By James Costello Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH — All that conditioning paid off, and the Lady Rockies reserves kept the pressure on as Plymouth wore down visiting Warsaw Tuesday night for a 5-2 victory.
Plymouth waited until late to score in both halves. The Rockies netted two within a two-minute span to take a first-half lead in the 36th and 38th minutes Tuesday, and after giving up a pair of Warsaw goals midway through the second half, they returned fire with three goals in the last 16 minutes of play for the Northern Lakes Conference-opening win.

“Honestly, we wore them down,” said Plymouth girls soccer head coach Curt Feece. “We kept doing the subs, and the quality of the play didn’t drop when we put subs in either, thank goodness. We kept throwing subs at them, and the play kept getting faster and faster as they wore down. I don’t think they were nearly as deep as us. I was very, very pleased with the effort all the girls put in, especially coming off the bench. Some of them know that they’re role players. They know that they’re going to get in there five minutes at a time, and they give it everything they’ve got.”
The Rockies and the Tigers were locked in a 0-0 stalemate until Plymouth broke the tie as junior forward Brandi Witmer powered a goal through Warsaw keeper Caitlin Perrone’s gloves with three minutes remaining before the intermission. Krista Vanlue — who finished with a goal and an assist Tuesday — followed up on Witmer’s breakaway shot with an assist to Jordin Cook just inside the 18-yard box to put the home team up 2-0.
Warsaw stole the momentum early in the second half when striker Emily Hickerson broke away down the left touchline and bent a shot into the opposite side of the net in the 54th minute to cut Plymouth’s lead in half.
Following the goal, the Rockies defense survived three shots on goal and another near goal during a scary three-minute interval, as Hickerson kicked a shot off the crossbeam, and Plymouth goalie Nikki Butcher made a nice diving save when the Tiger junior tried to clean up on her own rebound.
Rockies senior forward Samantha Scheetz tripped Warsaw’s Jocelyn Evans from behind for a foul in the 61st minute, and the resulting free kick — which seemed to be intended as a high forward pass — bounced over Butcher’s head into the net to tie the score up with 19 minutes left in the game.
“I think she just stumbled. She decided that she was out too far,” Feece said. “I think she decided to drop back, and she just stumbled and it went in. She had it lined up; she would have had it, except she went down. It was quite a shock to everyone.”
Scheetz nullified the play  and broke the tie 12 minutes later with a beautiful high ball that arched in from around 24 yards out to reclaim the Rockies’ momentum and a 3-2 lead in the 73rd minute. Warsaw defenders dropped back to shore up the net after the long goal, and Plymouth capitalized when the speedy  Witmer passed a perfect cross from the corner to Vanlue for an insurance goal in the 76th minute. Witmer then salted it away with Plymouth’s final goal in the 78th minute after knocking a previous shot off the crossbeam on a long pass from defender Brittany Davis, and the Rockies opened their NLC schedule 1-0-0.
“I know she was getting frustrated up top,” Feece said of Vanlue. “Those defenders were tough, and she wasn’t getting the runs that she normally gets. But she stuck with it. Couldn’t get it inside so she ended up taking the long shot, and it was huge. It was huge. You could tell Warsaw just kind of dropped back down there, and that allowed us to get a couple of insurance goals after that.
With its next game against South Bend Riley now rescheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 6, Plymouth will now have more than a week layoff before the team hits the road to face the Wildcats. Feece said the Rockies plan to use the extra time to upgrade the conditioning regimen that’s served the team so well in its first four games.
“We’ve got a lot of time to condition,” Feece said. “We’ve got a little time during the Blueberry Festival to do some stuff, but next week we’re going to run, run, run and keep that speed up... This break, now that we’ve got Riley rescheduled because of conference scheduling problems, that gives us an opportunity a third of the way through the season to go crazy with conditioning. These girls do love that. That’s why I like coaching them, because they love to run.”
• PLYMOUTH 5,
  WARSAW 2
At Plymouth
36th minute — P  Brandi Witmer (Jordin Cook)
38th  minute — P Cook (Vanlue)
54th minute — W Emily Hickerson
61st minute — W Jocelyn Evans
73rd minute — P Samantha Scheetz
76th minute — P Vanlue (Witmer)
78th minute — P Witmer (Brittany Davis)
Shots/ Shots on goal: Plymouth 28/ 12, Warsaw 8/ 4.
Fouls: Plymouth 13, Warsaw  5
Records: Plymouth 3-0-1, NLC 1-0-0.
JV Game: Warsaw 2, Plymouth 0
Plymouth JV Record 2-2-0