Tigers Roll Past Goshen In NLC Play GOSHEN – The Warsaw Tigers made two trips to Foreman Field in Goshen over the weekend. After being sent home Friday night because the lightning never ceased, Warsaw returned at 10 a.m. Saturday to hand the Goshen Redhawks their fifth straight loss 48-10 in a Northern Lakes Conference football game.
“Glad it’s over. It’s been a long 30 hours or so,” Warsaw head coach Bart Curtis said. “It had kind of a funny feel to it, but the kids adjusted.”
The game featured seven touchdowns among five different Tigers. Keagan Larsh (2 TDs, 46 yards rushing, 82 yards receiving) and Colton Wampler (2 TDs, 57 yards rushing) – accounted for four of the seven scores.
Other Tigers finding pay dirt were Julius Jones (48-yard run), Wyatt Amiss (1-yard quarterback keeper), and Juan Jaramillo (1-yard run, 77 total yards). The Tigers (333 yards rushing, 82 yards passing) outgained Goshen (65 yards rushing, 164 yards passing) 415-229.
The Tigers drew first blood in their opening offensive series when Jones sprinted 48 yards aided by a block by senior split-end Jacob Chivington to put the Tigers ahead 7-0 following Harrison Mevis’s first of six extra-point kicks for the day. They never trailed thereafter.
The Redhawks countered with a 5:40 scoring drive that crossed into the start of the second quarter. Isaac Sawatzki nailed a 23-yard field goal to narrow the Tiger lead to four.
Redhawks’ back-up QB Wesley VanHooser engineered a third-quarter scoring drive in which he was responsible for every yard in a 7-play 80-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter. It was Goshen’s first TD in two weeks.
“Goshen had the ball a little longer than I would have liked.” Curtis said.
The Tigers scored 28 points between the two Goshen scores.
Tiger coaches got a good look at their “twos,” or second team, during the one-sided contest.
“There are some things we did that looked like we coached them well,” Curtis said. “There were some things they did that makes us think we’ll have to coach them better. I think that they responded well, and a lot of kids got a lot of time today.”
The Tigers’ final first-half scoring drive was testimony to both. It was clear two-minute drill preparation and execution in practice paid off in the second straight week for the Tigers. Warsaw squeezed eight plays with a mix of backups (Wampler, Chivington, lineman Angel Mendez) into a mere 1:41 with a mix of back-ups and starters. Two 10-yard Redhawk penalties aided the drive as the Tigers increased their lead 28-3 courtesy of Larsh’s 8-yard TD run with ten seconds left until halftime.
Patrick Zollinger, a junior who usually starts at A-back on the JV team, reeled off a 75-yard run in the final quarter to set up Wampler’s second TD run.
Other notable efforts for Warsaw included:
Defensive lineman Mario Cortes blocked two Goshen punts and disrupted Goshen’s offensive line. Linebacker Zach DeFord, and safeties Jack Williamson and Mason Martz used their speed to swarm the field for numerous solid open-field tackles. Defensive lineman Andres “Fuzzy” Adame recovered his fourth fumble of the season. Defensive end Jacob Hawn forced a fumble on his sack for a 20-yard loss.
The Tigers won’t rest on the laurels of a large margin win, though.
“We’ve got to get better in a lot of areas. We’ve got to get healthy. We’ve got some ball ahead of us.” Curtis said.
The Tigers (5-1, 3-1 in the NLC) host Wawasee for homecoming, and to battle for the “W” trophy at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The game kickoff is 30 minutes later than usual to accommodate homecoming activities.
