After exacting revenge on one Northern Lakes Conference opponent, the Wawasee High School football team has a chance to do it again Friday at Concord. In Class 4A Sectional 11 semifinal action, the Wawasee Warriors defeated NorthWood 31-28 Friday in Syracuse – avenging a 35-21 loss to those same NorthWood Panthers on Sept. 14. Now standing in the way of the Warriors’ first sectional title since 2004 are the Concord Minutemen, a team Wawasee fell 54-7 to on Sept. 7 in Dunlap. “Our kids proved it last week,” Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon said about his team’s turnaround. “We are not the same football team that played NorthWood in Week 6 and we sure hope we’re not the same football team that played Concord in Week 4. If we are, we’re in for a long night.” Following a 53-14 loss at Plymouth on Sept. 21, something changed for Wawasee, which has won its last five games. “It’s not even the same team,” Concord coach Tim Dawson said. “What we see is a team playing with a lot more confidence. They’re able to make plays on offense and defense. Coach Wogomon has changed some personnel in spots and that’s obviously been for the better. They’ve tweaked their offense where they’re not as complicated with formations. It looks like he said, ‘You know what, these are the things we do well, so we’re going to stick to these.’ That’s exactly what you want.” A change has been sophomore quarterback Gage Reinhard getting familiar with his surroundings. Beginning the season as the backup, Reinhard got the starting nod after senior D.J. Semon was dismissed from the team following the second game. Moving from a scrambling quarterback to a pocket passer, the Wawasee spread offense has benefited. Reinhard has completed 92 of 175 pass attempts for 1,328 yards and 13 scores, although he has thrown 13 interceptions. “We have to get pressure on Reinhard, because he has a good arm and he’s not afraid to run it too,” Dawson said. “We have to get up field and put some pressure on him so he has to throw the ball sooner than he wants to.” His favorite target has been classmate Clayton Cook, who had three catches for 114 yards in last week’s win, increasing his season totals to 40 catches for 782 yards and 11 touchdowns. In the previous matchup with Concord, Cook hauled in seven passes for 127 yards and a touchdown, and Dawson is aware of the 6-foot-2, 160-pound track athlete. “They obviously like to get the ball to Cook, and he’s a playmaker,” Dawson said. One of Cook’s catches in the regular season loss was a 67-yard score, which cut the Concord lead to 14-7 with 9:18 left in the first half. That score held until Concord quarterback Ryan McKibbin scored from a yard out with 58 seconds remaining. After Concord got one of its four interceptions off Reinhard on Wawasee’s next possession, DuWhan Alford scored on a two-yard run as time expired, increasing the Minutemen lead to 28-7 in the blink of an eye. “We went from thinking we’re in a ballgame at 14-7 with two or three minutes to go, to going into halftime down 28-7,” Wogomon said. “All of a sudden, you think you’re in for a dogfight in the second half to thinking, ‘How in the world can we even get back into this ballgame?’” In the second half, Concord fed off the momentum, scoring four more touchdowns, but Dawson is cautious to think that will happen again. “Those people that were at the game know that score was because of a big momentum thing and it got out of hand,” he said. “At this level, with where you’re at now and what’s at stake and they’re playing with so much confidence, they believe they can win now. They’re very capable of beating us. There’s no doubt about it in my mind.” In that win, Concord’s McKibbin completed 14 of 27 pass attempts for 268 yards and two scores, but he won’t be playing against the Warriors in the sectional, after Trevor Wilmore was handed the reins four games after the win over Wawasee. “Ryan McKibbin is very capable, it’s just that he doesn’t extend as many plays with his feet as Trevor Wilmore can,” Dawson said. “I felt like we needed a two-headed monster back there running the ball instead of focusing on just one. We’re a spread offense, like Wawasee, with one back. I just felt like it was too easy to focus on one back. When you have a quarterback that’s also a threat to run the ball, it’s a bit harder to prepare for.” In his first serious action of the season, Wilmore ran for 167 yards and two scores in a 31-28 loss at home against Plymouth, which was followed by 257 passing yards and 177 rushing yards, including three TDs on the ground, in a 56-28 win at Northridge. On the year, Wilmore has completed 53 of 90 pass attempts for 747 yards, six touchdowns and two picks, as well as running for 715 yards and 11 scores. Despite him coming on late in the season, Wawasee is familiar with Wilmore, having faced him in last season’s 15-12 loss in Syracuse. “It’s not like McKibbin didn’t hurt us bad enough,” Wogomon said. “He came out and was slinging it all over the field (in this season’s earlier meeting) and Alford was running all over. Now, they’ve got Wilmore. We went against Wilmore last year, so we understand he’s a guy that can throw, but is so much more of a guy that will pull it down and run. That’s makes him even more of a threat to scramble.” With so many weapons on the Concord offense, which is averaging 36 points a game this year and is riding a four-game winning streak, the Warriors will have to be on the top of their games to advance in the tournament. However, Dawson isn’t making space in the trophy case quite yet. “We know we’re probably the favorite based on the first game we played, but that was two months ago,” he said. “This is now, and we need to come out and play our game. “I think the first two rounds are when the upsets occur,” he added. “By the time you get to the sectional championship, everybody’s a contender. Anybody can beat anybody. If you don’t believe me, call up the kids from NorthWood and call up the kids at Plymouth, because the teams that are always supposed to win don’t always win. That’s why you play the game.” NorthWood and Plymouth have already fallen in this sectional, as has fellow NLC squad Northridge, which Concord beat 35-8 in the semifinals. In all, their were five NLC teams in the eight-team sectional, and that isn’t something Dawson relishes. “I don’t like it all,” Dawson, whose Minutemen shared the conference crown with Plymouth, said. “I love to play a team you haven’t seen before. That’s what’s been so tough about the sectional. It’s kind of like a mini-NLC tournament. It does make it difficult.” For Wawasee, Wogomon is trying to get his guys to focus on the game like it’s any other, but at the same time, knows it isn’t. “We’re playing week 12 football against a team that’s been on the top of the NLC for the past four years, has been in the sectional finals the last four years,” he said. “We understand what we’re going to need to do against Concord. We’re going to have to play a physical game against them. We can’t play in awe of these guys. “This is a special game for us,” he added. “There’s only 16 teams in class 4A football. That’s all that’s left. We can say we need to treat it as another football game, but we all know what the other side of it looks like if we’re able to survive this week.”
