MIDDLEBURY - The Middlebury Fall Festival fireworks started up just in time for the Warsaw Tigers' offense to explode.
In a road game against the Northridge Raiders Friday, the Tigers amassed 167 of their 204 total rushing yards in the second half, leading to the 21-7 Northern Lakes Conference victory."We've got two pretty good running backs," Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said. "Cody (Kindle) and Andy (Conrad), they're learning how to run in our offense. What they've done before, growing up, it was more of a finesse style. Now they're learning to get physical and pound things out. We saw some big improvement from them here tonight."
The one-two punch was led by Conrad's 127 yards on 17 attempts, with Kindle racking up 90 hard-earned yards up the middle.
Throughout the first half, the only true highlight was when junior quarterback Justin Clemens found senior tight end Luke Champion over the middle. Upon reception, Champion found himself in the clear, and 84 yards later, Warsaw was in front 7-0 late in the first quarter.
Clemens did complete two more passes, one going for 26 yards senior Quinn Scheller in the second quarter, but that was the extent of Warsaw passing attack.
"Justin wasn't on, but he's playing a lot of middle linebacker," Jensen said of his quarterback, who went 3 of 11 for 115 yards and the score. "I'm not trying to make excuses for him. We've got to get better, he's got to get better."
In the second half, Clemens didn't have to do too much.
With the fireworks display going off in the for the majority of the third quarter, Warsaw's emphasis was on running the ball, and that was a good thing.
Following an incomplete pass to begin a drive at the 5:22 mark in the third quarter, Conrad took the ball on second down, picking up eight yards to the Warsaw 44-yard line. On the next snap, Conrad's number was called again, only this time he burst through the line of scrimmage and took it 56 yards to the end zone, giving Warsaw some breathing room at 14-0.
"We're just trying to get some first downs at that point," Jensen said. "They were blitzing us all night long, applying a lot of pressure. We managed to just split them."
By blitzing, the Raiders knew they might get burned, but that was a chance the coach was willing to take.
"Conrad's a good runner," Northridge coach Jonathan Kirkton said. "We knew he would break some on us. We had some missed tackles, but he's a big, strong kid."
An even bigger and stronger kid is Kindle, who matched Conrad's TD run with a 56-yard score of his own at the 7:37 mark in the fourth quarter, sealing the deal.
The outcome of the game may have been decided a bit earlier, but a first-and-goal situation from the 7-yard line in the second quarter didn't go Warsaw's way.
Starting the drive at their own 45-yard line, the Tigers used six plays to get down to the Raiders 1-yard line, setting up a first-and-goal. With a score looking inevitable, the Tigers fumbled the ball on first down, recovering it at the 7-yard line. Conrad then got the ball back to 1 on a six-yard run, but another running play that garnered no yardage, left the Tigers with a fourth-and-goal at the 1. Warsaw opted to go for the touchdown, but another fumble thwarted the opportunity.
"We are struggling with mental mistakes," Jensen said. "It's understanding the game of football, such as when to do things and when not to do things. They're trying to get better, they're trying to get. They took a big step here tonight, getting a win. We just have to keep going forward."
Facing a depleted Northridge team, the Tigers were able to overcome their mistakes.
On the night, Northridge was led by Carsten Miller's 100 rushing yards, including a 15-yard score in the fourth quarter. Outside of Miller, the Raiders received just 100 other yards, while quarterback Andrew Hooley completed just 8 of 28 pass for 51 yards and an interception.
"Warsaw's a team that's always given us problems," Kirkton said. "Their corners are physical and athletic, and our kids just couldn't handle that pressure very well.
"We don't have a whole lot of confidence on offense right now," he added. "That shows. You have one guy break down on an offensive play, it just doesn't work well."
The loss drops Northridge to 1-4 on the year, 0-3 in the NLC. On the other side of the ball, the game was Warsaw's first conference win of the year, improving 1-2 in the NLC, 3-2 overall.
"We talked about how football emulates life so much," Jensen said. "It's not always pretty. Sometimes, you've just got to get it done. We got it done tonight."
Warsaw is back home Friday, hosting Goshen at 7:30 p.m.
