids, they were talking about it towards the end of the game. We played 20 kids on defense last week at Memorial. That speaks volumes about what we're trying to do with our defense."
After starting the game with a 27-yard run, Kindle was held to 59 yards on 12 carries, while Crawford rushed 12 times for negative nine yards. Junior Michael Yoder was the only other Raider to net 10 yards on the ground, all of it coming on one carry.
Through the air, Crawford completed 7 of 16 passes for 83 yards with one interception. Erickson completed 5 of 16 passes for 69 yards with no interceptions.
Warsaw travels to NLC foe Goshen next Friday, while Northridge hosts NorthWood.
