Raiders run into Plymouth buzzsaw

By Joel Easton
News Sports Correspondent

October 20, 2007 12:43 am

— The Plymouth Rockies capitalized on Northridge turnovers early on in advancing to the second round of a Class 4A Sectional, defeating the Raiders 34-6 Friday night at Middlebury.
Northridge (2-8) took the opening kickoff and was met by a stiff Rockie defense, gaining four yards on their first four plays.
However, the Raiders defense gave its offense a needed spark as the Rockies’ first play from scrimmage was a completed pass to sophomore Leneil Himes who then fumbled, recovered the ball and then fumbled away again. It was finally recovered by Raider senior safety Loren Stokes.
“One thing about Northridge players is that they don’t quit,” Raider head coach Jonathan Kirkton stated. “They were hitting and being physical and that’s all you can ask.”
The Raider offense took over and again was met by a tough front-seven from Plymouth. Junior running back Dustin Petersen tallied an 11 yard run but the Raiders were forced to punt the ball back.
Plymouth then ground out an eight play drive, all running plays, capped off by a 2-yard plunge by junior running back Austin Hodges.
Rockie head coach John Barron said of his defense, “I think our down guys, we are pretty solid with the kids we have in there. They are big kids and tend to move well.”
Plymouth would get the ball back late in the first quarter and again pounded the Northridge defense with the running game on a 10 play, 61 yard drive that ate up 4:32.
Junior running back John Popi led the way for Plymouth, accounting for 51 yards including the final five for his first of three rushing touchdowns.
Northridge then took to the air in an attempt to battle back from a 12-0 deficit.
A third down pass was intercepted by Plymouth sophomore Trent Keyser and returned 20 yards inside the Northridge 15.
“If they are going to grind it out we have to give them a long field and we didn’t do that,” said Kirkton
“We should have spread them out (on offense) a little earlier. They stuck to their game plan and we didn’t perform. But you know what, our kids fought.”
Popi added his second touchdown of the blustery evening plunging from one yard away to up the Rockie lead 20-0. He would add a third score at the end of the first half from 22 yards out and a 27-0 advantage. Popi rolled up 203 yards rushing for the game.
Northridge’s first possession of the second half showed the Rockies’ they weren’t going away.
Senior quarterback Chris Whitten completed passes of 5, 15, 5 and 7 yards to position the ball at the Plymouth 4 yard line. The Raiders were stopped short on fourth down.
Plymouth took the ball and drove 96 yards eating up over six minutes and topped off by a 2-yard run by junior Jeremy Renz.
The Raiders made their only score of the evening after a lengthy drive early in the fourth quarter as Junior halfback Scot Troyer pounded out three yards for a touchdown.
Plymouth moves on to face the winner of Logansport and Lowell.