WARSAW – It will all come down to a winner-take-all showdown next week for the Northern Lakes Conference football championship.

Warsaw made sure of that Friday night.

The Tigers took care of league business in impressive fashion by handling NorthWood 28-7.

That sends Warsaw to Concord next Friday night with the league title hanging in the balance, just like last year, in the regular-season finale.

The Tigers, winners of three in a row, now sit at 6-2 overall, but more importantly 5-1 in the NLC to share the league lead with Concord.

Concord, No. 9 in this week’s Class 5-A poll, also moved to 5-1 in league play by blasting Northridge 35-7 in Dunlap Friday night. The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Minutemen, who won at Warsaw 34-9 a year ago.

The Minutemen shared the NLC title with Plymouth at 6-1 in 2012, while the Tigers finished at 5-2. Concord has won at least a share of three straight conference championships.

“This is everything we’ve worked for,” said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen about playing for all the marbles. “Three goals this season were get the W trophy back, win the NLC championship and win a sectional championship.

“We’ve put ourselves in position now to play perennial power in the NLC Concord for that championship.”

Warsaw was strong in all three phases of the game Friday night. The Tigers forced four turnovers, while committing none. The hosts also got great special teams play, led by kicker/punter Caleb Klusman and got another big night from star tailback Tristan McClone behind outstanding play from his offensive line.

McClone ran for 199 yards on 29 carries and scored the first two touchdowns of the night in the opening quarter.

It may have been the final home game for record-setting standout McClone, who had a single-season standard of 1,718 yards in 2012, and a large senior class that Jensen has great admiration and affection for.

“It’s just a great group of seniors,” Jensen said. “They’ve been through a lot. I’m not the easiest guy to play for all the time, but they’ve been all in. There’s no other group of seniors that I would want to coach than these guys.”

The Tigers wasted no time in taking control Friday night. A fumble recovery by Darren Schaefer and an interception by Seth Fouts in the first quarter led to a pair of four-yard touchdown runs by McClone to make it 14-0.

Warsaw led 21-0 at halftime after a long second quarter drive resulted in a six-yard touchdown toss from Austin Head to Fouts. NorthWood cut the lead to 21-7 on its first drive of the final half as Will Kirkwood connected with Travis Bear on a 20-yard touchdown toss.

Cue up the Tiger defense again.

Warsaw got an interception by Brett Fancil after having a field goal blocked to give the offense the ball at the NorthWood 25. Head then threw a gorgeous 25-yard scoring strike to Tanner Balazs to make it 28-7.

“It was a big night for our defense,” said Jensen. “They made plays and created turnovers tonight and gave our offense opportunities. We had a couple of nice picks.

“Our special teams play was huge and our offense put more points on the board. I thought tonight was the best offensive line surge we’ve had this season. Al Walker stepped in at left tackle for us and had a big game.

“I thought Austin Head played a great game.  Matt Thacker did a nice job with our game plan tonight. We went more uptempo on offense because we thought our depth would pay off. We also got the ball to Tanner Balazs a little more.”

The Tigers got a strong effort up front from its offensive line. Seniors Stuart Wagner, Anthony Hendrickson and Al Walker, along with sophomores Garrett Titus and Colin Ogden were outstanding in making room for McClone to roll.

“Our offensive line is playing their tails off,” said McClone, who now has 1,234 yards and 14 touchdowns this fall. “Our youth has stepped up there to go with our senior leaders.”

The Tigers rushed for 288 yards in the dominating victory. Head was also 5-7 passing for 70 yards. Jason Taylor and Balazs each rushed for 34 yards.   Balazs also had two receptions for 38 yards and Conner McCammack made two grabs for 26 yards.

Kirkwood, a four-year starter, was 10-22 passing for 150 yards to lead NorthWood. He also led the Panthers on the ground with 10 carries for 56 yards.

The trio of Fouts, Fancil and Ethyn Bradley each had an interception for the Tigers.  Gabe Furnivall led the winners with 5.5 tackles, while Kyle Heckaman and Schaefer each had 4.5.

McClone, who rested on offense the final quarter, is looking forward to having one final chance to play for an NLC title.

“We came up short last year, but not this year,” said McClone of facing the Minutemen. “We have to be more physical this year and it’s very important for us to control the ball.

“I couldn’t dream of a better scenario than this.”

Warsaw plays at Concord and NorthWood, which drops to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the NLC,  hosts Plymouth next Friday night in the NLC and regular-season finales.

The first round of sectional play is Oct. 25. The pairings for the state tournament series, including sectional play, will be drawn by the IHSAA Sunday at 7 p.m. in Indianapolis.