PLYMOUTH — It was another Northern Lakes Conference scuffle that had Plymouth’s Rockies a bit anxious for a half before they pulled away to a 5-1 win over Elkhart Memorial at the Kindt Soccerplex.

For the first half, the Chargers gave the unbeaten Rockies all they could handle keeping up the pressure and keeping the ball in the Plymouth end for the better part of the first 40 minutes. It started with a lightning fast goal by Memorial’s Javier Villata at 38:37.

“We had a horrible first half. That was the first time we’ve been scored on in the first 30 seconds of the game,” said Plymouth coach Josh Martin. “We were flat footed and they popped that score in and then they clamped down with some super high pressure.”

Still the Rockies were able to maintain a tie on Jesus Jimenez penalty kick that had some controversy of its own.

Jimenez was unable to push his first attempt in with Memorial goalie Preston Elonich making an outstanding save. Jimenez, however was awarded the kick again when a Memorial player was ruled to be in the box too early and Jimenez nailed the second attempt.

“They were sort of playing a box at mid field and they were overpowering us in there,” said Martin. “We talked about what we needed to do to get some things done. It was a dog fight. They’re trying to salvage their NLC season and they played whistle to whistle.”

Halftime adjustments however made a huge difference with Plymouth’s Jorge Calix returning the favor with a goal almost instantly after the beginning of the second half.

“They were outworking us and we weren’t executing,” said Martin. “We talked about the kind of pressure they were giving out on the flanks and how we had to  get the ball back into the middle because they wanted to trap you on the sideline.” 

“We had to make sure we got in out and made them shift,” said Martin. “A team can only high press for so long and I think that’s what happened they just got worn out. Bottom line – penalty kicks happen when you get in the box and we put them away when we had them.”

“When you’re playing a game like that you have to be real direct to the long ball so it’s sprint hard and recover, sprint and recover and we got smart and played the ball around and made them chase more.”

And penalty kicks iced the game for the Rockies with Calix and Sam Tanner each netting one, and Tanner hitting another on a breakaway.

The Rockies stay unbeaten on the year at 10-0-1 and will be in action again at Bethany Christian on Saturday morning.

Scoring:

First Half

EM – 2nd min – Javier Villata (Lorenzo Rosales)

P- 11th min – Jesus Jimenez (PK)

Second Half

P – 42nd min – Jorge Calix

P – 48th min – Jorge Calix (PK)

P – 73rd min – Sam Tanner (PK)

P – 74th min – Sam Tanner

Shots on Goal

Plymouth 7

Elkhart Memorial 4

Saves

Plymouth – Colin Harding 3

Elkhart Memorial – Preston Elonich 2

Corners

Plymouth 1

Elkhart Memorial 1

Fouls

Plymouth 10

Elkhart Memorial 10

Records

Plymouth 10-0-1 (NLC 3-0)

Elkhart Memorial 4-6-2  (NLC 2-4)