MISHAWAKA — So far Plymouth’s Rockies have had no margin for error and Friday night was another proof of that as Mishawaka took a 42-0 NLC win at Steele Stadium in Mishawaka.
Through the first four games, Plymouth’s opponents had a combined record of 14-1, and while Mishawaka is the team with the one, that loss came at the hands of Warsaw.
“Obviously we’ve played good teams but we don’t help ourselves out very much by getting behind as quickly as we do,” said Plymouth coach John Barron who watched his team give up a lightning-quick score to start the game.
“They threw a ball in there early where if we rotate our safeties the way we’re supposed to we have a pick-six but instead they have a touchdown. That’s kind of been the theme of things.”
The Rockie defense that has shown strides a week ago was facing an entirely different challenge in Mishawaka’s style of running game, and the ability of the Caveman defense was evident in taking away nearly everything the Rockies tried to do.
“I’m kind of concerned about the mentality of losing your fifth game in a row and can you turn it around,” said Barron. “We still have kids playing hard (Christian) Quintana played extremely hard, (Nate) Derifield played hard, (Thad) Pletcher played hard.
Lennon (Creighbaum) got beat up. He got beat up on some things that he was misreading too so hopefully he’s going to learn. The bottom line is that we have to find a way to move the football more consistently. Our defense is on the field entirely too long.”
What little there was to write home about included an athletic play by Creighbaum scrambling for his life and hitting a 45-yard strike to Devan Bowring with a Mishawaka defender clinging to him in the backfield.
“We can pass out of this offense but we have to get our quarterback and our fullback more comfortable,” said Barron.
Still, the Rockies suffered from small mistakes that turned into huge setbacks including several back-breaking turnovers, one a 56-yard strip and score by Mishawaka’s Payton Jones.
“When you are reeling like we are, any mistake we make we go back to that feeling that we are on the struggle bus,” said Barron. “I thought we would give greater effort. That’s the biggest thing that I’m disappointed in is that when we got down a couple of scores we didn’t compete at certain spots.”
•MISHAWAKA 42, PLYMOUTH 0
at Steele Stadium, Mishawaka
Score by Quarters
Plymouth 0 0 0 0 — 0
Mishawaka 21 14 7 0 — 42
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
M — 08:41 BRADY FISHER pass complete to DAVION TAYLOR for 14 yards. Touchdown. (Point after kick by #13 GEORGE is
good.)
M — 03:50 FISHER runs for 6 yards. Touchdown. (Point after kick by GEORGE is good.)
M — 01:12 Fumble recovery by Payton JONES. (Point after kick by GEORGE is good.)
Second Quarter
M — 05:17 Chase GOODEN runs for 4 yards. Touchdown. (Point after kick by GEORGE is good.)
M — 02:15 Bean SMITH runs for 21 yards. Touchdown. (Point after kick GEORGE is good.)
Third Quarter
M — 01:48 Jack TROYER runs for 5 yards. Touchdown. (Point after kick Lucas LARSON is good.)
Rushing — (Plymouth) Heiny 11-54,
Derifield 5-11, Garcia 5- -1, Bonebrake 1- -7, Creighbaum 12- -18. (Mishawaka) Gooden 7-56, Smith 2-38, McBride 3-33, Fisher 6-28, Walters 8-28, Hardy 3-22.
Passing — Creighbaum 3-6, 51 yds. Fisher 2-4, 33 yds. TD.