SOUTH BEND – While Plymouth’s Rockies came away a 46-24 winner over South Bend Washington at School Field in round one of the IHSAA football playoffs it wasn’t a game without it’s moments.
Put back a little on their heels after some big Panther stops on the first two Rockie possessions, it didn’t take long for lightning to strike. Thirty points and seven minutes later Plymouth had a comfortable first half lead.
On the way to that lead the Rockies pulled out a lot of new pages in the play book.
“I keep telling Coach (Mike) Kershner we rep all these plays in practice why don’t we call them in the game,” said Plymouth Head Coach John Barron. “I know some of them are kind of exciting for fans to watch. Once we settled in offensively our offense executed very well.”
The biggest reason for that settling in was the play of quarterback Jack Barron who had his biggest night of the year – rushing for 183 yards and four touchdowns, throwing for 79 more. And – by the way – catching a 33 yard pass as well.
“I think tonight was Jack’s most complete game,” said Barron. “I think we may have been a little wide eyed early but I think his big run settled everybody in. He ran the ball well, he threw it well I thought he was the difference in the game tonight.”
Early in the year the Plymouth coaching staff had some concerns with their quarterback carrying the ball 20 times a game week in week out, but after a third week of 20 or more, the Plymouth junior signal caller appears to be thriving.
“He’s finishing off his runs better,” said Barron. “Mike has a lot of confidence calling that midline and Jack’s going to keep it if that’s what the defense gives us. He knows he has to become more of a runner because people are going to try to take away (Taylor) Fulton and they’re going to try to take away (Justin) Drudge.”
Barron opened the Plymouth scoring with a 77 yard run on the option, and from there it was off to the races for the Plymouth offense in the first half. The Rockies put up 38 points in the first 24 minutes of the game and never looked back.
The defense once again got involved with the scoring with Matt Friar recording a sack in the end zone to record a safety in the second quarter.
“I was afraid we couldn’t stop their run with five but we did a good job of that,” said Barron. “We get uncomfortable when we move our outside linebackers because they are guys that like to be closer to the line of scrimmage. (Jeremy) Splix and (Matt) Friar played great, I thought our secondary played great.”
The Rockies (10-0) will be at home next week for round two taking on St. Joe – winners over Hobart Friday night.
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 16 22 0 8 – 46
SB Washington 0 8 0 16 – 24
Scoring Summary:
1st
02:54 PLYM – J. Barron 77 yd run (T. Fulton rush), 1-77 0:12, PLYM 8 – SBWASH 0
02:38 PLYM – C. Eveland 25 yd run (C. Wiers pass from J. Barron), 1-25 0:10, PLYM 16 – SBWASH 0
2nd
11:56 PLYM – T. Fulton 4 yd run (J. LaFree kick), 5-54 1:01, PLYM 23 – SBWASH 0
06:38 PLYM – J. Barron 7 yd run (J. LaFree kick), 8-45 3:50, PLYM 30 – SBWASH 0
02:45 PLYM – M. Friar safety, , PLYM 32 – SBWASH 0
00:59 SBWASH – Ivery 20 yd pass from White (Campbell pass from White), 3-49 0:57, PLYM 32 – SBWASH 8
00:00 PLYM – J. Barron 1 yd run (T. Fulton rush failed), 9-58 0:56, PLYM 38 – SBWASH 8
4th
09:48 SBWASH – Hankerson 49 yd run (Ivery pass from White), 5-79 2:05, PLYM 38 – SBWASH 16
05:11 PLYM – J. Barron 2 yd run (J. Barron rush), 10-51 4:36, PLYM 46 – SBWASH 16
00:02 SBWASH – Ivery 30 yd pass from White (Brazier pass from White), 1-30 0:06, PLYM 46 – SBWASH 24
RUSHING: Plymouth-J. Barron 23-183; T. Fulton 22-95; J. Drudge 7-51; C. Eveland
1-25; I. Rich 1-5; D. Johnson 1-0; T. McMillen 2-minus 60. SB
Washington-Hankerson 4-53; Brazier 3-16; Rice 6-14; Witherspoon 2-4; White
5-minus 16.
PASSING: Plymouth-J. Barron 8-13-0-79; J. Drudge 1-1-0-33. SB Washington-White
16-29-3-213.
RECEIVING: Plymouth-C. Eveland 2-36; J. Drudge 2-18; T. Fulton 2-8; J. Barron
1-33; K. Lacefield 1-9; N. Nixon 1-8. SB Washington-Ivery 9-123; Campbell 5-81;
Brazier 1-9; Witherspoon 1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS: Plymouth-C. Eveland 2-0; D. Bacon 1-80. SB Washington-None.
FUMBLES: Plymouth-T. Fulton 1-1; J. Barron 1-1. SB Washington-Rice 1-1.
