Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WARSAW — Another Friday night and another Warsaw football victory.
This time the Tigers rolled past Goshen 48-3 Friday, Sept. 25 in front of a homecoming crowd at Fisher Field.
Class 5A No. 4 Warsaw (6-0, 4-0) found the end zone seven times in besting the RedHawks (2-4, 1-3) in Northern Lakes Conference play.
The Tigers out-gained Goshen 410 yards to 44 — all on the ground with a 17-5 edge in first downs.
Mason Silveus, who got 12 carries at fullback with Michael Schenck given the night off, gained a team-best 155 yards including three TD runs.
“He did a nice job,” Warsaw coach Bart Curtis said of Silveus. “He doesn’t play much JV, and he’s kind of a tweener between JV and varsity.
“He’s one snap away from being the guy. It was a good opportunity to get him some snaps.”
The Tigers out-pointed the RedHawks 27-3 in the second half. The running clock was invoked when the Tigers went ahead 41-3.
There were four second-half scoring drives.
The first ended with Silveus’ 43-yard TD run at 10:42 of the third quarter. Fisher Whitaker kicked the extra point. Warsaw had the ball on the second half kickoff.
The Tigers stopped the visitors on fourth down and that led to the second scoring march of the second half and was punctuated by Silveus’ 24-yard scoring scamper at 5:34 of the third quarter. The kick failed.
Trenton Clark booted a 51-yard field goal to get Goshen on the scoreboard at 34-3 with 10 seconds to go in the third quarter.
After the field goal, the third Warsaw scoring drive of the second half was capped by Clayton Dias’ 1-yard plunge at 8:02 of the fourth period. Whitaker tacked on the point to make it 41-3.
The fourth trip to the end zone was made by Bryson Ellerson on a 34-yard run at 1:32 of the fourth quarter. With Whitaker’s PAT it was 48-3. The possession came when the Tigers took over on downs.
Mark Haynes — who rotated at quarterback with Brady Sauer — had 65 yards on 10 rushes, Tucker Reed 47 on six totes and Wyatt Harman 29 on two carries.
Warsaw led 21-0 at halftime.
There were two scoring drives in the first quarter and one in the second period.
It took six plays after a RedHawk punt for Harman to get into the end zone of a 14-yard run with John Conley tacking on the extra point at 8:27 of the first quarter.
After another Goshen punt, Warsaw launched into a drive that ended with Haynes going the last 20 yards on a quarterback keeper and Conley adding the conversion kick at :40 of the second stanza.
The Tigers’ third TD of the night — a 5-yard run by Silveus — came with 1:36 left in the opening half.
Holding penalties on the Tigers also negated what would have been two TD runs by Reed and one by Harman.
For the season, Reed leads the team with eight TD’s, followed by Silveus (6), Schenck (4), Harman (3), Haynes (3).
Curtis praised his defense.
“We came out and set the standard early,” Curtis said. “(The RedHawks) are a big zone dive team.
“(Kerrington) Lee’s a good fullback. We knew he was a load and knows how to run low and hard. I was proud of the way the kids set the tempo early. That was important to do.”
Griff Heckaman — a former Warsaw assistant — is in his first year as Goshen head coach.
“It’s a really good Warsaw team,” Heckaman said. “We knew it was going to take us being excellent on both sides of the ball tonight.
“Of the (approximate) 45 snaps we played on offense and the 45 on defense, we knew we were going to have to be excellent for about 40 of them; and we didn’t do that.
“We put ourselves in some tight spots. (The Tigers) execute at a high level, and this is the result of it.”
Friday marked the 20th straight win for Warsaw against Goshen and the Tigers now lead the all-time series 38-34.
With two-thirds of the 2026 regular season in the books, Warsaw plays host to Plymouth on Friday, Oct. 2.
