SYRACUSE – The good news for Plymouth’s Rockies was that the week was over. The better news was they they came away from Wawasee with an NLC win 29-20.
“Seven o’clock couldn’t get here fast enough the only time I saw kids smile all week was when they were at practice or they were together,” said Plymouth head coach John Barron. “You can’t predict how a kid is going to respond physically to the week they had. It was extremely, emotionally draining and I’m sure they didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. We contemplated not playing the game but the kids really wanted to play. The Bacon family wanted us to play. To honor those requests we did it.”
“Never have I been more proud of a group of kids to do what they did, and figure out a way to win the ball game.”
And figure out a way they did – in spite of adversity. Three fumbles and the inspired play of Wawasee made for some tense moments, especially after an onside kick by the Warriors to open the game ending in a touchdown.
Plymouth responded with three touchdowns of the own in the games first quarter, but what looked like a shootout turned into a slugfest.
Barron felt his team might have been pressing in the early moments.
“In the first half on the defensive side they were trying to make a big play and they weren’t playing their assignments,” said Barron. “It’s really hard to analyze the mistakes we made tonight in the way we do a normal game. There was nothing normal about this game tonight. I think the turnovers were a combination of Jack maybe being to aggressive or our kids trying to do too much.”
Wawasee put up two scores in the second quarter, to make it 22-20 at halftime but out of the locker room – as has happened many times in this season – Plymouth’s defense was inspired. The Warriors actually had negative yardage rushing in the third quarter and Jack Barron’s 30 yard touchdown run was enough to insure the win.
“We didn’t prepare as well as we normally do, we had to be aware that our staff was going through all this as well,” said Barron. “You have to remember we had a very short week as far as football goes but a long week outside of football. It was a long draining week.”
Jeremy Splix had a 145 yard rushing game to lead the way for the Rockies with Barron hitting for 108 passing yards and a touchdown, all of it to Cam Eveland.
Plymouth stays unbeaten at 6-0 and comes home to play Concord next week. Wawasee is 2-4 with a game at Warsaw next week.
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 22 0 7 0 – 29
Wawasee 6 14 0 0 – 20
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
W – 22 Yd Pass fromTyler Smith (Kick good)
P – Cam Eveland 28 Yd Pass from Jack Barron (Two-Point Conversion)
P – Cam Eveland 8 Yd Run (Failed Two-Point Conversion)
P – Jack Barron 5 Yd Run (Cam Eveland Run for Two-Point Conversion)
Second Quarter
W – Noah Wadkins 10 Yd Run (Lucas Garza Kick)
W – Noah Wadkins 43 Yd Run (Lucas Garza Kick)
Third Quarter
P – Jack Barron 30 Yd Run (Jeremy Splix Kick)
Rushing – (Plymouth) J. Splix 21-145, J. Barron 13-123, T. McMillen 1 20 , C. Eveland 2-8, T. Hooten 1-4 . (Wawasee) Z. McKee 4-8, T. Smith 23-1, Noah Wadkins 18-108.
Passing – J. Barron 4/5 108 TD, T. Smith 7/10 58 TD.
Receiving – C. Eveland 4-108 TD.
Tackles – Peters 10, Koss 8.
Sacks – Koss 2
