PLYMOUTH – The Wawasee football team had a tough time slowing down Plymouth sophomore Justin Drudge Friday at the Rock Pile. Entering the Northern Lakes Conference game in Plymouth with 148 yards and two touchdowns, the 5-foot-11, 140-pound Drudge had 113 yards and four touchdowns on five carries — in the first half. In the Plymouth Rockies’ (4-2, 3-1 NLC) dominating 53-14 win over the Wawasee Warriors (2-4, 1-3 NLC), Drudge finished with 113 rushing yards on just six attempts (an 18.7 average), 78 receiving yards and a kick return of 45 yards. “When you run midline and triple (option) like we do, and we run it so well, obviously teams are going to try to take away our fullback and our quarterback,” Plymouth coach John Barron said. “We’ve had a young man emerge in Justin Drudge. He’s pretty elusive. He’s a tough kid. He can also catch the ball downfield.” Drudge’s first run was a 61-yard touchdown, followed by a 15-yard TD on his second carry. After running for just seven yards on his third rush, he ran for a 13-yard and a 17-yard touchdown on his fourth and fifth carries, respectively, of the first half. “We said we were going to take care of the dive and the quarterback, and we did early on,” Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon said. “Then, we put two guys on the pitch and it’s just a matter of coming up (and making the play). When you play against a good option, like Plymouth is, it’s hard to get everything covered.” And it certainly was. Along with Drudge’s big night, senior Sam Stevens ran for 135 yards and two touchdowns, while senior quarterback Ike Kastner ran for 96 yards, helping the Rockies amass 416 rushing yards. Combined with Kastner’s 5-of-8 passing for 148 yards and another score, Plymouth tallied 564 total yards, while Wawasee finished with 173 total yards, 38 on the ground. “We’re a team that needs to find an identity,” Wogomon said. “We thought we could run this week, but we weren’t able to. They did nice job of playing downhill.” Bright spots for Wawasee were a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by sophomore Clayton Cook and a three-play, 36-yard drive capped by a 21-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Gage Reinhard to Cook, both of which happened in the second quarter. Outside of those plays, the game was controlled by the Rockies. “We’re just young,” Wogomon said of his team, which was without sophomore Alex Clark, junior Austin Lutz and senior Josh Sumpter. “We’re a young football team and not really by choice. It’s just by attrition right now, and that’s a fact. “We just have a difficult time playing up to the physicality level that we need to in the NLC,” he added. “We had it last year, but this group here, it’s just got to continue to come downhill and play.” That physicality really came through in the second half, bordering on chippiness. Down 47-14 in the fourth quarter, Wogomon took exception to his quarterback taking a hit while attempting to throw a touchdown pass. After turning the ball over on downs, Wogomon let the officials know what he thought about the hit on Reinhard, drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. “Our quarterback is a guy that needs to be protected,” Wogomon said. “The ball was away, and then, it wasn’t necessarily that he took a hit, but he took a hit leading with the head. It’s just not necessary.” Following the penalty on Wogomon, Kastner then completed a 42-yard pass to Drudge, then a 23-yard touchdown pass to junior Elliott Eads, giving the Rockies a 53-14 lead with 8:21 remaining. Despite the passes being the only ones thrown by Plymouth in the half, and just the seventh and eighth of the game, Barron commented there wasn’t any message being sent. “We were working on our passing game,” he said. “We’re just running our offense and taking what they’re giving us.” Plymouth may have been just taking what was given, but the tempers on the field were evident, as the Rockies were whistled for three personal fouls in the fourth quarter and Wawasee had one in the third and one in the fourth. Regardless, Wawasee is looking to shake off a three-game losing streak this Friday when it hosts Warsaw, while Plymouth will look to get back in the NLC race with Concord coming to town. After falling to Bremen in Week 1, then defeating Rochester 28-20, Plymouth opened its NLC season with a 26-7 loss to Warsaw. In that Warsaw game, the Rockies had a number of players return from suspension at halftime. Since those players returned, Plymouth has outscored its opponents 129-26, and gets a Concord team, which is 4-0 in the NLC, fresh off a 48-0 loss at Jimtown. If they could manage to defeat Concord, then Concord took down Warsaw in the final week of the season, the Rockies could work themselves into a three-way tie for the NLC crown with Concord and Warsaw, the lone unbeatens remaining in the conference. “I said all along we have a good football team,” Barron said. “We have a three-year starter at quarterback and a lineman that’s going to Nebraska (Dan Samuelson). We have Sam Stevens and some pretty good kids on defense. We have a pretty good football team right now.”
PLYMOUTH 53, WAWASEE 14 W 0 14 0 0 – 14 P 14 26 0 13 – 53
W P First downs 7 23 Rushing yds 38 416 Passing yds 135 148 Comp-Att-Int 9-19-0 5-8-0 Total offense 173 564 Fumbles/lost 4/0 2/1 Penalties/yds 3/35 6/70 Punts/avg 4/29 0/0
First Quarter P – Justin Drudge 61 run (Jacob Frantz kick) 6:41, 7-0 P – Drudge 15 run (Frantz) 3:21, 14-0 Second Quarter P – Ike Kastner 1 run (kick failed) 10:56, 20-0 W – Clayton Cook 93 kickoff return (Jordan Acton kick) 10:43, 20-7 P – Drudge 13 run (conversion failed) 26-7 W – Gage Reinhard 21 pass to Cook (Acton kick) 5:37, 26-14 P – Sam Stevens 58 run (conversion failed) 5:21, 32-14 P – Drudge 17 run (Kastner conversion run) 0:46, 40-14 Fourth Quarter P – Stevens 8 run (Frantz kick) 11:34, 47-14 P – Kastner 23 pass to Elliott Eads (conversion failed) 8:21, 53-14
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing – Plymouth, Stevens 17-135, Drudge 6-112, Kastner 17-96, Christian Bastardo 4-38; Wawasee, Derrick Sorensen 22-41, Sam Rookstool 1-4, Gabe Rhodes 2-2, Jordan Elliott 1-(-3). Passing – Plymouth, Kastner 5-8, 148 yds, TD; Wawasee, Reinhard 9-19, 135 yds, TD. Receiving – Plymouth, Drudge 2-78, Eads 2-37, Trenton Briles 1-33; Wawasee, Rhodes 4-51, Cook 3-46, Brian Clark 2-38.
