Rockies try to rebound in first road test at Goshen
Courtesy of the Pilot News. Photo by Rudy Marquez.
PLYMOUTH — It was an old-school type of game last week for the Rockies taking a tough loss to Northridge 13-7.
It was the running game and field position that was the deciding factor.
“It was a weird game when you look back on it. We only had 42 offensive plays. We had too many turnovers, too many three-and-outs,” said Plymouth coach Adam Handley. “They had 76 offensive plays and we only gave up 13 points and if you look at those 13 points they were on short fields.”
“We had some positive plays we ran the ball decent but when we needed the yard, or we needed two yards we didn’t get it,” he said. “We had some bad, inopportune penalties. A couple of bad holding calls, and a couple of false starts in terrible situations.”
NLC test number two comes on the road at Goshen who has a new head coach in Joey Hecklinski.
“Goshen is in a similar position to where we were a couple of years ago but they are confusing us on film. We don’t have the best film,” said Handley. “Last week they played Warsaw, the week before that they played New Prairie, the week before that Fairfield and none of those teams are in the gun, none of those teams have more than one receiver on the field, none of those teams plan on throwing the ball. So we don’t have a lot of good looks at what we might see (from the Goshen defense). We’re kind of in a guessing game right now as to what we might see.”
“They run a goofy defense too,” he said. “They run a 3-3 stack defense and the whole idea of that is to create chaos, having guys twist and stunts. We’ve been practicing a little bit of everything. It’s been, these are the basic plays we are going to run, and here are the 25 different ways they might line up.”
Out for most of the game a week ago, Handley isn’t sure if running back Finn Holm will be available this week at Goshen.
“He’s kind of a game-time decision,” said Handley. “He’s working through the concussion protocol, as long as everything goes well he plans on suiting up. You just have to take those things day at a time.”
“It’s a sour taste that we didn’t execute enough to get the win (against Northridge). This has to show our guys that we can compete in this conference. I just want to see our guys execute the game plan and keep fighting for each other.”
Game time at Goshen is 7 p.m.