Opportunistic Knights take win over Rockies in opener
August 18, 2018
Opportunistic Knights take win over Rockies in opener
By Rusty Nixon
Sports Editor
KENDALVILLE – It was a learning process for Plymouth’s Rockies as they took a 16-6 loss on the road at East Noble on Friday night.
With some experienced talent returning, and some inexperienced talent in it’s opening Friday night, it was bound to be an uneven performance. Add the addition of a new offensive scheme making its first Friday night start, it was a work in progress making it’s debut, and there were some not unexpected opening night hiccups. Unfortunately the Knights made them pay for most of them.
“That’s a great game to start with these guys is good for us it really shows you where you are,” said Barron. “I don’t think anybody got hurt. Our feelings got hurt because we didn’t win. I thought our kids played hard. At times we didn’t play very smart. But it’s a good measuring stick, no doubt about it.
“The first game we had some balls on the ground we could have gotten defensively we had some questionable calls,” said Plymouth head coach John Barron. “Thats not why we got beat it could have changed some things in the outcome of the game. But not a lot.”
“We were pretty aggressive, the bottom line is we didn’t execute on offense,” said Barron. “That’s the bottom line. You can’t beat people and score six points. We had some kids that were out of it offensively we couldn’t execute the play, we’re calling a play and kids are looking like they had never run the play before. That’s why we went to this offense. To score pointm,”
Plymouth could manage just one score on the night, a Cole Filson touchdown pass to Garrett Schrameyer, and could manage just 86 yards of offense. In the first half.
East Noble on the other hand, while not a lot better were opportunistic. A blocked punt in the first half gave them first and goal at the seven for their first score, and a fumbled lateral in the flat gave them field position inside the Plymouth 20 for their second touchdown in the final frame.
“Hats off to them. They have some good players and they are well coached,” said Barron. “We couldn’t really find a spark or a rythym on offense.”
The spark East Noble found was all purpose back Kaiden Harshberger who ended his one man wrecking crew of a night with 95 yards rushing and 88 yards receiving delivering key play after key play.
Plymouth found some success in the second half offensively einding with 201 total yards but couldn’t overcome key mistakes at key times.
“I thought our secondary did a really good job,” said Barron. “Our defense was on the field a lot tonight so our down guys got a little tired but they hung in there.”
“We have to get better for Kokomo. They caught us a little bit. I think our linebackers were caught looking in the backfield a little bit we weren’t very disciplined with our eyes maybe, I was hoping we would adjust to that,” said Barron. “We had some run stunts most of the night maybe we were running past some things.”
“I think we have a pretty good football team. I’m confident our kids are going to get better. We just have to put it all together.”
Plymouth travels to Kokomo next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. start
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 0 0 6 0 – 6
E. Noble 0 7 3 6 – 16
Scoring Summary
Second Quarter
EN – TD Bailer Parker five yard run.
Third Quarter
P – TD Garrett Schrameyer 22 yard pass from Cole Filson (Two point failed)
EN – FG Joe Painter 36 yards
Fourth Quarter
EN – TD Jack Herber 17 yard run (Kick failed).
Rushing – (Plymouth 27 carries 105 yards) Rundell 4-30, Filson 9-29, Vanlue 4-24, Barron 4-16, Davis 2-8, Reed 4-2. (East Noble 45 for 186.) Harshbergewr 20-95, Parker 13-33, Herber 4-31 TD, Malott 2-3. VanGorder 6-40.
Passing – Cole Filson 7-14, 81 yds, TD. Joe Barron 1-2 15 yds. B. Parker 11-22, 138 yds, INT.
Receivng – Rundell 2-39, Schrameyer 2-25 TD, Harshberger 7-88.
Tackles – Craft 7, Sims 7, Herber 13.
