By Connor McCann
Times-Union
WARSAW — Without question, the biggest game in Warsaw football history was played Friday night at Fisher Field. The stakes were simple: win, and head down to Indianapolis to represent the northern half of Indiana in the state championship game. After disposing of the No. 1 and No. 2 5A teams in the state the two previous weeks, the Tigers once again had their hands full with No. 3 Merrillville.
Once again, Warsaw didn’t blink.
The defense pitched a shutout in the second half and came away with five turnovers, while the offense played its signature “Bart Ball” to perfection as the Tigers made history, winning 31-14 for the first Semi-State title in school history, as well as the opportunity to play in the biggest game of them all.
“Our kids rally and they battle snap after snap after snap,” head coach Bart Curtis said after the program-defining win. “I’m so excited for these kids, this school and this community. I can’t express how excited I am.”
“This was a total team win tonight. I grew up wanting to play Tiger football and to be in this moment right now is a dream come true,” quarterback Drew Sullivan said after the game. “It’s a great night for the Tigers.”
Starting the game on defense, the Tigers gave their home crowd something to cheer about early on. After giving up a single first down, Warsaw was able to make a stop and force a punt. The kick took a very friendly bounce for the Pirates, making its way all the way down to the opposite 11-yard line.
The Tiger offense, which has been an absolute juggernaut in recent weeks, had no such problems moving the football early on. Sullivan, coming off of the biggest game of his career with over 300 yards on the ground against Lafayette Jefferson last week, didn’t miss a beat getting back into action. The senior QB was nearly impossible to bring down, moving the chains a series of times and even forcing an early Merrillville timeout so the defense could catch its breath.
One play at the time, Warsaw methodically made its way toward the end zone. On the 14th play of the drive, Sullivan used a big push from his offensive line to cross the goal line from the one. After a nearly eight-minute opening possession, the Tigers scored the opening points of the game. The Pirates were able to make a big play on special teams though, blocking the point after to keep things at 6-0.
It didn’t take long for Merrillville to come up with an answer. On the second play of the following drive, running back JQ Johnson looked to be tackled for a short gain, but was able to escape the pile and break free. With nobody in the secondary near enough to make a tackle, Johnson was gone, taking the ball 75 yards to the house to tie things up for just a moment. The visitors’ PAT was good, giving them a 7-6 lead.
“We kind of realized what we needed to do defensively after we gave up that first big run,” defensive lineman Hunter Dippon said. “I wasn’t sticking to my stunts as much, just trying to smash into the center and get to that ball any way I could. My other guys up front did a great job containing the edges and forcing them to run right into me.”
Disaster almost struck on the ensuing Warsaw drive, as a pitch play to Brock almost went awry. The junior was able to pick up a big gain, enough for a first down, but put the ball on the turf after a big hit. Luckily for the home side, they were able to jump on top of it and keep possession. That ended up being the only first down of the drive for the Tigers, as they were forced to punt after a defensive stand by the Pirates in the opening minutes of the second quarter.
Warsaw came up with a defensive stop of their own after switching sides, this one a little flashier than the previous. Merrillville ran a bootleg passing play, and with the ball in the air, corner Tristan Wilson beat his receiver to the ball and picked it off while keeping his feet in bounds on the sideline. Just like that, the Tiger offense was back in business on the Pirate side of the field. Not only was the interception a huge momentum shift for Warsaw, it was also the 10th of Wilson’s career, making him the new career record holder at the school.
“I didn’t think I was going to get there in time but I did,” Wilson said. “You get off the field and your teammates are mobbing you, it’s an amazing feeling.”With a short field to work with, the home team had little trouble making the most of the opportunity provided to them by the defense. Continuing his big night, Sullivan seemed to be getting even better. The quarterback kept bowling over defenders and masterfully running the option offense, culminating on a 24-yard run to the house to put his team back on top with seven minutes to go in the half. This time, Mason Smythe’s PAT was good, making it a 13-7 game.
Once again, the visitors had an answer after giving up a go-ahead score. This one took a little longer than the first, as the Pirates mixed up the run and the pass well enough to move the ball down the field and into Tiger territory. Warsaw was nearly able to get off the field, forcing a 4th down at their own 35-yard line, but Merrillville converted on the play in a big way. Quarterback Jordan Sanders faked a run before launching it deep to a wide-open Dermont Bogard. The receiver made it all the way to the end zone, and with two minutes left in the first half, the Pirates were back on top 14-13.
It wasn’t known at the time, but it would be the last points the visitors would score for the rest of the night.
“Our defensive coaches knew they were going to run what they ran and our players executed. You take away the long run and the busted coverage and our defense played their asses off tonight,” Curtis said.
