For Warsaw Community High School’s football team, Friday’s outcome was as ugly as the field conditions were throughout the night. Played on a wet, muddy and sloppy Fisher Field, the Tigers saw their season end in a 42-21 loss to the No. 8 Penn Kingsmen in the opening round of Class 5A Sectional 2. The game was close early, and then it looked as if the Tigers woke a sleeping giant. Warsaw knotted the game at 7-7 in the second quarter on a 36-yard touchdown run by junior Tristan McClone, but Penn’s quick-strike offense scored the next 35 points using just 12 offensive plays and a punt return. “Our kids came out and played hard, but Penn always does,” said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen, whose team finished the season with a 6-4 record. “Penn has a lot of weapons. They could’ve made the score whatever they wanted to.” Penn improved to 9-1 and will host Carroll in Friday’s sectional semfinal. Carroll (8-2) defeated host LaPorte 49-7. Elkhart Central (6-4) and South Bend Adams (6-4) will square off in the other Sectional 2 semifinal. The Kingsmen led 21-7 at halftime and pushed their advantage to 42-7 when Matthew Wirick returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown with 7:19 remaining in the third quarter. Warsaw scored the last two touchdowns of the game, as McClone scored on a 44-yard run late in the third quarter and junior Austin Head threw a 32-yard pass to senior Taylor Cone late in the fourth quarter. “I probably made (Penn coach) Cory (Yeoman) made with that last pass, but I wanted to give one more shot to my senior,” Jensen said of Cone’s touchdown catch. “The kids didn’t quit. We played a great football team tonight.” Cone finished the game with seven catches for 81 yards, and finished his senior season with 40 catches for 521 yards and four touchdowns. Head completed 9 of 15 passes Friday for 115 yards. While the final outcome was depressing for the Tigers and their fans, Friday was a historic night, as McClone set a single-season school record for rushing yards. The 6-foot, 200-pound workhorse needed just 90 yards Friday to break Rod Wildman’s record of 1,652 yards in 1972. McClone finished the evening with 26 carries for 155 yards and two touchdowns, and finished the season with 1,718 yards and 16 touchdowns. “Tristan McClone is a quality young man with a lot of integrity,” said Jensen, a 1983 Penn High School graduate. “It’s just like when we had Brad Seiss, Tristan is the best player on our team, and he’s also the hardest worker on our team.” McClone rushed for 100 yards a sophomore backup last season, but as a junior broke Seiss’ single-game record of 310 yards with a 322-yard performance at Northridge and then broke Wildman’s 40-year-old single-season standard. “It’s neat, but not as neat as it would have been to win the game, that was our priority,” said an emotional McClone. “I couldn’t be more proud of my seniors. Everybody said their class was down, but they worked so hard. I’m so proud of this year’s seniors and my offensive line.” The Tigers have come a long way the past couple years, as they were 1-9 in 2010 and 4-6 last season. Warsaw had a chance last week to win its first Northern Lakes Conference championship since 2001. “I told the kids before the game, playing for Penn has given me a pretty good life,” said Jensen. “It helped me play college football at Butler. It helped me with my career. But there’s no other place I’d rather be than in Warsaw. I’m proud of this team.” Friday was the first time the Tigers and Kingsmen had met on the gridiron since a sectional semifinal clash at Freed Field in 2000. Penn won that game 10-7 on a controversial call in which current Warsaw defensive coordinator Kris Hueber, then a senior linebacker, was called for roughing the holder. The Kingsmen are 10-0 in the all-time series against the Tigers. In their latest triumph, junior quarterback Zach Oakley ran 12 times for 154 yards and two touch touchdowns, while junior running back Khalil Fleming added 72 yards on five carries. Oakley threw the ball just twice, completing one attempt – a 48-yarder to Wirick.
PENN 42, WARSAW 21 P 0 21 21 0 — 42 W 0 7 7 7 — 21
P W 1st downs 10 11 Rushing yds 309 188 Passing yds 48 115 Comp-Att-Int 1-2-0 9-15-0 Total yds 357 303 Fumbles/lost 1/0 1/0 Penalties/yds 2/20 4/26 Punts/avg 4/31 6/37
Second Quarter P – Matthew Hummel 1 run (Riley Vandevoorde kick) 10:09 7-0 W – Tristan McClone 36 run (Caleb Klusman kick) 7:00, 7-7 P – Zach Oakley 3 run (Vandevoorde kick) 4:00, 14-7 P – Oakley 12 run (Vandevoorde kick) 1:49, 21-7 Third Quarter P – Hummel 6 run (Vandevoorde kick) 11:17, 28-7 P – Hummel 2 run (Vandevoorde kick) 8:26, 35-7 P – Matthew Wirick 68 punt return (Vandevoorde kick) 7:19, 42-7 W – McClone 44 run (Klusman kick) 2:45, 42-14 Fourth Quarter W – Austin Head 32 pass to Taylor Cone (Klusman kick) 3:29, 42-21
