NAPPANEE — It was the best of halves, it was the worst of halves. For the Wawasee High School football team, a second-half comeback couldn't overcome a flat first half performance in a 14-10 Class 4A Sectional 11 loss at NorthWood Friday night. The loss closes a 7-3 campaign for the Warriors, while NorthWood takes an identical mark to Plymouth, a 49-21 winner at Angola, for a semifinal matchup Friday. NorthWood's first-half domination began when, after an incomplete pass that could have been ruled a lateral, senior quarterback Zac Coleman scrambled to his right before finding classmate Taylor Anglemyer in the end zone from 32 yards out. Panther senior Tanner Roberts then picked off a pass from Wawasee senior quarterback Bauer Schmeltz and returned it 50 yards to the Warrior 30-yard line. The turnover later set up a fourth down touchdown run by senior Coy Brown, extending the NorthWood lead to 14. After a regular season where the Warriors moved the ball with great consistency, Wawasee managed just three first downs in the first two quarters Friday night. "NorthWood played a physical first half," Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon said. "When you get to the 10th week, you have to forget what happened, good things or bad things, the first nine weeks of the season. It's a matter of inches or how you explode off the ball. "Physically, we were just getting beat," he added. "They were getting off the ball better than we were, and we weren't tackling very well. In a sectional, if you're having those kinds of problems, you're getting beat physically. We committed a couple of dumb turnovers, and lost the turnover battle in the first half. There's not one kid that didn't care, or didn't give it their best effort, but I thought we came out in the first half fearing losing, or fearing elimination. So I told them at half 'You've got to hate losing, you can't fear losing.' In the second half, we started to get that, and we played a whale of a second half; that's a credit to our seniors out there." Schmeltz began the second half with the second of his three interceptions, but the Warrior defense forced a three-and-out, allowing the senior quarterback to lead a 19-play drive the consumed the remainder of the third quarter. Using a Panther pass interference penalty to keep the drive alive, a pair of flags left the Warriors with a 3rd-and-28 at their own 45. A second pass interference call on NorthWood gave Wawasee new life, and Schmeltz eventually scored on the first snap of the final quarter to cut the lead in half with a one-yard run. "It was the right call on the pass interference — it just kinda killed us when we got there a little early on 3rd-and-25," NorthWood coach Scott Hoover said. "That was a big backbreaker for us, but we responded." On NorthWood's next possession, a pair of sacks and a chop block penalty left the Panthers facing 3rd-and-35 from its 25. Coleman and Brown fumbled a handoff, and the Wawasee recovery gave the Warriors a golden opportunity to tie the game. With new life, the Warriors drove to the Panther 2-yard line before an illegal procedure call forced Wawasee to settle for a 25-yard Kyle Clevenger field goal with 7:24 remaining in the game. NorthWood's offense never got on-track in the second half, managing just one first down over the final 24 minutes. Despite the inability to move the ball, Hoover was looking at the glass half-full. "It seemed like things were going bad for us, but realistically we gave up one touchdown after the tough interference call, and we needed to move the ball offensively," he said. "When you turn the ball over you your own end and are able to recover from that, that's big." Wawasee's final two possessions of 2011 ended on downs at the Panther 34, then on a desperation pass intercepted inside the NorthWood 10-yard line as time expired. As underclassmen, this year's seniors saw only three varsity victories in their first two years, but they continued to work hard and won 13 games over the last two seasons. Wogomon gave his players praise for their collective efforts that fell short. "Jordan Schmitt is hurting so bad as far as his knee, but he played right through it, and that was the pulse of the team — overcoming adversity," Wogomon said. "Unfortunately, it didn't come out quite the way it could have, but it would have been an unbelievable comeback here. "Our seniors are outstanding," he added. "They've done everything we've ever asked them to do. It probably won't hit the seniors until Monday, when we're turning in gear when it feels like we should be practicing and we're not."
