Tiger Football Looks To Keep A Good Thing GoingPenn has spoiled many a football postseason for Warsaw.
The No. 12-ranked Tigers (8-2) can return the favor against the unranked Kingsmen (6-4) at 7 p.m. Friday at Fisher Field during an IHSAA Class 6A sectional championship game.
Warsaw is seeking their first sectional title. The Kingsmen have won 24 sectional crowns — the last in 2017.
Head coach Bart Curtis and his staff are working to keep the Tigers focused.
“It’s an honor and privilege to represent the school in this fashion in November,” says Curtis. “Moms and dads, the school, their classmates and the community are all excited. That’s all OK. But we don’t want to get caught up in anything other than what we’re doing inside the practice.
“We’re not going to get out of our routine for anything.”
In the past 35 years, Penn is 9-0 against the Tigers, including a 16-7 win in the first round of the sectional on Oct. 26, 2018.
Warsaw is 14-34 all-time in the postseason. The Tigers only have won multiple games in the same postseason three times (2002, 2007 and 2009) and lost to Fort Wayne Snider in the championship games all three times.
Penn (6-4) is coming off a 13-6 home win against Portage. Two field
goals from senior Tommy Castline and a short touchdown run by junior quarterback Nick Favilla plus a Castline extra point accounted for the Kingsmen’s points.
Junior running back Kyle Riffel (187 carries for 1,169 yards and 10 TDs), Favilla (113 carries for 532 and seven TDs) and sophomore running Alec Hardrict (55 carries for 161 yards and three TDs) are Penn’s top rushers.
“They are getting their best kids the football in a lot different fashion than what we saw last Friday night,” says Curtis. “They’re doing it with a mammoth offensive line that zones you off. It’s a very difficult concept to defend.
“They come right at you. They don’t try to hide what they do. (Favilla) is a capable thrower, but he is a definite threat to run the football. He’s a running back that can throw. He makes them go.”
Favilla has completed 33-of-61 passes for 405 yards and two TDs. The top receivers are Senior wideout Tiegan Bothun (16 receptions for 275 yards), junior wideout Carson Mumaw (14 receptions for 186 yards and one TD) and Riffel (nine receptions for 123 yards and one TD).
The Kingsmen’s “Wild Bunch” defensive unit had two goal-line stands to turn back Portage, including one in the last minute of the game.
“The bad part is that we got ourselves into that situation,” says Penn head coach Cory Yeoman. “The good part is that we were able to fight our way out of it and make a play at the end.”
Favilla became signal caller for the “Gold Rush” offense when Ron
Powlus went out with a season-ending injury after throwing five touchdown passes in the first two games.
“We had to kind of reinvent ourselves,” says Yeoman. “Every year — depending on what your strengths and weaknesses are — you kind of morph into that team offensively, defensively and on special teams.
“That’s kind of where we went.”
Yeoman says that when the Kingsmen are clicking offensively, they are using the run to set up the play-action pass.
“It makes it a better weapon,” says Yeoman, who has seen his team go 5-1 since a 1-3 start to the season.
The Kingsmen are 6-2 against Indiana teams with two losses coming to Homewood-Flossmoor of Illinois and Cincinnati St. Xavier of Ohio.
The Tigers are 4-1 this fall at Fisher Field.
Warsaw (8-2) earned a title shot with a 35-28 semifinal win at Chesterton.
Junior fullback Juan Jaramillo ran for three touchdowns, including a 32-yarder that proved to be the game-winner with 3:14 to play. Jaramillo gained 180 yards on 34 carries against the Trojans and pushed his season totals to 256 totes for 1,358 yards and 17 TDs.
Senior quarterback Wyatt Amiss (107 carries for 618 yards and 10 TDs), senior halfback Blake Marsh (41 carries for 430 yards and four TDs), senior halfback Keagan Larsh (36 carries for 282 yards and three TDs), sophomore halfback Julius Jones (19 carries for 220 yards and two TDs) and junior fullback Colton Wampler (22 carries for 121 yards and three TDs) are also important cogs in the offensive attack.
“(Warsaw) runs their option offense as good as anybody,” says Yeoman. “When you run the ball that well it makes your passing game that much more dangerous.
“We want to slow that down. I don’t think you ever stop it.”
Amiss has completed 19-of-37 passes for 408 yards and five TDs. Junior split end Luke Adamiec (eight receptions for 162 yards and one TD) and Larsh (five receptions for 150 yards and two TDs) are the Tigers’ top pass catchers.
Senior kicker Harrison Mevis is 45-of-45 on extra point and 6-of-9 on field goal attempts with two of 40 yards or more.
“(Penn’s) special teams are as good as anybody we’re going to play,” says Curtis. “They’ve blocked 10 kicks.
“That PAT they blocked against Portage last week was huge.”
Warsaw is averaging 34.5 point per game — 37.6 in their last five. The defense is giving up 20.8 per contest.
Tiger leaders in total tackles are senior lineman Parker Davenport (58), senior linebacker Gage Lyon (54.5), junior linebacker Zach DeFord (52.5) and junior safety Mason Martz (46.5).
“Their kids run to the football extremely well,” says Yeoman. “They fly around. They’re fun to watch.”
Penn’s per-game scoring norm is 22.9. It’s 13.4 if you take away a 33-6 win against LaPorte and 62-32 victory against South Bend Adams. The Kingsmen yield an average of 20.5 points per game.
“We’ve tried to play good team defense,” says Yeoman. “When we’ve
played well, we’ve communicated, fit and tackled well. When we haven’t played well, we didn’t tackle well, we didn’t fit well.
“Teams that play great defense play great team defense. That’s all part of everybody doing their job.”
Leading Penn in tackles for loss are junior safety Zack Messer (7), junior lineman Joe Apata (5) and senior lineman Christian Forstyhe (3), senior lineman Caleb Suski (3) and senior linebacker Brenden Tombs (3). Senior cornerback Pat Maclin has three interceptions.
Physicality is the name of the game for the Kingsmen “D.”
“If you don’t come to play, they are going to knock you around,” says Curtis. “Playing against that defense is not for the faint of heart.
“They’re great technicians. They get off blocks like madmen. And they fly to the football. They do all that and they are great open-field tacklers.”
John Harrell is predicting a 28-24 Penn victory. Jeff Sagarin’s Indiana High School Football Ratings have Penn at No. 27 and Warsaw at No. 45 among schools in all classes through sectional semifinals.
A Warsaw victory means a regional road trip Nov. 15 to either Crown Point or Merrillville.
Gates will open at 6 p.m. All tickets are $6. No all-sports passes or season tickets will be accepted. Pre-sales at the school are slated through noon Friday.
