Plymouth football showing it can win in whatever way it needs to

PLYMOUTH - Long-time high school football fans might have looked at the stats for the Plymouth Regional High School team in its win over Kennett two weeks ago and wondered what was going on with the Bobcats.

Sure, Plymouth put up good numbers running the football, but then there was what quarterback Cavan Sanborn did.

The junior ran 46 yards and two touchdowns of his own, and if that wasn't enough, he was also 8 of 12 passing for 188 yards and three touchdowns in the 50-14 win over the Eagles. All three scoring passes went to senior Cooper Legacy.

So what did the Bobcats do last week against Trinity? They ran the ball.

Sanborn threw just one pass and completed it to Legacy for an 11-yard gain. The rest of the offense ran 52 times for 483 yards, an averaged of 9.3 yards per carry, and scored seven touchdowns.

"Our game plan was to come in and pound the ball at them," said Plymouth coach Chris Sanborn, Cavan's father. "We threw one pass and we made a nice throw. We thought we could throw the ball, but we were running the ball. Why stop? We want to feed the stable of running backs. The line did really well, especially with some of the adjustments against their blitzing. They did a great job."

Perhaps the most impressive stat for the Bobcats (3-0 in Division II) was this: those seven touchdowns came on seven possessions. Plymouth never punted and didn't turn the ball over, although Trinity did recover an onside kick in the third quarter.

"Every game is different," Cavan Sanborn said. "Last game, I threw for like two hundred yards, this game I threw for like 10. Our backs where on fire and our line was on fire, and that’s how the game went."

And if it wasn't broke, not reason for Plymouth to fix it.

"We just had a really strong offensive line (Saturday)," Plymouth senior lineman Logan Libby said. "We knew what we were doing and we were sticking to our assignments, staying low. We’re definitely in the film room a lot and we compete for how is watching the most film. We’re breaking down these teams week by week and watching what they’re doing."

Senior Ben Valenti added that he thought the Bobcats had to be the team that watches the most film in the state.

"We’re the team in the state that watches the most film," he said. "We’re in there all the time, studying film. We know what we’re going against every week. We have some hiccups here and there, but we know how to regroup and pick each other back up."

The ability to have more balance on offense is not something Chris Sanborn takes lightly. That wasn't the case a year ago, according to the coach, and it showed in the Bobcats' semifinal loss to Souhegan, Plymouth's first playoff loss on its home field since 1999.

"You’ve got be able to diversify and do some things," the coach said. "Last year, we really couldn’t at times. We’re in Week 3, we want to win in Week 10. You want to win in the playoffs. We didn’t have the urgency to get better (last season). You’ve got to play your best football in Week 10, if you get that far."

Plymouth returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday when it hosts Kingswood (2-1).