Rockies open at home against NLC foe Wawasee

Courtesy of The Pilot News. Photo by Sue Garrity.

PLYMOUTH — A season-ending loss now in the rearview mirror Plymouth’s Rockies are looking forward to another unenviable task for week one of the playoffs.
To move on the Rockies will have to beat Wawasee for a second time on the season at a time when the year is over if you can’t.
“It’s scary to think that way but it’s real life,” said Plymouth coach Adam Handley. “This is the ultimate goal to be playing the best version of Plymouth football that we can heading into the playoffs.”
The draw was favorable in the fact that Plymouth will be playing the opening night of the sectional at home.
“Any chance you get to be in your own locker room, your own tunnel, everything about being home is nice,” said Handley. “You don’t have to sit on a bus to go anywhere. All the combinations of those things are good.”
After a Friday that the team would like to forget the emphasis has been on what has given them a successful season.
“We have to continue to run the ball,” said Handley. “We are going to get some loaded boxes, but there are still certain formations and certain plays we like even with people loading the box.”
“With that, we need to be able to throw the short stuff,” he said. “That’s something that Exzander (Ramirez) has been able to do here and there, a quick hitch or a quick out. We don’t need him to throw a 60-yard bomb. We don’t have receivers that are running past defenders at this point anyway, so we have to complete the sure ones and easy ones.”
“If we don’t have to throw the ball, we won’t, but at some point, if we move on, you are going to have teams that tell you, ‘we are going to go, man,’ and we will have to complete the easy stuff to continue to move the chains.”
Beating a team once is hard enough but preparation to do it again is harder. The Warriors lost back on Sept. 20 but have become a much different team over the past month.
“They have some different guys in different positions. They’ve had some injuries like we have,” said Handley. “We are anticipating most of their guys are back and healthy for a playoff run, so that’s how we’ve put our game plan together.”
Some things have not changed.
“They are running the wishbone or flex bone or whatever you want to call it,” said Handley. “Every now and then they have one maybe two receivers. a lot of times double tight ends. They are going to live and die every play trying to gain three or four yards. If we get them to second and long, third and long the game will be in our favor.”
“This is a new offense, and each week they are getting better,” he said. “We just have to continue to fly around on defense. The first time we played them, we gave up more yards than we would have liked, but we held them out of the end zone, and that’s big.”
Defensively, the Warriors will show the same basic front as the Minutemen a week ago.
“They are going to give us a look just like Concord gave us, and if I’m (Wawasee) coach Thacker, I’m looking at that film and figuring out what they did,” said Handley. “If you have a good scheme and schematics and your kids are in the right spot to make plays, it just comes down to Jimmy’s against Joe’s.”
“We have to compete. There have been times in the past couple of years we haven’t shown up. You want to play every single play like it was the last one. We have to continue with that mindset.”
Game time at Plymouth Friday is 7 p.m.