Panthers Bear Down On Warriors
NAPPANEE – NorthWood took another step forward Friday night while Wawasee continued to sit stuck in neutral. The Panthers unleashed its offense with a new signal caller in a 40-10 rout of Wawasee, while the Warriors continued to struggle on the offense end.
Kaden Lone ran the offense as if he had been doing so for years. The freshman was called to duty when starting quarterback Nate Newcomer was late to be cleared for action from concussion protocol. While Newcomer did get into the game, it was mostly defensive series’ while Lone did the work behind center.
Lone had 13 carries for 118 yards and was an efficient 7-10 passing for 67 yards and two scores, a 38-yarder to Ben Mestach on the first play of the second quarter and a nice pass into the flat to Veshon Malone for four yards, the Malone score pushing NorthWood to a 20-3 lead late in the second quarter.
“Nate didn’t get cleared until just before kickoff after warmups,” said NorthWood head coach Nate Andrews. “We just felt Kaden got most of the reps this week and felt this was a good opportunity for him. It worked out that way and got him some good action in a tough ballgame.”
Jaden Miller added 120 yards on the ground and scores of one and 31 yards. Mestach had 155 yards of total offense and two scores, his first on an eight yarder to cap an impressive opening drive that he started with a kick return to Wawasee’s 35. The Warriors, which came into the night allowing 393.5 yards average per game in its two losses to Northridge and Concord, saw NorthWood run for 385 yards and throw for 67 for a total of 452.
“We just tried to take what they were giving us,” Andrews said. “We’ve thrown the last couple weeks pretty efficiently with the play action. We’ve got to be able to do that in order to run the football.”
Wriley Simons added a two-yard rushing score in the final minute of the game.
Wawasee, on the other hand, made NorthWood work in the first half. After accumulating just 129 total offensive yards in those first two NLC losses, the Warriors went right down the field on its first possession. Kam Salazar took the kickoff to the 40, and Parker Young immediately went deep to Ethan Garza for a 40-yard pass play. The drive stalled, but Evan Dippon connected on a 40-yard field goal to get Wawasee on the board.
It might not be much, but head coach Jon Reutebuch saw a major step forward.
“What we wanted to do from the start was come out from the start and give great effort,” Reutebuch stated. “I told them, give me a half. Give me a half of your greatest effort. Bust your butt. Do everything you can out there, fight hard, and they did. And kids started making plays, kids started finding themselves. They started realizing, hey, you know what, if I play hard the whole time, it’s a little different ballgame.”
Young and Garza connected four times for 83 yards, and Garza would find the end zone on a go route for 19 yards that had Wawasee trailing just 26-10 in the third.
Young was 12-28 for 157 yards, but the Warriors again struggled to establish the run, gaining just 10 yards on 19 carries which puts them at just 20 total rushing yards in three NLC contests. NorthWood didn’t make it easy, putting pressure on the worn Wawasee offensive line, sacking Young five times and creating eight tackles for loss. Eddie Hildebrandt, Jake Lone and Jason Borkholder combined for 20 tackles and four sacks between them, creating havoc all night in the Wawasee backfield.
“We put some heat on them and that helped,” Andrews said of his D-line play. “Unfortunately, because we are so banged up and a lot of those guys are offensive linemen. They were rolling there on defense, but a lot of critical mistakes jumping offsides and penalties. So, up and down. Up and down.”
NorthWood moves to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the NLC while Wawasee loses its fourth straight to fall to 1-4 overall and 0-3 in the NLC. The Panthers will visit Northridge next week while Wawasee will entertain Plymouth.
“If you can give a half, you break the game down into a half at a time, you can compete with anybody,” offered Reutebuch. “Plymouth is a great team. We’re going to get prepared, give great effort, and see what happens at home for homecoming.”