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SYRACUSE - It's amazing what happens at sectional time. For the Wawasee Warriors, the very thing that helped them survive the regular season killed them in the first round of the Class 4A, Sectional 11 on Friday - turnovers.
Then there was the special teams play. For three quarters, the Warriors were helped by the poor special teams play of South Bend LaSalle. But in the fourth quarter, it was the kicking game that helped the Lions to a 15-14 victory.
After Wawasee scored from two yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter, the Warriors led 14-6. LaSalle took over the football at its own 35-yard line and began to drive.
Eight plays later, LaSalle had a second-and-eight at the Wawasee 26-yard line. Senior quarterback David Thompson ran around end for 10 yards, but then coughed up the football and Brad Brown recovered for the Warriors on a play that looked to signal the beginning of the end.
However, two plays later, Ty Mitchell made an exceptional play, twisting his body to pick off a Jeff Beer pass at the Wawasee 35-yard line with 7:18 to play. The Lions went to the ground as they did the entire game with eight consecutive running plays.
With 3:42 to play, Thompson scored on a quarterback keeper from two yards out to close the gap to 14-12.
On the two-point conversion attempt, Thompson called his own number again heading to the corner of the end zone on another keeper but was stopped short by the trio of Brown, Scott Ousley and Brody Stipp.
Wawasee started its next possession with less than four minutes to play at its own 30-yard line and had only to run out the clock. But on the first play from scrimmage, Luke Matz fumbled away the ball and LaSalle took over on the Warriors' 33-yard line.
"We've been doing fine (on turnovers) the whole year," Wawasee head coach Gene Mitz said. "It's something that we looked at at the end of the regular season and it's been a plus"
On third-and-one from the 24-yard line, Mathew James picked up one yard to keep the drive alive. The Lions had another third-and-one with just over a minute to play and this time 142 pound senior Tony McWilliams came up with a two-yard run for the first down.
The drive stalled, though, at the six-yard line and LaSalle was forced to attempt a field goal with 21 ticks left on the clock. Jerry Kaczmarek lined up for the first field goal attempt of his career and knocked it through the uprights to give the Lions the win.
"He never kicked a field goal before," LaSalle head coach Neil McLaughlin said. "We had no choice. We were just concerned about a good snap."
"He did a great job, and I want to congratulate that boy," Mitz said. "He made a pressure kick for his team and his school that put them into the second round of the playoffs."
After the win, McLaughlin heaped praise onto his senior class.
"Our kids played hard," McLaughlin said. "We haven't had three wins at LaSalle in a long time. We have a great senior class. They play hard and they're good students. They're good citizens and they come to school and practice hard. They do what you expect kids to do. I told these kids that they're throwbacks. They are what kids used to be."
For the game, LaSalle ran the ball an incredible 64 times, 25 times in the fourth quarter and never threw the ball in the second half. Three runners carried the ball at least 15 times including Kaczmarek's 19 carries for 96 yards. Wawasee had more big plays than LaSalle as the Warriors had three runs of 20 yards or more, two from Graves, but they could only run 15 plays in the entire second half to LaSalle's 46.
Wawasee ends the season with a record of 4-6. South Bend LaSalle moves to 3-7 on the year and will meet the winner of the South Bend Clay and South Bend Washington game.
