Michael Sheely wins the jump ball in the endzone for Plymouth’s first score.
PLYMOUTH — There were a lot of new faces in new places for Plymouth’s Rockies in their home opener Friday night but it was some recurring themes that led to a 28-14 loss. There were big changes in the starting lineup with a new quarterback in junior Zach Masterson, shifting Jake Reichard back to the wideout spot he was so dangerous at a year ago and Nathaniel Derifield taking over the H back spot full time. On defense, several freshmen saw their first action along with Lennon Creighbaum starting at safety for the injured Ivan Winkle. “I’m proud of our kids,” said Plymouth coach John Barron. “We battled every step of the way. We threw a new kid (Zach Masterson) in there at quarterback and he did a good job. I’m happy with the way Zach played.” “He seems to be pretty calm and collected back there,” he said. “Our kids did a good job of supporting him. (Michael) Sheely made a big play, we expect Jake (Reichard) to make big plays, Devante (Garcia) got more involved, and (Adriel) Lester ran the ball hard.” And while many parts of the Rockie game took some steps forward, inconsistency again reared its ugly head along with mistakes at key moments. “I thought we did a lot of really good things,” said Barron. “They (Warsaw) took the ball and drove right down the field and it wasn’t anything in particular that they were doing, we just weren’t ready for that speed yet.” “I thought we did a pretty good job of controlling the dive and the quarterback and then they went to the toss play and we had some slow rotations there,” he said. “Its a tough offense to defend.” Masterson hit on 20 of 32 passes in his first varsity start for a pair of scores with a pair of interceptions. After some early shaky moments, the Plymouth junior seemed to settle in as the game went on. Devante Garcia had nine catches to be more involved with the offense and Michael Sheely had three catches including his first varsity touchdown. On the negative side, in the absence of the injured Ivan Winkle the running game could manage just 16 yards on the night. “Those are our guys right now,” said Barron. “When we don’t have Ivan it limits some of our offensive power but I’m proud of the guys that played.” Defensively there was very little to not be encouraged by in spite of 28 points. With just seven minutes left in the game, Warsaw held a slim 14-7 lead. The defensive line again graded out high for their performance. “Owen Bockman didn’t come off the field,” said Barron. “He played on both sides of the ball. He took on double teams all night long. He was upfront for us offensively all night and pushed people around and played like a senior that doesn’t want to lose. You build on kids like that.” “I thought (Isaac) Navejar played an unbelievable game,” said Barron. “(Quentin) Crawford played every snap. We asked a lot of a couple of kids and they didn’t disappoint us. They are disappointed because we didn’t win but it’s hard to be disappointed as a coach when your kids give great effort.” “We put points on the board tonight against a very good team,” he said. “They took on the challenge that we put in front of them and they played hard.” Plymouth (0-3) hits the road again next week to take on Northridge. •WARSAW 28, PLYMOUTH 14 At Plymouth Warsaw 7 7 0 14 – 28 Plymouth 0 7 0 7 – 14 Scoring Summary: First Quarter W — 07:48 Greene 1 yd run (Wampler kick) Second Quarter W — 00:54 Wampler 2 yd run (Wampler kick) P — 00:01 Michael Sheely 21 yd pass from Zach Masterson (Adrian Cardona kick) Fourth Quarter W — 06:57 Greene 1 yd run (Wampler kick) W — 04:20 Wampler 9 yd run (Wampler kick) P — 00:32 Jake Reichard 34 yd pass from Zach Masterson (Adrian Cardona kick) RUSHING: Warsaw-Wampler 33-126; Jones 6-61; Greene 17-51; Silveus 4-50; Martz 1-14; Johnson 1-2. Plymouth-Adrial Lester 9-16; Zach Masterson 1-minus 1. PASSING: Warsaw-Greene 1-1-0-26. Plymouth-Zach Masterson 20-32-2-157. RECEIVING: Warsaw-Martz 1-26. Plymouth-Devante Garcia 9-35; Jake Reichard 7-86; Michael Sheely 3-34; Adrial Lester 1-2. INTERCEPTIONS: Warsaw-Winchester 1-0; Silveus 1-0. Plymouth-None. FUMBLES: Warsaw-Greene 2-0; Wampler 1-1. Plymouth-Zach Masterson 1-0. TACKLES (UA-A): Warsaw-Martz 7-1; Silveus 3-1; Katris 3-1; Plymouth-Quentin Crawford 7-6; Daniel Bacon 6-8; Isaac Navejar 9-0.
