COLUMBIA CITY — The high of a win a week ago became the low of a defeat on the road as Columbia City took a 42-14 win over Plymouth in a non-conference game.

The story of the game could be written in three words: penalties, and big plays.

Plymouth’s offense appeared to be up to the challenge from the start with long drives, that just didn’t end in points.

“In opportune penalties. A couple of turnovers again,” said Plymouth head coach Adam Handley. “When you lose momentum against a team like that it’s tough. You know they are going to hit you in the mouth. That’s their base offense. They’re going to make you stop the run.”

The run-oriented Eagles did their most damage with the pass with quarterback Graysen Bradberry hitting wide out Statton Fuller early and often in running up a 35-0 halftime lead.

“We had some lapses, in our coverage, that’s when they got the deep passes over our head.”

On the offensive side of the ball, there was a lot to be happy about, but not a lot to show for it. At halftime the Rockies had run up 200 yards of offense but a zero on the scoreboard.

“Overall we were pleased with the way we were moving the ball,” said Handley. We just never finished a drive. it’s something that we are going to learn from, keep watching film and figure out why what happened, happened.”

A big reason: penalties.

“We walk in the endzone on a false start,” said Handley. “We have a holding penalty that gets us behind the sticks on a drive. It’s tough to make up for some of those penalties.”

“I never would have guessed with 200 yards rushing we would be down at half 35-0,” he said. “We knew it was going to be a dog fight. We talked about how they were going to be way more physical than Calumet. It took us a while to realize how physical they were going to be. By then we were down big. We have to figure it out. Warsaw is going to do the same thing to us.”

Defensively it was the big play that came back time and time again to take away any momentum.

“Couple coverage errors where we got caught looking in the backfield,” said Handley. “That’s what they want you to do. Once you start doing that they get behind you and there’s a big play.”

The Rockies were able to push across a couple of scores in the second half, the first on a run by quarterback Exzander Ramirez, the other by his backup Grady Metsker, but by then it was too little, too late.

“We are better,” said Handley. “The score doesn’t show it but we are better than that. We’ll get better next week.”

Plymouth is now 1-1 and will take on Warsaw at home next Friday.

•COLUMBIA CITY 42, PLYMOUTH 14
at Columbia City

Plymouth 0 0 0 14 — 14
Col. City 14 21 7 0 — 42
Scoring summary:
First Quarter
CC — Fuller 19 yd TD pass
CC — Fuller 54 yd TD pass
Second Quarter
CC — Sroufe 32 yd run
CC — Fuller 6 yd TD pass
CC — Getts 72 yd TD pass
Third Quarter
CC — Sroufe 10 yd run
Fourth Quarter
P — Ramirez 8 yd run
P — Metsker 16 yd run

Rushing
Plymouth — Ramires 16-113 TD, Metsker 3-46 TD, Holm 9-38, Milliser 4-25, VanDusen 3-13, Mackey 1-13.
Passing — Ramirez 10-15, 83 yds, INT.