Chargers Feel Heat, Cool Off Tigers
HUNTERTOWN – Warsaw had every reason to fold up the tent and start preparing for its offseason. Trailing by four scores at halftime, Warsaw made a game of it before succumbing to Fort Wayne Carroll, 49-21, Friday night in Class 6-A Sectional 3 football action.
Trailing 35-7 entering the third quarter, Warsaw pulled within 35-21 and had the ball twice inside the Carroll 10 but were unable to get within a score.
On consecutive plays, Jeremy David almost single-handedly brought the Tigers back. David blocked a punt with Warsaw taking over at the Carroll three. On the next play, quarterback Michael Jensen found David for a three-yard touchdown. After Carroll punted, Will McGarvey capped a scoring drive with a four-yard touchdown run. Now down just 35-21, the parking lot at Carroll was not a recreation of Dodger Stadium in 1988 with Kirk Gibson rounding the bases, but there was suddenly life, and immediate urgency, in the stadium.
Carroll, almost on cue, fumbled on its next drive, and the Tigers were back in business. A personal foul penalty got Warsaw inside the Carroll 10, but the drive stalled at the two when Warsaw couldn’t get into the endzone.
Once again, Carroll fumbled away the ball on its next possession, and Warsaw recovered. But just as it needed moments before, the Charger defense bent but didn’t break and held Warsaw on downs once again.
The Carroll offense that scored 35 points in the first half suddenly reappeared, and executed some big-boy football. The Chargers marched 95 yards in 17 plays, culminating with quarterback Aiden Smith, a Northwestern University recruit, calling his own number for the one-yard touchdown plunge. Carroll added a 43-yard run from Nicholas Novotny to close it out.
Carroll were gangbusters in the first half. The Charger defense scored two touchdowns in the first quarter alone. Blake Schumacher picked off Jensen and sped 82 yards for a pick-six and James Jamicich blocked a punt that Jack Givens returned for a score.
Carroll opened the game needing just 2:35 to go 65 yards, with Ohio University recruit Dylan Conner rumbling two yards for a score.
“They make a nice drive to go down and score and we’re driving the ball back and the corner jumps a route,” began Warsaw head coach Phil Jensen, “and the kid just read it, jumped it and took it to the house. The next series we get a punt blocked for a touchdown and its 21-0. Against a great football team and good football program, you can’t afford to do that. The good thing is our kids didn’t quit.”
Smith would throw two touchdowns in the second quarter, a 49-yard swing pass to Novotny where the back made a trio of outstanding cuts around diving Tiger defenders to highlight the play, and a 17-yarder to Alexander Anzeveno.
Warsaw got on the board in the second quarter when Jensen found David for an 80-yard pitch and catch. David finished his night with three catches for 98 yards. Jensen was 11-33 for 199 yards, two scores and the one pick.
McGarvey led the Tiger rushing attack with 20 carries for 67 yards while Rob Sullivan had 16 carries for 57 yards.
Smith, who was almost flawless in the first half, wound up 12-23 for 201 yards and led Carroll with 66 yards on the ground. Carroll claimed the total yards battle 448-317.
The Chargers (7-3) will visit Homestead (7-3) next week, a 48-14 winner against Fort Wayne Northrop. The Tigers wrap up its season 4-6 and hit the ice baths en masse, battered and bruised.
“At no time during the course of this year did we lack effort,” Jensen said, noting how proud he was of his team’s fight. “That’s a good thing to say as a head coach.
“This is not the season anyone of us wanted. It is what it is. We handled it pretty well all year.”