Rockie opening night draws rave reviews in win over Twin Lakes

Courtesy of The Pilot News photo by Sue Garrity.

PLYMOUTH — It couldn’t have been scripted much better for Plymouth’s Rockies in their home opener as pretty much everything went their way in a 52-20 win over Twin Lakes.
The offense was hitting on all cylinders from the opening kick-off as coach Adam Handley chose to take the ball to start the game and the Rockies got the first of many big payoffs as quarterback Exzander Ramirez took the second play of the game, a simple read option, 72 yards to the house, the first of two long scoring runs for the Rockie senior.
“We’re pleased,” said Handley of his team’s effort. “Putting up 50 points I can’t remember the last time we did that. There’s still room for improvement though. We missed some reads, and we missed some wide-open guys. When we got a chance to capitalize on mistakes we capitalized and we scored. A couple of times we shot ourselves in the foot with a penalty and then came back and got a first down. That’s the difference between this year and last year.”
“Overall we were pretty decently balanced as far as spreading it around. They did what we asked them to do.”
Twin Lakes had very little answer for the Rockie offensive weapons of Ramirez and Finn Holm as Plymouth punted just twice on the night, the second time in the fourth quarter after the JV had taken over the game. Maybe more telling was the fact the Rockies had just one negative yardage play on the night as the Plymouth offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage.
“This is the first time that we felt like our kids were bigger and stronger and maybe even faster than our opponent,” said Handley. “We haven’t had that. It’s a testament to (PHS strength coach Aaron) Letinski and what he’s doing with them in the weight room. The guys are putting in the work in there and it’s showing.”
The only setback on the night was a struggling defense in the second quarter that allowed two of the Indian’s scores on big plays but recovered admirably after halftime to shut out Twin Lakes in the final 24 minutes.
“That was the challenge at halftime,” said Handley. “We were definitely a better defensive team than we showed in the first half. Just some mental mistakes, not trusting their read, and that kind of thing. We talked about it at halftime and we didn’t really do anything different. We knew what they were going to do and we were able to play better defensively in the second half.”
Also playing a key role for the Rockies was junior Jose Fernando who just became a starter a week ago after an injury to senior wideout Aiden VanDusen.
“He was that guy that was kind of on the bubble,” said Handley. “He’d be in if we needed five receivers but with the injury to (Aiden) VanDusen he stepped up and did a really good job for us.”
Plymouth will be in action again on Friday night again at home to take on Columbia City.