Rockies put ‘stamp’ on comeback win over Warsaw

Courtesy of The Pilot News, Photo by Sue Garrity

WARSAW — Two years ago, the last time that Plymouth visited Warsaw for a football game they took a beating at the hands of the Tigers.
Friday night the sophomore class that took that beating, made a statement this time as seniors, taking a 33-32 win over the Tigers in overtime.
“We talked about how the last time we were over here we got beat 70-0,” said Plymouth head coach Adam Handley. “I watched that film the other day and I was just amazed at the change we’ve had since then. The weight room, the effort, everything. To see us go from 70-0 to 33-32 is pretty awesome.”
There was a hint of something in the works when the Plymouth defense forced a fumble and before the crowd had settled into their seats, the Rockies were ahead 7-0. Just moments later the Rockie defense forced another fumble and like that it was 10-7 after a Carlos Carillo 35-yard field goal.
“We got that fumble and I’m like okay before we get too excited let’s score first,” said Handley. “The tenacity of our defense. That offense is tough to stop. We knew we were not going to just stop them from running the football. We had to stop the big plays. For the most part, I think we did that.”
The Tigers settled in and took the upper hand, churning out yardage between the tackles and finally seeming to take control of the game in the waning minutes 25-17.
The Rockie offense and Exzander Ramirez had other ideas.
Taking the ball with 2:45 left in regulation Ramirez engineered a drive that would put across a touchdown and with the two-point conversion tied the game sending it to overtime.
It started with two passes, one for 26 yards to Jose Fernando, and the second a 15-yard toss to Grady Metzger.
Ramirez had four of the next five carries for 39 yards and found Metzger again in the endzone for the tying two-point conversion.
Warsaw pushed the first possession of overtime over in three plays and with the extra point took a seven-point lead. Ramirez wasn’t through yet it was more of the same Plymouth’s overtime possession scoring the touchdown on a Ramirez pass to Metzger again and setting up the two-point try on the final play for the win.
“He is a dude,” said Handley. “We talked all summer about how we are going to live and die with him. He’s a fantastic athlete and a fantastic football player. That last play wasn’t called Exzander sweeps to the right, it was a called pass play to the left and it all broke down and Exzander became Exzander.”
“There was no doubt we were going to go for two. If we won the toss we were going to take defense come back and score and go for two and win this.”
Ramirez started to roll left on the play and then saw nobody home on the right side of the ball and beat the Warsaw defenders to the end zone for the win.
The win is an important one to the Rockie program as a statement of how far the program has come in the two years since that last visit to Warsaw.
“We talked about a stamp,” said Handley. “A stamp on turning around things, doing the right things the right way, and I challenged them that we are still looking for that ‘stamp’ on the legacy of the senior class. I said let’s go out and show up and see what happens.”
The Rockies stay in the running for an NLC title at 3-1 on the conference and are now 4-2 on the year.
•PLYMOUTH 33, WARSAW 32 OT
At Warsaw
Plymouth 10 0 7 8 8 — 33
Warsaw 7 6 0 12 7 — 32
Scoring Summary:
First quarter
P — 10:00 Finn Holm 3 yd run. (Carlos Carillo kick)
P — 4:34 Carrillo 25 yard FG
W — 1:26 Quinton Brock 22-yard run. (Mason Smythe kick)
Second quarter
W — 7:09 Evan Davis 29-yard run. (Kick blocked)
Third quarter
P — 4:39 Holm one yard run. (Carillo kick)
Fourth quarter
W — 9:06 Dylan Fitzpatrick. (Kick blocked)
W — 2:45 Brock 20-yard pass to Grady Nelson (Kick blocked)
P — :33 Exzander Ramirez 1 yd run. (Ramirez pass to Grady Metzger 2 Pt.)
Overtime
W — Brody Duncan 1-yard run. (Smythe kick)
P — Ramirez 13 yd. pass to Metzger. (Ramirez run 2 Pt.”