Senior receiver Dylan Hepler is one of the exciting returners for the Wawasee football team. (File photo by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Second-year head coach Mike Eshbach knew year one would have some growing pains. Unfortunately, those happened in week two and just kept getting worse.

After a huge opening week win against Lakeland on the new turf field, a trip to West Noble not only saw the Chargers upset the Warriors, but compounded when then sophomore quarterback Evan Eshbach went down with a season-ending injury. The loss in Ligonier started a six-game slide that had a myriad of others get hurt, leaving the Warriors in scramble mode.

Wawasee did see improvement from its squad toward the end of the season, holding Memorial and Goshen to a combined six points in a pair of Northern Lakes Conference wins, and stayed with state-ranked Angola for a half in the sectional before a devastating injury to Alec Rosbrugh marked the beginning of the end.

How the Warriors respond this season will largely depend on its consistency at the quarterback position. More than a half dozen players saw snaps behind center last season, but the return of Eshbach at quarterback should give Wawasee some stability. In the game-and-a-half for Eshbach, he completed 63 percent of his passes for 451 yards and five touchdowns, most of which came in a 53-34 triumph over Lakeland.

Senior Aaron Evans, who took a fair share of snaps at quarterback last season, will shift to running back and hopefully let his breakaway speed do the talking. Evans had 226 yards rushing as the team’s leading returner. Fellow senior Keyan Peete started the year hot toting the rock, but wound up with just 135 yards on the ground and two scores.

The Warriors saw a handful of big plays from its wide receivers last season, and do have senior Dylan Hepler returning to the outside. Hepler had a breakout game against Concord, catching seven balls for 225 yards and two scores. For the season, he hauled in 22 balls for 436 yards and added 101 yards on the ground and 133 yards on return to serve as the team’s all-purpose threat.

Wawasee is losing some serious beef from its offensive line, an area where the team did play well later in the season. Gone are All-Stater Elisha Tipping and fellow collegiate signee Hunter Hlutke, as well as Alex Castro.

Coach Eshbach’s optimism of the line sees the likes of returners Damien Rodriguez and Isaiah Tipping, but there isn’t much wiggle room with little experience.

“We have some depth,” Eshbach said. “We’re going to see some young guys playing special teams and things like that. They’re going to earn their paycheck playing special teams, and they’re going to get some time on the field. I don’t know what it is. I just can’t imagine we’re alone in the fact that we’re probably four or five linemen short of feeling like we’ve got good, solid depth. We just hope we can keep these guys healthy.”

The defensive side of the ball for the Warriors was a work in progress a season ago, and will likely have to toughen up if it wants to avoid a slow start to the NLC slate. The team gave up almost 30 points per game, and almost 37 per game in its seven losses.

The Warriors are looking at most of its offensive stars to go both ways, with Tipping and Rodriguez expected to balance the defensive line, and Evans and Peete to buoy the linebackers. Hepler and Jonathan Konieczny will lead the secondary.

Senior Brayden Johnson is one of the better legs in the NLC, having converted 13 extra points and a field goal in 2017.

Wawasee’s calendar flips this season, opening at Lakeland before hosting West Noble and defending NLC champion Northridge to end August. The road test at Concord the first weekend of September will let Wawasee really know where it stands.

“You look at what Northridge did last year, and I really felt like — and this isn’t a crack on them — I don’t know if they were the most talented,” Eshbach said. “There were some teams that were equally as talented, but what made them such a great team through the conference is, they were really, really steady. They didn’t ride that roller coaster and have all those ups and downs. I think there’s parity. I think there’s balance, but they had a great senior class that obviously did wonders for them, that sort of kept that ship level. That’s what we’re hoping. We feel like if we don’t have injuries, and our seniors can keep us level, I think we’re going to be more than competitive.”

One note made to the program, Wawasee’s athletic office announced Tuesday morning that the freshman football calendar has been called off due to low numbers. This officially makes three schools in the NLC as Wawasee, NorthWood and Goshen have all publicly announced the cancellation of the ninth grade programs.