"TIGERS SCORE WITH 0:00.1 ON THE CLOCK, BEAT NORTHWOOD 22-19"

Words to describe Friday night's Warsaw Tiger football game...WILD, CRAZY, IMPROBABLE, EXCITING ...to name a few.

With 5:39 remaining on the clock, the Warsaw Tigers trailed Northwood 13-7. The Tigers offense had problems all night long. Fans started heading for the exits.

It was here that sophomore quarterback Austin Head grew up.

The Tigers drove down the field from its own 20 yard line all the way to the Northwood 16. With 3:09 left on the clock and the Tigers facing a 4th down and a long one yard for a first down, Phil Jensen called a timeout. The fans that left the game earlier...

Head used the best play in football and ran the quarterback sneak to perfection and the Tigers had a first down! Just as in life, one good thing happened and then one bad thing happened. Two plays later, super senior Zach Rooney was injured. Injured to a point where he had to leave the game and did not return. Without its top offensive player, things did not look good for the mighty Tigers.

Fast forward and all of a sudden the Tigers were facing a 4th down and 4 yards on the Northwood 7 yard line. With Rooney on the bench, Phil Jensen was faced with his biggest decision of the year. Sophomore Seth Fouts was pounding the ball all night long. Fouts ended the game with 14 carries for 55 yards. A betting man would have bet that Seth was going to get the call again.

It was here that sophomore Austin Head grew up.

Head took a one step drop and threw a fade pass into the left corner of the end zone. A fade pass into the left corner of the end zone? Phil Jensen is obviously gaining some trust in his sophomore quarterback. Head's pass traveled in the air for what seemed like hours...the pass seemed underthrown. However, junior Taylor Cone made an incredible adjustment on the ball and hauled in the pass for the Warsaw touchdown! Jeff Ballinger's extra point was good and just like that the Warsaw Tigers had a 14-13 lead with as little over a minute to play in the game!

I know I have beaten this to death but I can't help it..."Not so fast my friends."

The Tigers kicked off and had another special teams break down. Northwood senior Tanner Roberts returned the kickoff to the Warsaw 47 yard line. Adding salt to the wound the Tigers were somehow called for a horse collar tackle and all of a sudden Northwood was in business. Two plays later and just like that the team from Nappanee had a 1st down on the Tigers' 13 yard line. Senior Coy Brown barreled into the end zone and with 30 seconds left in the game Northwood had the lead again, 19-14. The two point conversion failed but Tiger fans had seen this before.

The Panthers kicked off but with Rooney on crutches, the ball was only returned to the Warsaw 28 yard line. If Austin Head had not grown up enough to this point, he was about to. A 25 yard pass to Cone in the middle of the field and with 10.8 seconds left in the game it was a 1st down but with half the field in front of them. Head remained poised and dropped back and saw a wide open Cone...in the middle of the field. Fans started packing up. Cone hauled in the pass and cut right to the outside. Unsung hero Peyton Balazs was there for his teammate and threw one of the best blocks in recent memory to spring Cone to the outside where Taylor found room and sprinted into the endzone with one-tenth of a second remaining! The Tigers had the lead! The two point conversion, another fade pass...this time Head to senior Jordan Wray and the Tigers had the lead, 22-19.

Northwood did nothing with the kickoff and in miracle fashion the Tigers had one of the biggest come from behind victories in recent memory.

As exciting as the game was and as great as it was to see our offense move the ball down the field, it was the vaunted Tiger defense that kept them in the game all night. It was "all everything" Zach Rooney and Nate Stone breaking up passes that would have resulted in Panther touchdowns. It was a stingy defense that stopped the Panthers in the red zone time after time. It was a defense that forced 5 Northwood fumbles, 3 recovered by the Tigers. It was a defense that intercepted an errant Northwood pass as they were driving for a score.

The Tiger defense has improved each and every game and with Phil Jensen's style...pound the football and pound the football and pound the football, it is Will Shepherd's defense that has led the Tigers to 4 wins in its last 5 games.

Austin Head completed 8 of 11 passes (not a misprint) for 169 yards and 2 touchdowns. Zach Rooney carried the ball an astonishing 25 times and earned every bit of the 99 yards he ran for on the night.

Taylor Cone had 3 catches for an impressive 80 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Head's stats were impressive. Cone's as well. However, the Tigers defense led by super senior Cameron "the animal" Fritzel's numbers were crazy.

Fritzel led the defense with 13.5 tackles! 8 of them solo, 11 assists and two tackles for loss! Crazy!

Not to be outdone, Tanner Dickerhoff pitched in with 10 tackles! 7 of them solo and 6 assists!

How about Nate Stone's 6 solo tackles?!

Let's keep going with "all everything" Zach Rooney's 5 solo tackles!

Tristan McClone and Jeremy Lehman had 3.5 tackles each and Zach Shepler pitched in with 3 of his own.

Austin Head grew up!
Zach Rooney was amazing!
Seth Fouts was impressive!
Taylor Cone was scintillating!

The Tiger defense, led by Fritzel and Dickerhoff won the game for the Tigers on Friday night.

Warsaw is back in action next Friday night as they travel to Dunlap and take on conference leader, the Concord Minutemen.

The Sectional draw is Sunday, October 9 and the Tigers will then look to the post-season. The post-season where in Indiana high school football, EVERY team starts with a 0-0 record.

The Sectional...where the team that gets hot at the end has a chance to do some special things.

Stay tuned.

Posted In: Boy's Sports > Football

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