Warsaw was able to move the ball to midfield with the clock winding down, calling the final timeout of the half with just under two seconds to go. Sullivan ran the ball one more time for the final play of the second quarter, picking up a few yards before being brought down. Down a point heading into the locker room, the Tigers looked to retake the lead on their opening drive of the third quarter.
“The message at halftime was to just keep going. We knew we were still in this,” Cohen Heady said. “We just needed to take it one play at a time and not give up.”
Things got off to a good start with senior receiver Ethan Egolf making a great return on the kickoff, giving it to the offense on the Pirate 40-yard line. Working with a shorter field once again, the Tigers got right back to work. A first-down run by Brody Duncan got things started, followed by a few nice runs by Sullivan to get into the red zone. The Tigers were able to pick up first and goal at the 10 but picked up nothing on the first two plays. A passing play to Quinton Brock got the ball to the two on third down. Instead of going for it to try and pick up the touchdown, Warsaw elected to kick the field goal. The 19-yarder by Smythe was good, putting the Tigers up 16-14 with six and a half minutes to go in the third.
Getting back on defense, Heady, a captain at senior linebacker, made the biggest play of the game, and perhaps, his career. With Merrillville facing a third and short at their own 25, the Pirates elected to pass. Similar to Wilson in the first half, Heady read the quarterback perfectly, jumped in the passing lane and picked it off. With nobody between him and the end zone, the captain took it all 25 yards to the house to make it a two-possession game. A minute and a half after retaking the lead, Warsaw was now up 23-14.
“We practiced that play all week. If I see three guys coming in, I have to cut in front of him. I did, and it was like a dream from then on,” Heady said. “I’m going to be honest, I kind of blacked out. All of a sudden I see all the guys running to me and I’m like ‘holy crap, that just happened’”
Needing something and needing it right away, the Pirates got back to work on offense and used Johnson, who was a majority of the offense all night long, to work their way down the field. The visitors converted on two separate fourth-down plays to keep things alive and make it into the red zone. The drive took the remainder of the third quarter off of the clock, meaning one of these teams was now just 12 minutes away from a trip to Indianapolis.
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to realize it was them.
The first play of the fourth quarter was a massive one, as the Pirates put the ball on the ground, where it was jumped on by Gavin Schultz for yet another Merrillville turnover. After a long drive, the visitors came away with nothing.
After giving up eleven points in the second half against Lafayette Jefferson a week ago, the Warsaw defense held their opponent scoreless in the final 24 minutes of the semi-state round.
“I don’t think there’s much of an adjustment we’ve made in these games. I think we are a second-half team defensively,” Dippon said. “Everyone gets their assignments, we’re not rushing anything. I think we just know how to get the job done.”
A long drive away from potentially putting the game away for good, Warsaw executed extremely well before being turned away. The Tigers converted on multiple third downs while draining plenty of clock. The Merrillville defense was starting to show signs of fatigue, and the home side was exploiting it. With a little under six minutes to go in the game, the team elected to go for a 4th and 3 at the Pirate 26. They were denied, giving the ball back to the visitors still up eleven. The drive may not have led to any points, but it drained six crucial minutes off of the clock.
A long passing play flipped the field for Merrillville and put the Pirates in Warsaw territory, but once again, Heady was there to make a big play. The senior made his second interception of the game, the team’s third, to force the fourth turnover of the night. Most importantly, the Tigers had the ball back with four minutes left and a double-digit lead.
A big run by Tucker Reed, 60 yards, put Warsaw deep into the red zone. The next play was the dagger the Tigers were looking for, as Duncan took it in from eleven yards out to make it a 29-14 game with just three minutes to go. To make things even better, a Brock pass to Reed on the two-point conversion made it a three-possession game.
“After Tucker’s run, I was just filled with joy. I was looking up at the amazing crowd, our community did a great job coming out to support us tonight,” Sullivan said.
To put the final cherry on top of the sundae, the Warsaw defense stopped the Pirates on fourth down in the red zone to finish things off. Who was there to make the sack on the final Merrillville play of the night? None other than Cohen Heady.
“For the past four years, we’ve worked to get to this moment. I saw him on the ground and I thought to myself, ‘That’s four years of work right there’” Heady said. “It feels so good to get to this point. It’s unexplainable how good this feels.”
Warsaw (10-3) will play the No. 4 team in the state, Decatur Central, at Lucas Oil Stadium next Saturday at 7 p.m.
“I don’t care if we have to play Oregon next week. I get another week with these kids. We get to practice another week,” Curtis said. “This team has woken up this community and this community has gotten behind this group of boys and you can’t put a price tag on that.”
“We have one more to go,” Sullivan added. “It’s another great opportunity to go 1-0. Let’s bring it home.”
