PLYMOUTH – The regular season has come to an end and Friday marks opening night for the IHSAA playoffs with Plymouth’s Rockies unbeaten.
On the road to open up Plymouth takes on a South Bend Washington team at School Field in South Bend that is peaking at the right time of year.
“This is a team that’s very excited to get to the playoffs and a team that’s very excited to play Plymouth,” said Plymouth head coach John Barron. “We have to match that intensity.”
Last week showed what can happen when you are a little flat, with NorthWood pushing the Rockies to the limit, but that test should pay dividends in the “new” season.
“Our kids had to make plays to win the ballgame,” said Barron. “We were a little flat for us and kind of quiet at halftime in the locker room. Fortunately for us we made some big plays in special teams, the pick six was big and we found some rythym on offense by getting the ball to Justin.
“Us having to make those plays to win a ballgame is going to bode well for us. It helps our practice. (NorthWood) made enough plays to win the ballgame. They out schemed us and luckily our kids overcame my mistakes.”
Washington coach Jay Johnson likely heard about the scheme and likely is working on one of his own, especially to shut down the Rockie option.
“The sign of a good coach is getting better as you go along and Jay Johnson has them doing that,” said Barron. “They play hard, they are extremely fast. They have team speed on the perimeter, but I like our teams speed too. We need to play together.
“They will spread on offense and their number one play is the bubble screen – quick pass out to the flats – and we need to be able to cover that. Toreq Rice is very fast. They are going to get him the ball and let him run for daylight. They will continue to stretch it to the sidelines because they think they can beat you to the corner and a lot of times they can.”
Offensively Plymouth will prepare for what they’ve seen the Panthers do on film but aren’t leaving any stone unturned.
“A 4-4 (defensive alignment) is sort of the flavor of the NIC,” said Barron. “They saw NorthWood have some success against our option game running a 3-3 stack so we’re going to prepare for a 4-4 but we’re also going to prepare for almost anything else. We have to be able to run our option against everyone. And if we can’t we’re going to line up in the I and run right at you.”
Still Barron thinks the key is a very simple one.
“It’s turnovers,” he said. “You can’t turn the ball over whether its the passing game or the running game. That statistic about the team that turns the ball over the least amount of times wins. I believe in that.”
