Tigers Pour It On In Win Over MemorialAs the third quarter ended Friday night, a heavy rain fell on Fisher Field. In terms of the Northern Lakes Conference football game being played on the new synthetic turf field, the floodgates opened long before that. Led by senior quarterback Michael Jensen, who threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more, the Warsaw Tigers led 35-6 at halftime and cruised to a 49-6 win over the Elkhart Memorial Crimson Chargers. Reeling from a 17-10 loss at Plymouth last week, a disappointing setback that led to a fiery postgame speech from head coach Phil Jensen at the Rockpile, the Tigers left no doubt against Memorial. “I chewed ‘em out last week, I chewed ‘em out before we came out tonight, too, but they gotta get that message,” said Phil Jensen, whose team improved to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the NLC standings. “If we can learn to apply ourselves like that everyday in practice, every drill, just think where the upside is. I don’t know where it’s at. They don’t know where it’s at. That’s where you gotta trust and just do it. “I’m really proud of them tonight. I didn’t ask them to do it ... I told them to do it. They responded, and that means a lot to me.” Michael Jensen scored on 1-yard and 2-yard quarterback keepers and also threw scoring strikes of 43, 20 and 14 yards to classmate D’Andre Street – all in the first half. The Tigers’ signal caller finished the game 9 of 14 through the air for 178 yards. Street’s three-touchdown performance came on just four catches. He finished the game with 71 yards receiving. His twin brother, Devin Street, caught one pass for 28 yards, while Trevor York hauled in a pass for 50 yards. “He’s a great receiver,” Michael Jensen said of D’Andre Street, who has 21 catches for 265 yards and five scores through four games. “He goes up after it, and I’m confident that whoever’s guarding him I can throw it up and D’Andre will go up for it and come down with.” Not to be outdone by the passing game duo of Jensen and Street, Warsaw junior Will McGarvey was quite impressive running the ball. McGarvey tallied 193 yards on 14 carries and scored on runs of 15 and 52 yards. In all, Warsaw’s offense outgained Memorial 403-92 in total yards. The Tigers’ defense held the Crimson Chargers to 13 yards on 29 rushes. Memorial quarterback Nathan Williams completed 10 of 30 passes for 79 yards, producing the team’s only score on a 16-yard pass to Nolan Grose late in the second quarter. The Williams-to-Grose touchdown cut Warsaw’s lead to 28-6 at the time, and the extra-point kick failed. Warsaw’s defense was stingy Friday night, holding Memorial to 92 yards on 59 offensive plays. The Tigers, on the other hand, tallied their 403 offensive yards on 43 plays. It was the kind of all-around performance Phil Jensen has been looking for, and it keeps Warsaw’s goal of a conference title possible. The NorthWood Panthers, who will host Warsaw on Oct. 7, are alone atop the conference standings at 2-0. Concord, which handed Wawasee its first loss of the season Friday night is 2-1 in NLC play. Goshen, Northridge, Plymouth, Warsaw and Wawasee are all 1-1. Memorial fell to 0-3 in the league and 1-3 overall. The Tigers are in action again Friday at Northridge, which beat Plymouth 22-14 for its first win of the season.
WARSAW 49, ELKHART MEMORIAL 6 EM 0 6 0 0 — 6 WAR 14 21 14 0 — 49
EM W 1st downs 9 14 Rushing yds 13 225 Passing yds 79 178 Comp-Att-Int 10-30-0 9-14-1 Total yds 92 403 Fumbles/lost 1/0 1/0 Penalties/yds 4/25 7/70
First Quarter W – Michael Jensen 1 run (Andrew Mevis kick) 6:27, 7-0 W – Jensen 43 pass to D’Andre Street (Mevis kick) 1:21, 14-0 Second Quarter W – Jensen 2 run (Mevis kick) 9:12, 21-0 W – Jensen 20 pass to D’Andre Street (Mevis kick) 7:24, 28-0 EM – Nathan Williams 16 pass to Nolan Grose (kick failed) 2:27, 28-6 W – Jensen 14 pass to D’Andre Street (Mevis kick) :41, 35-6 Third Quarter W – Will McGarvey 15 run (Mevis kick) 6:10, 42-6 W – McGarvey 52 run (Camden Cox kick) 4:01, 49-6
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing — Memorial, Isaiah Booze 8-10, Corv Freel 1-4, Williams 10-1, Jenner Minix 1-1, Mark Brownlee 7-0, Jeshawn Echols 2-(-3); Warsaw, McGarvey 14-193, Bryce Garner 6-14, D’Andre Street 1-6, Trenton Sands 3-6, Jensen 4-5, Mason Faas 1-1 Passing — Memorial, Williams 10-30-79, 1 TD, 0 INT; Warsaw, Jensen 9-14-178, 3 TD, 1 INT Receiving — Memorial, Grose 6-35, Nathan Howard 1-22, Andrew Goodman 1-15, David Tillman 1-4, Caleb Butler 1-3; Warsaw, D’Andre Street 4-71, Trevor York 1-50, Devin Street 1-28, Jeremy David 2-17, Tristan Larsh 1-12
