Cavemen Slip Past Black Crunch
By Nick Goralczyk
InkFreeNews
NAPPANEE – It would be unfair to say that the NorthWood football team needed to be flawless Friday night against Mishawaka, but with its top two quarterbacks in quarantine, the room for error was extremely limited. A game that allowed very little wiggle room got away from the Panthers in the second half as the visiting Cavemen left with a 30-16 victory.
NorthWood, missing regular signal callers Nate Newcomer and Kaden Lone, turned to senior Kyle Sellers to lead the offense. It was Sellers first-ever time playing under center but that did not stop him from turning heads with his ability.
Sellers successfully guided the Panthers to a score on the team’s second drive of the game, which ended with a 40-yard run to pay dirt from Ethan Evers. Sellers ran in the two-point try to make 8-0 NorthWood with under a minute to play in the opening quarter. Mishawaka’s Chaz Hardy answered with a 40-yard touchdown run of his own in the second quarter. Justin Fisher added the conversion to tie things up 8-8.
Riding the high of the last scoring drive, Sellers and the Panthers marched down the field and would regain the lead. This time it was Sellers calling his own number from one yard out and then tacking on another two to give the home team a 16-8 lead. Mishawaka would add a touchdown from Andrew Mason but fail the conversion attempt, allowing NorthWood to take a 16-14 advantage into the locker room.
The Panthers had been making their own breaks and executing when it mattered most in the first half, but the tides turned on Mishawaka’s opening drive of the second half.
The Cavemen milked seven minutes off the clock en route to a two-yard touchdown run from Fisher. But before Fisher gave his team a 22-16 edge, the Cavemen kept their drive alive thanks to a pass interference call on fourth-and-13. The pass, which appeared to be uncatchable, fell incomplete but a flag flew and set Mishawaka up with a new set of downs on NorthWood’s 13.
Following the game NorthWood head coach Nate Andrews was asked about the interference call as well as another call that went against the Panthers later in the third quarter, but the coach was not taking the bait.
“They have a better angle than I do,” Andrews said of the officials.
Once Sellers and the offense were forced to play catch up, the margin for error became even smaller. The Panthers started their next drive at midfield following a bloop kick by Mishawaka, but the drive stalled following a series of miscues. NorthWood was forced to use a timeout before taking a delay of game. That was followed up by a bad snap that led to a sack. On fourth-and-20 Sellers had his first true bad throw of the game which ended up as an easy interception for Milan Burris.
Mishawaka took over on its own 37 and would convert two fourth downs on its way to a another Hardy touchdown. Mishawaka had several big runs and ran for over 300 yards as a team. A conversion by Fisher made it 30-16 and Mishawaka never gave the momentum back.
“We were in good shape,” Andrews said of his team’s lead going into the third quarter. “We let them score and so now we’re pressing a little bit. We had a call or two that didn’t go our way. We let them score again. Now we’re chasing a little bit, pressing a little bit. Chasing and pressing, the situation we were in, that made it tough. You get behind the sticks and we’re in a situation, right now, where its difficult to gain those long first downs. Again you start to press and with all the moving parts it just makes it real tough.”
Anytime a new quarterback gets thrown into the mix things can get messy for the offense. But Sellers played a solid game, given the situation, tallied over 100 yards of total offense and definitely earned the praise of his coach.
“Unbelievable job,” Andrews expressed when asked about Sellers’ play. “I wish we could have given him more chances in the second half. Like I said, they keep the ball away from you and when we’re pressing and trying to catch up it made it tough. We had some things ready to go in the second half and it just didn’t come to fruition. But, yeah, he (Sellers) is an admirable young man.”
NorthWood (2-3, 2-2) will host Warsaw (6-1, 5-0) next Friday night at Andrews Field. Mishawaka (3-3, 3-1) has now won three consecutive games and will host Wawasee (2-5, 0-5) next week.
The Panthers wore decals on their helmets with the number 40 in honor of the late Wakarusa resident and Chicago Bears legend Gale Sayers, who passed away on September 23.