NAPPANEE - The Warsaw Tigers knew the NorthWood Panthers were good, but Friday night's high school football game may have exceeded expectations.
In a 54-24 Northern Lakes Conference romp over the Tigers, NorthWood (No. 4, Class 3A) amassed 533 yards of total offense, averaging 12.1 yards per play over the first three quarters."That's a good football team," Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said. "We knew they would be, and they are. Watching the film, their offense has really been clicking the last three weeks. We just didn't have an answer for any of it."
Over the last four weeks, the NorthWood offense is averaging 51 points a game with wins over Wawasee, Northridge, Elkhart Memorial and Warsaw.
A big reason for the big offensive numbers is senior quarterback Skyler Titus. Against Warsaw, the four-year starter completed 10 of 16 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns, while also running for 63 yards and a score.
Complimenting Titus, NorthWood senior running back Danzele Johnson ran for 156 yards and three touchdowns.
"Obviously, we didn't have an answer for Titus, but (Johnson) is fast," Jensen said. "He's faster than anybody we've got."
That speed was showcased when Johnson touched the ball twice in the third quarter, the first going for a 43-yard touchdown and the second going 55 yards to the end zone.
"We would have liked to have eaten up some clock," NorthWood coach Rich Dodson said of Johnson's third-quarter runs. "I didn't expect those two plays to go as far as they went. I expected them to execute them, but I didn't expect them to cover about 100 yards."
NorthWood's offensive outburst came a week after the Tigers' defense posted its first shutout since 2006 with a 28-0 win over Wawasee. At Jim Andrews Field, the Tigers' defense gave up at least 54 points for the first time since Goshen put 60 on the board in 1998.
In the early stages, Warsaw's offense kept right with NorthWood, scoring on its first three possessions, trailing 20-17 with 8:17 remaining in the first half after a 51-yard touchdown run by junior Andy Conrad.
Following another Panthers score, Warsaw trailed 27-17 when its first punt came late in the second quarter.
Following the punt, it appeared the Tigers had finally stopped the Panthers when Titus threw an incomplete pass on a third-and-eight from the Warsaw 35-yard line. However, during the pass play, NorthWood was whistled for holding, but Jensen opted to decline the penalty, forcing NorthWood to go for it on fourth-and-eight from the 35.
"I feel better giving their offense, and that quarterback, one shot at it, instead of two shots at it," Jensen said. "I gambled by going with the fourth-and-eight, instead of taking third-and-18. Make one play, and we didn't."
Instead of making a defensive play, NorthWood attempted some trickery with receiver Brandon Williams throwing the ball off an end-around play, finding Derek Yoder in the end zone for the touchdown.
"We tried to run it about two plays earlier, but they had a defensive end move up the field on us too deep," Dodson said of the touchdown play. "Then we couldn't pitch the ball to Williams, so Skyler made the wise choice of just taking the loss there. I thought, 'Well, it's the last play. We might as well take a shot,'."
A defensive stop at that point, may have sent Warsaw into the half down just 27-17, with possession going their way to start the second half. Instead, the Panthers went up 34-17, then ended Warsaw's first possession of the second half with an interception, which resulted in Johnson's 43-yard touchdown run.
"The one thing we knew was we couldn't miss opportunities," Jensen said. "In the first half, we did a pretty good job of that. We didn't come out and move the ball in the first series (of the second half), and they made us pay for it. With a team like that, they're going to make you pay if you don't execute."
A positive for Warsaw was the 17 first-half points scored against NorthWood, a team that had only surrendered 24 points combined in their previous four contests.
"They executed their option well, and we had trouble getting our defensive back over to the pitch," Dodson said. "Eventually, we got that corrected a little bit.
"Give them credit," he added. "They executed their offense. They're a scary football team, and I never really could feel comfortable during the whole game. They've got some players that obviously have some skills."
Warsaw's player displaying the most skill was Conrad, who rushed for 152 yards and two touchdowns on 21 attempts.
"We got beat by a good football team, a good football program," Jensen said. "We knew we were out of the conference race. We've just got to keep getting better for the playoffs."
