DUNLAP – Warsaw’s dream ended in nightmarish fashion Friday night. Trying to win their first Northern Lakes Conference football championship since 2001, the Tigers struggled with turnovers, and as a result fell 28-0 to the Class 5A No. 8 Concord Minutemen. After turning the ball over just eight times in the first eight weeks of the season, Warsaw gave it up five times Friday night in Dunlap – three fumbles and two interceptions. “You can’t do that,” Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said of the turnovers. “Not against this team, or any team in this conference.” The host Mintumen, who improved to 7-2 overall and 6-1 in the NLC, turned the Tigers’ miscues into 14 points, as they won their fourth-straight conference title. Warsaw fell to 6-3 overall and 5-2 in league play. “I’m extremely proud of the kids,” said Dawson, whose team blew the game open in the second quarter when it scored 14 points in a matter of 23 seconds. “They played hard. To win four in a row in this conference is pretty special. Winning championships never gets old.” Warsaw, Northridge and Plymouth all finished in a tie for second place in the NLC, followed by Wawasee (4-3), NorthWood (2-5), Elkhart Memorial (1-6) and Goshen (0-7). While Jensen was proud of the fact his team went into the final week of the season with a chance to win a conference championship, he made it clear that just playing for a league title isn’t good enough. “We can’t be satisfied just playing for a conference championship,” said Jensen, who led the Tigers to NLC titles in 1999, 2000 and 2001. “We can’t become complacent. I want to win it. That has to be our mentality.” That seemed to be the mentality of the Minutemen. With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the NLC was a three-team race, as Concord, Northridge and Warsaw were all 5-1. The Minutemen certainly earned their latest championship, as they beat Northridge and Warsaw by a combined score of 63-7 after suffering losses to non-conference rival Jimtown and NLC foe Plymouth. “We hit a bump in the road, losing to Jimtown and Plymouth, but the kids responded,” said Dawson. In the win over Warsaw, Concord opened the game with a long kickoff return. Six plays later, standout quarterback Trevor Wilmore ran in from 17 yards out, putting the Minutemen up 7-0 with 9:30 remaining in the quarter. Concord scored its second touchdown when Jake Kronk intercepted an errant Austin Head pass and returned it 60 yards to paydirt. A mere 23 seconds later, after recovering a Warsaw fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Jerrell Poindexter ran in from 24 yards out on second down, pushing Concord’s advantage to 21-0 with 1:25 left in the first half. Jackson Marlow scored the Minutemen’s final touchdown, barrelling his way in from a yard out with 1:33 to play in the third quarter. Dawson said the gameplan was to stop Warsaw senior running back Tristan McClone and create turnovers. Mission accomplished. “I knew if we created some turnovers and stopped No. 20 we’d be OK,” said Dawson. “As McClone goes, so go the Tigers. I’m proud of our kids, that’s two years in a row we’ve slowed him down.” McClone, who came into the game with 1,234 yards, including 628 in the previous three games, was held to 67 yards on 21 carries Friday night. Warsaw fullback Jason Taylor finished with 15 yards on four carries, while Tyler Packard and Jackub Wood had 20 and 14 yards, respectively, after the Minutemen had the game in hand. As a team, the Tigers were held to 113 yards on 43 rushing attempts and to just 76 yards through the air. Concord only racked up 212 yards of total offense – 136 on the ground and 76 through the air – but didn’t need a lot of offense because of good field position. Quarterack Trevore Wilmore, who only played the first half because of a leg injury, led Concord’s running game with seven carries for 37 yards. Marlow added 35 yards on 11 carries, while Poindexter finished with two carries for 31 yards. Wilmore completed 3 of 8 passes for 29 yards, while his replacement, Cullen Fisher, completed 2 of 5 attempts for 47 yards and added 18 yards on the ground. While disappointed his offense turned the ball over five times, Jensen said he was proud of his defense, despite the 28-0 loss. “The defense played tough,” said Jensen. “We (the offense) put them in bad spots again. It was almost identical to the Northridge game.” Northridge handed the Tigers their other conference loss, a 24-0 setback on Sept. 20. With the regular season behind them, the Tigers now turn their attention to the Class 6A state tournament. Warsaw opens sectional play Friday at Fort Wayne Northrop. “It’s survive and advance now,” said Jensen. “Our third goal is to win the sectional. You can’t win the sectional if you don’t win the first round.” The Tigers’ other two goals were to win the ‘W’ trophy, which they did by beating Wawasee 14-13 on Oct. 4, and win an NLC championship.
CONCORD 28, WARSAW 0 W 0 0 0 0 — 0 C 7 14 7 0 — 28
W C 1st downs 15 10 Rushing yds 113 136 Passing yds 76 76 Comp-Att-Int 8-19-2 5-13-0 Total yds 189 212 Fumbles/lost 3/3 1/0 Penalties/yds 5/27 7-60 Punts/avg 1/5 1/41
First Quarter C – Trevor Wilmore 17 run (Ryan Tepe kick) 9:30, 7-0 Second Quarter C – Jake Kronk 60 INT return (Tepe kick) 1:48, 14-0 C – Jerrell Poindexter 24 run (Tepe kick) 1:24, 21-0 Third Quarter C – Jackson Marlow 1 run (Tepe kick) 1:33, 28-0 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing — Warsaw, Tristan McClone 21-67, Tyler Packard 6-20, Jason Taylor 4-15, Jakub Wood 5-14, Tanner Balazs 2-6, Austin Head 5-(-9); Concord, Wilmore 7-37, Marlow 11-35, Poindexter 2-31, Cullen Fisher 10-18, Larry Smith 4-14. Passing — Warsaw, Head 6-15-58, 2 INT, 0 TD, Jake Mangas 2-3-18, 0 INT, 0 TD, Tanner Balazs 0-1-0; Concord, Wilmore 3-8-29, 0 INT, 0 TD, Fisher 2-5-47, 0 INT, 0 TD. Receiving — Warsaw, Balazs 3-37, Thomas Hickerson 2-18, Conner McCammack 2-12, Seth Fouts 1-9; Concord, Jake Wirt 1-29, Jace Krull 1-18, Kyle Moreno 1-15, Adam Glanders 2-14.
