Panthers Hold Off Tigers In Key NLC ClashNAPPANEE – In what was a tale of two halves, the Warsaw Tigers came up just short in a battle for the top spot in the Northern Lakes Conference Friday night.
After trailing Class 4A No. 2 NorthWood 14-0 at halftime, the Class 6A No. 11 Tigers put themselves in position to celebrate a big win at Andrews Field, but the host Panthers denied Warsaw on a two-point conversion with 1:40 remaining and held on for a 14-13 win.
“It was a great high school football game,” said first-year Warsaw coach Bart Curtis, whose team fell to 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the NLC standings.
“Nobody who paid didn’t get their money’s worth.”
Down 14-7, Warsaw started a drive at its own 20-yard line with 10 minutes remaining in the game. The Tigers capped the 16-play, 80-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass from senior Josh West to junior Wyatt Amiss on 4th-and-6.
With momentum squarely on his team’s side, and NorthWood tired and backed against the wall after the long drive, Curtis opted for the two-point conversion attempt and possible lead.
West pulled out from under center, and before he could make a play was tackled in the backfield by NorthWood junior Jaden Miller.
“It was gonna be a counter pass where Josh has the option to run or dump it to the fullback, and they brought No. 7 (Miller) unblocked off the edge, and by the time the quarterback turned around it was too late,” said Curtis.
With their slim victory, the Panthers, who were averaging 48 points per game, earned at least a share of the NLC championship.
NorthWood is 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the league standings.
Plymouth, a 49-31 winner over Goshen Friday, is 5-1 in conference play.
NorthWood and Plymouth will meet Friday at the Rockpile.
Concord and Warsaw, both 4-2, will square off at Fisher Field in the regular season finale.
“We kept saying that whole drive, ‘we’re playing solid defense,’” said NorthWood coach Nate Andrews, who walked the sidelines as a youngster when Curtis played for Andrews’ father, Jim Andrews, and the 1980 NorthWood state runner-up team.
“We played solid defense the whole night. We wanted to keep making them snap it, let’s make one play, and it took til the two-point conversion to make one play.
“Coach (Dave) Wilson did a great job, found a little tweak in our defense that helped us out there the last couple plays of that drive with their overload that they really started attacking us with. That put Jaden in position to go make a play, and the kid made the play.”
Not only did Miller deny the Tigers on the two-point conversion late in the game, he threw a conversion pass to Tanner Feenstra after Bronson Yoder powered his way in from seven yards out for NorthWood’s first score with 6:58 remaining in the opening quarter.
Miller pushed the Panther’s lead to 14-0 when he barrelled in from two yards out with 5:45 left in the second stanza. NorthWood attempted another two-point conversion attempt, but was denied.
The Tigers scored their first touchdown when West plunged into the end zone from a yard out with 29 seconds left in the third quarter.
Warsaw forced NorthWood to punt on the ensuing possession, and the Tigers followed with their critical fourth-quarter drive.
“You don’t want to play a poor half against a quality team like NorthWood, but look what happened in the second half,” said Curtis. “We came back and battled, came back and showed a lot of what I would call grit.
“Here’s an example, our quarterback gets hit, he’s throwing up on the sidelines, and Blake Marsh comes in and he runs the sneak twice for a first down. Those are the kind of things we’re looking for ... average kids to above average kids playing at a higher level, and we showed some of that tonight in the second half. First half we didn’t look very good, but a lot of that was because of them.”
Yoder led NorthWood with 19 carries for 117 yards, while Nate Newcomer tallied 55 yards on 15 attempts.
West rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, and completed 4 of 5 pass attempts for 64 yards and the 16-yard scoring strike to Amiss.
Senior Kane Dawson finished with 48 yards on 14 carries for the Tigers, who lost a fumble on their first offensive possession for the game’s only turnover.
NORTHWOOD 14, WARSAW 13
WAR 0 0 7 6 — 13
NW 8 6 0 0 — 14
WAR NW
1st downs 12 12
Rushing yds 193 185
Passing yds 64 22
Comp-Att-Int 4-5-0 3-6-0
Total yds 257 207
Fumbles/lost 3/1 0/0
Penalties/yds 8/71 3/30
Punts/Avg 2/40 3/36
First Quarter
NW – Bronson Yoder 7 run (Jaden Miller conversion pass to Tanner Feenstra) 6:58, 8-0
Second Quarter
NW – Miller 2 run (conversion pass failed) 5:45, 14-0
Third Quarter
W – Josh West 1 run (Harrison Mevis kick) :29, 14-7
Fourth Quarter
W – West 16 pass to Wyatt Amiss (conversion run failed) 1:40, 14-13
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Warsaw, West 21-105, Kane Dawson 14-48, Juan Jaramillo 6-24, Amiss 5-5; NorthWood, Yoder 19-117, Nate Newcomer 15-55, Miller 3-12
