Warsaw head coach Phil Jensen (center) walks away very proud after his team’s 14-7 win over Northridge Saturday afternoon. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WARSAW – It was a tale of two halves. Heck, it was a tale of two days.

After playing a first half that concluded with a lightning delay Friday night, the Warsaw and Northridge football teams returned to the gridiron Saturday afternoon to complete the Northern Lakes Conference clash. The Tigers came out as a different team on Saturday, overcoming a 7-0 deficit to earn a 14-7 victory.

“We did to them what they did to us last night,” began a fired up Phil Jensen, Warsaw’s head coach. “We tried to back them up last night and they marched right down the field and scored. Today we did that not once, but twice.”

That first scoring drive happened on the opening possession of the third quarter. Michael Jensen was solid all day in the pocket for the Orange and Black. On fourth and seven at the Northridge 34 Jensen placed a beautiful pass to Tommy Hickerson. The play set Warsaw up with a first and goal. Two plays later it was Jensen finding Jeremy David for the equalizer. Andrew Mevis made the tie official with the extra point.

The Raiders entered the weekend without their starting quarterback, Nick Hooley, or their senior linebacker, Dalton Slabaugh. Both suffered injuries in a loss to Plymouth last Friday. The absence of those players showed Saturday as there seemed to be a lot of confusion and disorganization on both the field and sideline for Northridge. Warsaw, on the other hand, came to play. But despite being focused, the Tigers were successful, in part, because they were just out there having fun.

Everybody on the home side of the field was having fun following a nice stand by the Warsaw defense, which put the ball back in the hands of Jensen, the player, and the Tiger offense.

Will McGarvey broke off a 54-yard run to set the Tigers up with a first and goal scenario. With 5:30 remaining in the third quarter it was Riley Rhoades that saw some love from his quarterback this time. Rhoades made a nice grab and made sure to keep possession to get the score. Mevis capped off the score with an extra point, putting the Tigers up 14-7. McGarvey finished with 91 yards on the ground. Jensen passed for 120 yards and the two scores.

From there on out it was all about the Tigers defense. Warsaw, backed up on its own 14-yard line, stopped a fourth down conversion attempt from the Raiders to start the fourth quarter and that really set the tone for the final 12 minutes.

A few exchanged possessions eventually led to Northridge getting the ball back inside its own territory with 1:55 to play. The Raiders grabbed eight yards on their first play but the Tigers pass rush stepped up after that. A sack from Brandon Reinholt on second down set Northridge up with a third and seven. Keegan Bays applied the pressure on that play, forcing an errant pass from Matt Miller. On fourth down it was Dyland Childers recording the sack to force the turnovers on downs. Northridge had one final possession with under 20 seconds to play but that was cut short by an interception from Landan Perry.

Jensen, the quarterback, was arguably the player of the game with the way he mastered the Tigers offense on Saturday. But the junior signal caller knows that football is the ultimate team sport and knew exactly where to give credit following the big win.

In fact, the Tiger quarterback summed up the entire game with his quote,”We got two quick scores, our defense played a great game. The offensive line? Heck of a half. Our receivers caught the ball. This job is easy when you have good receivers. The coaches wanted us to have fun and that’s what we did.”

Northridge’s lone score came on a one-yard run from Dean Ridenour in the first quarter. Ridenour finished with 74 yards on the ground, second only to Miller’s 96 for the Raiders.

The Tigers will look to continue having fun next week when they travel to Goshen (4-1, 2-1). Warsaw is now 2-3 overall and 1-2 in NLC play. Northridge (3-2, 1-2) will host NorthWood next Friday.