Plymouth Rockies hope to keep winning streak alive past Warsaw Tigers Friday
PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- This Friday marks another week of high school football in Michiana.
This week, ABC57 viewers chose a strong contest for this week's Game of the Week, Warsaw v. Plymouth.
Last year, this matchup came down to just one point in overtime.
Plymouth Head Coach Adam Handley tells ABC57 he hopes their winning streak doesn't get rocked by the Warsaw Tigers.
"We're 3-0 in conference right now and if feels good, we've got some tough competition coming up in the next few weeks," says Handley.
Despite a rocky 0-2 start to the season, the Plymouth Rockies have now gotten the ball rolling with three straight wins and sitting atop the Northern Lakes Conference.
"We started mixing up some things, moved some guys around, we just didn't have the right fit," Handley explains. "We were able to get a win in Week 3, and we've been rolling ever since."
Handley says it took a few weeks for the offense to organize and be efficient, but the defense on the other hand is performing like a well-oiled machine.
"Defensively we only gave up 20 points in Week 1, but we only scored 3, so you're not going to win too many games when you only score 3 points," says Handley. "We really like our defense, they're flying around. Offensively, we've started to figure it out the last couple weeks to be able to run the ball."
On that offense is a mix of upperclassmen contributing to a tough O-line. At the skill positions, Handley highlights senior running back Finn Holm who's already racked up 559 rushing yards, and junior quarterback Ben Shively, who's shown improvement with 367 passing yards.
"He started out the first two games, obviously not ideal, threw a couple interceptions and things like that but we've kind of buckled down and gotten back to what we want to do and run the ball, and he's been a great, great contributor with that. Then Finn, with him in the back field the two of them together, that's kind of our two-headed attack we've got going on right now, we're averaging over 200 yards rushing a game which is always great," Handley says.
The defense, with several younger starters, has a strong leader in senior Brady Coffin who has 32 total tackles.
"Brady Coffin's leading our defense, senior captain for us, senior middle linebacker, and just doing everything we ask on defense for us," praises Handley.
In practice, Handley emphasizes the importance of doing the little things right, even the things that don't seem like game changers in the moment.
"Looking back at last year, we had a couple games that came down to a last play, and obviously we want to be on the winning end of that good play," Handley recalls.
He knows how crucial those last plays are, especially when sharing a field with the Warsaw Tigers.
In last year's meet up, Plymouth was on the winning end of a 2-point conversion in overtime that saw them sneak past Warsaw with a 33-32 win.
Handley knows what his Rockies are up against this week. . . some Tigers looking for revenge when they come to the Rock Pile.
"We know they're going to come in hungry, we know they're going to come in ready to compete, we just got to continue to focus one play at a time," says Handley.