WARSAW – It wasn’t without its moments but when the dust had settled, Plymouth’s Rockies were still standing after their first NLC test of the new season taking a 35-21 win over Warsaw.
Missed opportunities for Plymouth and overcoming adversity by Warsaw were the story of the Tigers coming alive for two lightning quick scores late in the second quarter to take a 14-6 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“The nice thing that happened was we settled down,” said Plymouth coach John Barron. “It’s one thing I pointed out to the kids before we went out for the second half. This is going to tell us more about what type of football team we have for the rest of the year. You have to trust each other. Don’t feel sorry for yourselves and pull it together.”
Out of the locker room Plymouth took total command of the game with an opening six minute scoring drive and taking advantage of a bad snap on a Warsaw punt just moments later to put themselves ahead. It was a show of ground and pound by fullback Jeremy Splix and quarterback Jack Barron who along with their teammates put together 400 team rushing yards.
“We showed some toughness and what more can you say about our offensive line. Anytime you rush for 400 yards – between those guys and our wide guys we’ve got a lot of unselfish guys,” said Barron. “Tonight was the first time this season that we’ve seen that extra push where we did create that second line of scrimmage, five, six, seven yards downfield.
“Coming in there were a lot of questions about our offensive line. Our offensive coaches have done a great job of getting guys in the right spots. They are doing some nice things.”
Barron had even more praise for his offensive staff that put together a game plan that helped keep the Plymouth offense on the field for nearly the entire third quarter.
“I really want to compliment (Offensive Coordinator) Mike Kershner,” said Barron. “He with Bob Garrity, Phil Koops and Michael Garrity do a great job of having enough in that if a team tries to take away a part of our offense we find a way to attack them differently. We didn’t have to throw the ball tonight.
“We got a rhythm there with Jeremy and Jack reading our midline play. It was a combination of that and our option game to the outside. All facets of our running game right now are pretty good.”
Plymouth moves to 3-0 on the season with a game at home against Northridge next Friday. Warsaw is 1-2 with a game at Elkhart Memorial next week.
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 0 6 15 14 – 35
Warsaw 0 14 0 7 – 21
Scoring Summary
Second Quarter
P – Jeremy Splix 7 Yd Run (Jeremy Splix Kick No Good)
W – Rob Sullivan 12 Yd Run (Kick)
W – Rob Sullivan 6 Yd Run (Kick)
Third Quarter
P – TD Jack Barron 4 Yd Run (Cam Eveland Run For Two-Point Conversion)
P – Jack Barron 7 Yd Run (Jeremy Splix Kick) 21 14
Fourth Quarter
P – Jack Barron 6 Yd Run (Jeremy Splix Kick) 28 14
P – Jeremy Splix 6 Yd Run (Jeremy Splix Kick)
W – D’Andre Street 15 Yd Pass (Kick)
Rushing – (Plymouth) J. Splix 36-236, J. Barron 24-127, C. Eveland 1-29, T. Hooten 4-17, B. Nixon 2-10 (Warsaw) #25 G. Truex 13-51, R. Sullivan 8-46.
Passing – J. Barron 5/9 53, M. Jensen 13/29 196 1
Receiving – C. Eveland 3-50, R. Rhoades 4-56
Tackles – Dave Bacon 5.
