Plymouth hits the road to take on the Warsaw juggernaut

Courtesy of The Pilot News

PLYMOUTH — Last week Plymouth’s Rockies saw a couple of things that hadn’t happened in a while.
The Plymouth defense collected the first team shutout since 2019 and the first back-to-back wins since 2020.
The atmosphere has been contagious.
“It feels good. The kids are excited,” said Plymouth head coach Adam Handley. “It’s contagious. (In the high school) The energy is good in the hallways and the classrooms. It’s crazy that when a football team wins a couple of games, the hallways come alive, and it creates a good culture throughout the (school) building.”
“The sophomore group that was here when we got here are seniors now and they are the ones that are starting to change the culture and move us in the right direction.”
Even more important, the mood on the sideline is a positive one.
“That is one of the most fun things for a coach to see,” said Handley. “Ultimately, for some of these guys, it’s a four-year stint, and we want to make it memorable. We want them to enjoy their high school experience. Obviously, wins are way more fun than losses, but ultimately, it’s about being with your teammates and enjoying the experience.”
Looming on the horizon is a familiar rival wanting to ruin that atmosphere on Friday. Plymouth will travel to Warsaw to face Hall of Fame coach Bart Curtis and his #6 ranked (5A) Tigers, renewing the longest continuous rivalry in northern Indiana, begun in 1931.
“We know what Bart Curtis is going to do,” said Handley. “If you ask 35 teams in the state of Indiana what Bart Curtis is going to do they’ll all tell you the exact same things. It’s not a secret. It’s no surprise. But they do it very well.”
“They always seem to have plug-and-play guys,” he said. “They graduate a bunch of good players and then the guy that takes over that position is just the same type of player. They have a factory over there breeding great athletes and hard-nosed kids.”
The Rockie defense has played well this season. This week, their task will be stopping an offense that is averaging 31.2 points a game.
“Ultimately we are not going to keep them from running the football. What we can do is limit the big play,” said Handley. “When they do take a shot at a long pass because we’ve loaded the box, or they try a counter, or something like that, if we can eliminate those big plays our defense will do well.”
“Offensively, we had some success last year some of the looks will probably be the same look,” he said. “Finn (Holm) is better than he was last year, Exzander (Ramirez) is better than he was last year, our offensive line is better than they were last year, I think we might be able to run the ball a little bit.”
“If we have a chance in the fourth quarter with the opportunity to win a game that’s where we want to be.”