Offensive rhythm key to Rockies’ next NLC clash
PLYMOUTH - It’s another week of football and another week for Plymouth’s Rockies to focus on getting better.
“We’ve had a good week,” said Plymouth coach John Barron. “We’ve had a chance to look at the film from Mishawaka and move on to Wawasee and see a team that’s thinking the same thing that we are thinking - that they have a good chance based on record. But you don’t put a lot of stock in that because of who you play. We are walking into a hornet’s nest with homecoming and hopefully, we can put it all together.”
Both teams come into the game winless but as any observer of NLC football can tell you that doesn’t mean a lot.
“Any game in the NLC over the years you can throw out the records,” said Barron. “There are so many rivalries within rivalries, because these kids see each other in so many other sports. Wawasee is a team that’s played really well against us. We’ve had a lot of teams that should have beaten them over the years and they didn’t, not by any lack on our part, but because they played that well.”
There are a lot of reasons to be impressed by the Warriors. they have good speed on the outside,” said Barron. “I like what they do schematically, and we obviously need to figure some things out about ourselves.”
The Rockies continue to put the time and effort into figuring that out.
“We were a little beat up after Mishawaka but our guys have had a good attitude,” said Barron. “They came in Saturday morning they were ready to look at film and learn why we didn’t have as much success against Mishawaka as we’d hoped and we moved on to Wawasee. I sound like a broken record but our guys are engaged. They come to practice with good attitudes. They play
“We see a team (Wawasee) that’s thinking the same thing that we are thinking - that they have a good chance based on record.” Plymouth coach John Barron
hard in practice. They give good effort and they continually show they care about our team. I think our kids are learning a lot about themselves.”
A week ago the Rockies were only able to get the ball into their chief offensive weapons’ hands five times, something that Barron wants to rectify.
“Devante (Garcia) needs to touch the ball,” said Barron. “Inevitably if he has the ball in his hands something good is going to happen. Lennon (Creighbaum) needs to get more involved in the running game. Allowing those guys to feel more comfortable is a focus right now. We need to score some points. That’s the bottom line. We’ve been shutout too many times. We aren’t getting enough first downs. We have to get in a rhythm offensively.”