PLYMOUTH – It was like Christmas in September Thursday night at “The Rock Pile.” Plymouth was playing the role of Santa Claus dressed in red and handing out gifts to the Wawasee football team. But the story of the game was what the Warriors did with those gifts that made all the difference. opportunities

The Rockies turned the ball over four times in the first half but Wawasee never capitalized, turning the four mishaps into zero points and allowing the No. 7 ranked Rockies to stay in the game. Plymouth made the Warriors pay for the lack of production on offense, winning 32-7.

“We didn’t execute on offense,” said a visibly agitated Wawasee head coach Josh Ekovich. “We didn’t take advantage of opportunities and that’s what killed us. That’s what it is, it’s that simple.”

The first quarter was a potpourri of bad football from both teams. Wawasee missed a field goal, had a punt blocked and turned the ball over by way of an interception. Plymouth coughed the ball up three times as the quarter would end scoreless for both squads.

Another missed field goal by the Warriors set up Plymouth’s first scoring drive of the night. With just under nine minutes to play in the half Plymouth’s Jack Barron hit Justin Drudge for a 38-yard score to get the home crowd singing “Rocky Top” with its team up 7-0. Drudge led a Rockie rushing attack that totaled 242 yards. Wawasee would finish with just 84 yards of total offense.

Wawasee’s defense played a great game as it forced a total of five turnovers throughout the night and was virtually impenetrable in the first half. The play of the night for the Warrior defensive unit arguably came on an interception by Gage Reinhard with just 1:24 to play in the first half.

Reinhard then led the Warrior offense by throwing a 17-yard touchdown strike to Sam Clark. The play that seemingly brought the Warriors back into the game and silenced the Plymouth crowd ended up being waved off after a holding call against the Warriors. Wawasee would only move backwards from there and get no points on the drive.

Plymouth made the right adjustments at the half and scored on its opening drive as Drudge picked up his second score of the night on a 32-yard rumble. A missed extra point left Plymouth with a 13-0 lead. The Rockies scored twice more in the third, once more from Drudge and one from Barron. Cam Eveland gave the Rockies their biggest lead of the night in the fourth with an eight yard score to make it 32-0.

Following Plymouth’s fifth turnover of the night, Wawasee finally found the end zone. A fumble recovery by Jon Walker set up an eight-yard touchdown run by Noah Wadkins with just a few minutes remaining in the game.

For Plymouth, the victory was sweet after getting beat 52-35 by the Warriors last season. But head coach John Barron knew it wasn’t as easy as it looked on the scoreboard.

“We had a big challenge tonight,” began Barron. “(Gage) Reinhard and (Clayton) Cook are outstanding players. We didn’t need to watch film to know that, we saw it up close and personal last year. I was proud of our guys, we doubled Clayton everywhere. He’s the best player on the field and our goal was to keep him in check.

“You have to give credit to Wawasee tonight. They did some things that we’re going to have to look at. They forced some turnovers and really came out and stuck it to us on defense. I was impressed with how they played tonight.”

Plymouth remains undefeated in 2014 (6-0) and spotless in conference play (4-0) and will take on Class 5A No. 1 Concord next Friday in Dunlap. Wawasee falls to 3-3 on the season and 1-3 in Northern Lakes Conference contests. The Warriors will host Warsaw (4-2) on Friday night in a battle for the Traveling ‘W’ Trophy with kickoff coming at 7:30 p.m.