SYRACUSE - In the first game of the year, Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon was looking to see how his brand new offensive line would fare.
Following a 12-7 loss to the Whitko Wildcats Friday night at Warrior Field, which saw the home team run the ball 29 times for negative six yards, he may not have liked what he saw."We're going to find out a lot about ourselves this week at practice," Wogomon said. "We're going to see what we're made of and what we can do. This is way too early to start panicking."
On the other side of the ball, the Wildcats rode fullback and Adam Jarrell and tailback Ryan Bumbaugh to victory. Bumbaugh finished with a game-high 87 yards, with Jarrell racking up 77.
"It's a nice dual back there with Adam Jarrell and Ryan Baumbaugh," Whitko's first-year coach Wayne Swender said. "They just compliment each other really well. Those two guys are big parts of our leadership."
On top of getting tough yards up the middle, Jarrell's biggest 30 yards may have came at the close of the first quarter when he returned a blocked punt for a touchdown, giving Whitko a 12-0 lead.
"Special teams came through there with the block," Swender said.
The blocked punt ended a quarter which saw Wawasee fumble it's first play from scrimmage, commit four penalties and fumble the ball three times, only one of which was lost.
"We're a young football team, and young football teams can't start the way we did," Wogomon said. "For us to take the ball, and be at the 35-yard line to start a game, then fumble, then commit penalty after penalty is just hard to overcome."
Following the disaster of a first quarter, Wawasee began to turn things around in the second, but couldn't break into the scoring column.
During a span between the first and second quarters, Wawasee actually held the ball for 10:53, the only break in the action coming on Jarrell's return of the blocked punt. Once the Warriors got the ball back, they used 11 plays to drive to the Whitko 25-yard line, but a missed field goal left the team empty-handed.
"That's an M.O. we have to turn around," Wogomon said. "It's something we've talked about and worked on. It was a problem last year. Just getting the ball down, then not being able to convert. There's something that happens that shouldn't happen, then we're facing an enormous fourth down and 20."
On Wawasee's lone scoring drive, a fourth-and-27 play was actually converted.
After driving the ball 64 yards to the Whitko 11-yard line, a sack, an incomplete pass, a penalty, an incomplete pass and another penalty left Wawasee with the long fourth down play from the 28-yard line. Facing tough odds, junior quaterback Jake Sommers found senior Jesse McBride on a fade route, closing the gap to 12-7 with seven seconds remaining in the third quarter.
"We kind of started going back on our heels a little bit," Swender said.
"We had to keep reminding them to play to win, not to just protect the lead," he added.
With the game entering the fourth quarter, Swender's squad was able to begin protecting the lead, running the ball 18 times, while Wawasee managed to run just nine plays.
In attempting to run out the clock, Whitko rushed for 74 yards in the final quarter, 44 coming from Jarrell and another 40 from Bumbaugh.
"We knew we weren't going to be able to outsize them," Swender said about his line's ability to pick up yards against Wawasee. "We just talked all week about using quickness against them. We're always trying to constantly play the game fast. The line did a nice job."
Because the running game was doing so well, junior quarterback Gabe Starkey didn't have the game put on his shoulders, but did go 4-for-17, including a 29-yard touchdown pass to James Stoddard in the first quarter.
"Obviously, this is a big, emotional win for us," Swender said of Whitko's first win over Wawasee since 2001. "The guys have really been practicing hard."
For Wawasee, Sommers finished the game 12-for-24 for 151 yards and a score.
"Whitko came absolutely ready to play," Wogomon said. "Hats off to them. They played better than we did.
"They earned it, and they're going home winners," he added.
Wawasee will look to bounce back from the loss with a 7 p.m. game at DeKalb Friday, while Whitko wants to keep the good times coming with a 7 p.m. at home game against Leo.
"We hope we can just continue to build," Swender said. "One of our goals, always, is to get better. There's things we need to improve on, and that's what we'll show them on film. We'll just keep at it."
