SYRACUSE – It would have been easy for Wawasee to pack it in already this football season.
All the injuries and personnel changes had the Warriors reeling after a season-opening victory.
Wawasee went into a Northern Lakes Conference contest Friday against visiting Elkhart Memorial with a six-game losing streak, which it snapped with a 7-6 victory over the Crimson Chargers.
The Warriors went ahead 7-0 thanks to a Jacob Hand interception and return, followed shortly by an Aaron Evans-to-Hand 24-yard touchdown pass with 5:35 left in the game.
Wawasee had already made goal-line stands in both halves – squelching the Crimson Chargers at the Warrior 5 on fourth down in the first quarter and stuffing them at the Warrior 7 in the third quarter – when it made the biggest stop of the night.
When Memorial responded to Hand’s touchdown and Brayden Johnson’s PAT with Mark Brownlee’s 74-yard touchdown run with 4:14 remaining in the game, the Wawasee defense stacked Brownlee up trying to go around right end for a two-point conversion.
After being forced to punt, the Warriors got the ball back with 1:51 to go, ran out the clock and started the celebration in front of a loud Senior Night crowd at Warrior Field.
“We just told our kids, ‘Hang tough. Fight. Fight. Fight,’” said Wawasee coach Mike Eshbach. “And they’ve done that. Whether the scoreboard is indicative of that is something else. Our kids have never quit.
“It’s one of those things where we’ve got to put things together and we want to play better at the end of the year.”
Alec Rosbrugh ran the ball 18 times for a team-best 82 yards. The lone pass completion for the Warriors was the scoring strike to Hand.
“Somebody asked me the other day, ‘how many quarterbacks you going to play?,’” said Eshbach, who started Evans under center but also had Rosbrugh and Hand take direct snaps Friday. “It’s just another wrinkle.
“You’re trying to get guys in space and get a numbers advantage.”
Friday marks the end of the 2017 regular season. For Week 9, Northridge visits Memorial and Wawasee goes to Goshen.
WAWASEE 7, ELKHART MEMORIAL 6
EM 0 0 0 6 – 6
W 0 0 0 7 – 7
EM W
1st downs 15 8
Rushing yds 153 98
Passing yds 117 24
Comp-Att-Int 10-26-0 1-4-1
Total yds 270 122
Fumbles/lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties/yds 2-10 5-65
Punts/avg. 1-34 4-43
Fourth Quarter
W – Jacob Hand 24 pass from Aaron Evans (Brayden Johnson kick) 5:35, 7-0
