FORT WAYNE — Homestead senior quarterback Zach Terrell had a field day against the Warsaw Tigers' defense Friday night in Fort Wayne. Completing 13 of 16 passes for 254 yards and five touchdowns, Terrell led his Homestead Spartans (2-0) to a 51-7 win over the visiting Tigers (0-2). "It's nice to have a three-year starter back there," Homestead coach Chad Zolman said about Terrell, who will be playing at Western Michigan next year. "He knows the game, and our coaching staff has done an excellent job of using his talents. And we've had some kids around him that, when they get the ball in their hands, can make some good things happen." Of his five touchdown passes, Terrell distributed them to four different receivers, including two to junior Isaac Griffith, one to senior Jake Weber, another to junior Grayson Bastin and his fifth to junior Seth Coate. "That's why he's going to Western Michigan to play college football at a Division-I level," Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said about Terrell. "But our biggest competition is us. He's a great football player, they're a great football team and they're going to win a lot of football games. But it still comes down to — our issue is us." Along with the 254 passing yards surrendered, the Warsaw defense also gave up 200 rushing yards. "Every player on our football team is not clicking on all cylinders on every down," Jensen said. "When we do, we put together long drives and score touchdowns. When we don't, we look like we look and we could have beaten 100-0." Warsaw's one scoring drive bridged the first and second quarters, when the Tigers drove the ball 80 yards on nine plays, punctuated by a 10-yard touchdown run by senior Zach Rooney. "It was obvious from the film that that kid was a weapon," Zolman said about Rooney. "We watched him on kickoff returns and he's just a weapon everywhere." Following his touchdown run, Rooney had 86 yards on his first 12 carries, but picked up just 13 yards on his next 10 attempts. "We have a lot of good football players out there," Jensen said. "One play here, one play here, two plays here, three plays here — but we also have ball players that don't play hard every play. That goes back to (our biggest competition) being us. We can make a great run, but then we dance in the backfield — that's not good either." In all, Warsaw rushed for 158 yards on 45 carries, while the passing game never got into rhythm either, as sophomore quarterback Austin Head completed 2 of 9 passes for 21 yards. Going into Northern Lakes Conference play this week at home against Plymouth, Jensen is going to try to get all of his guys to get on the same page during practice. "We're not going to quit," Jensen said. "The coaching staff isn't going to quit and the kids aren't quitting. Like I told the kids, it's not that I don't think they want to, but wanting to and doing something about it is two separate things."
