Published: October 11, 2008 12:13 am         

Rocky night at Foreman Field

Plymouth brilliance and Goshen miscues led to a scoreboard mismatch Friday night at Foreman Field.

The Rockies remained unbeaten and on top of the Northern Lakes Conference standings with a 41-10 high school football pasting of the Redskins.

Goshen was holding its own in the early stages, doing a good job against Plymouth’s vaunted running attack.

But the Rockies, who seldom pass, burned the Redskins with a couple long throws and two touchdowns within a psan of 1:18 just before halftime put Goshen in a desperate situation.

“Plymouth is a very good football team,” said Redskin coach David Wilson. “We did a good job shutting down their run early, then they go to a passing offense out of a full-house backfield.

“We knew they were capable of throwing the football, but we had a lot of mental breakdowns on defense which hurt us. I think we surprised them with our run defense, so they went to their bag of tricks.

“I felt we could run the football on Plymouth better than we did. We had a couple scoring chance to make it a close game early, but didn’t capitalize.

“Playing against a team like Plymouth, you need to play mentally perfect. Our mistakes gave them extra scoring opportunities.”

The Rockies, who have seldom punted in eight games, converted on fourth down four times against Goshen in the first half.

They started their initial drive on their own 27 and gained 33 yards on 10 running plays.

Then, on 4th-and-6 from the Goshen 40, junior quarterback Gordy Holloway found senior Cody Bucher on the left sideline for a 40-yard scoring play with 6:09 to go in the quarter. Sophomore Brock Smith’s conversion made it 7-0.

Good defensive plays by Goshen sophomore Michael Lewallen and senior Tyler Coburn prevented the Rockies from converting a fourth down late in the opening stanza.

The Redskins then covered 47 yards in eight snaps, setting up senior Alex Aguilar for a 40-yard field goal which cut Plymouth’s lead to 7-3 with 9:58 left in the second quarter.

Senior quarterback Spencer Oversen completed passes of 16 yards to senior Brock Bender, 10 to junior Taylor Short and 13 to junior Nick Lewallen in setting up Aguilar’s field goal.

Plymouth drove 64 yards in 12 plays, senior John Popi blasting over from a yard out just 3:36 until halftime for a 14-3 count. There were two fourth-down conversions in that drive.

After a short Goshen possession, the Rockies got the ball back on their own 13. Holloway unloaded a bomb to senior Austin Hodges who caught the ball and completed an 87-yard scoring play with 2:18 on the clock and it was 21-3 at halftime.

Plymouth intercepted two passes in the third quarter, scoring on one and two more scores made it a runaway at 41-3.

Goshen highlights in the fourth quarter included a fumble recovery by senior Brett Hunter, the Redskins’ first in six NLC games.

Sophomore Carson Roberts completed a 10-yard pass to sophomore Troy Pickard and senior James Fields scored on a 3-yard run with 1:51 to play.

Lewallen had 86 yards on 18 carries for the Redskins and Oversen completed nine passes for 75. Bender caught four for 36.

The Rockies’ Holloway passed for 210 yards on 7-for-10. Hodges ran for 66 yards and Popi 43.

Plymouth goes for an outright NLC championship at home next Friday when NorthWood invades “The Rock Pile.”

Goshen, 3-5 overall and 1-5 in the NLC, finishes the regular season at Wawasee in Syracuse.

The Redskins’ first-round Class 5A sectional game is likely to be played on Saturday, Oct. 25, against the Adams Eagles at School Field in South Bend. No official announcement has been made.