The Tigers celebrate their W Game win over Wawasee on homecoming night Friday. (Photo provided)

WARSAW — Even if the records didn’t show it, Warsaw’s coaching staff knew Friday’s rivalry game with visiting Wawasee wasn’t going to be easy.

The Tigers finally got some separation during the third quarter, however, claiming the W Trophy for a fifth straight season, 42-18, on homecoming night at Fisher Field.

“I have breakfast every Friday morning with Dave Baumgartner, our freshman coach, and he told me this morning ‘Every time that the records don’t match up, it is a dogfight,’ and it certainly was for two-and-a-half quarters,” said Warsaw coach Bart Curtis.

“I said all week to anybody that would listen they’re a whole lot better than their record, and they proved me right.

They came out ready to play, and a real credit to them for doing that.”

Parker Young reaches back to deliver a pass for Wawasee Friday. (Photo by James Costello)

Wawasee took it to Warsaw early, marching 80 yards in 14 plays on the game’s opening possession, and Parker Young and the Wawasee O line wedged it in from a yard out to give the Warriors an initial 6-0 lead at the 6:22 mark of the first period. But Warsaw answered right back with a 67-yard drive of its own, Wyatt Amiss running in a keeper from 7 yards out and Harrison Mevis completing the first of six successful PATs at the game — he became Warsaw’s all-time leading PAT kicker with 85 as of the end of Friday’s game — to give the Tigers a tentative, 7-6 edge.

The visitors nearly scored another touchdown on their next offensive series, but Ethan Garza barely bobbled Young’s would-be scoring pass, only securing the ball just outside the end zone and Wawasee had to settle for a 27-yard field goal from Evan Dippon to go up 9-7 at the 10:11 mark of the second quarter. The Tigers responded with another touchdown drive, this time culminating in Juan Jaramillo’s 3-yard TD plunge at the 7:14 stop of the clock, and Warsaw never trailed again, although a fake punt for a score in the third nearly made it a one-possession game.

With Wawasee trailing 28-12 and facing a fourth and 5 situation at the Warsaw 43, Levi Brown collected the long snap and ran it back for a net 40-yard gain to set Wawasee up at first and goal at the Warsaw 3. Young snuck it in from a yard out two plays later, but the Tigers stopped the two-point run attempt to bring the score to 28-18 with 2:46 remaining in the third period. Warsaw’s quick, 58-yard march culminating in Amiss’ 8-yard run for a score at the 26.1 stop gave the Tigers some breathing room at 35-18.

“We had that in all year, just looking for the right time to run it. When you’re in a game like this, you’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose,” said Wawasee coach Jon Reutebuch of the fake punt. “It was the right time, and we just called it and the kids executed it really well. We were right where we wanted to be, but just didn’t quite finish it.”

Warsaw rolled up 414 offensive yards, and Wawasee finished with 299 Friday, but the two teams moved the ball very differently.

The Warriors had much of their success through the air as Young went 12-of-25 for 141 passing yards, Kameron Salazar making eight catches for 85 yards to lead his team’s receiving corps. That passing game did open up the run game somewhat, too, and Brown ran the ball 10 times for 79 yards, while Young rushed 15 times for 58 yards.

“We made a lot of improvement there tonight. I think our quarterback grew up a little bit tonight and was more accurate with the football. Our line played their butts off. They gave us time and they created some holes, and we had some things going on offensively. It’s just (Warsaw’s) offense is so hard to stop, and we made a couple errors there in the second half,” said Reutebuch.

“Heck, they’re 6-1, and we played them toe-to-toe and I’m proud of my boys for that.”

“They are very capable offensively, and one of our concerns was if you don’t get pressure on Young that he can throw the ball a little bit. And they ran the ball well tonight,” said Curtis.

“I don’t think we played terrible, but we’ve just got to be able to get our defense off the field. It’s been a recurring theme. There are times when we look like we’re taking that next step, and then there are other times we’re still shooting ourselves in the foot.”

The Tigers never even attempted a pass on the way to more than 400 rushing yards Jaramillo carried the ball 29 times for 194 yards, while Amiss racked up 102 yards in just 10 runs.

Juan Jaramillo ran for 196 yards. (Photo by James Costello)

“(Jaramillo) is a special player, and we’ve got a special O line,” Curtis said. “We’ve got six seniors on the O line that are pretty good, and I thought between Juan and Wyatt had really solid game at quarterback, so I was happy with how we played.”

Warsaw improved to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the Northern Lakes Conference, while Wawasee slipped to a mirror-image, 1-6 overall record with an 0-5 NLC mark. The Warriors play host to Elkhart Memorial next week.

“The way we were playing the last couple games, we took a big step tonight, and now we are looking to finish out the season strong and get a victory in the next two games,” Reutebuch said.

The Tigers will host NorthWood next week, both teams owning a 4-1 conference mark alongside Concord and behind Plymouth’s 5-0 mark.

“It just seems like every time we’re moving forward in one area, we’ve got to run down and stick our finger in the dam somewhere else,” Curtis said. “That’s not a good recipe for where we want to be in a month, so we’ve got to do a better job of that. We’re good at some things, we’re getting better at others, and then others where we think we’re making progress, we’ve got to do a better job.”