Plymouth South football rolls out to a 5-1 start

PLYMOUTH – Every high school coach will tell you that having a plan is simply not enough. You also need to have a backup plan as well as the always popular Option C at your disposal, if needed.

Fortunately for the Plymouth South football team, they‘ve got a really good backup plan in senior PJ Murphy. Normally a slot receiver, Murphy switched over the tailback Friday night at Quincy High, filling in for an injured Casious Johnson, and carried for football 22 times for 134 yards and a touchdown in Plymouth South’s 27-6 win over the Presidents.

Murphy also caught two passes for 15 yards and played his regular strong game on the defensive side of the football as he helped Plymouth South improve to 5-1 on the season.

“PJ’s just a football player. The more you put the football in his hands, the more he’s going to like it. He’s a heart and soul kid who plays way bigger than he actually is,” Panthers Head Coach Darren Fruzzetti said. “I thought he adjusted to the position better as the game went along and he was really running the football well by the time we got to the fourth quarter.”

Junior Cole Brunstrom had another good game at quarterback, directing the offense to four scoring drives. He was 7-for-10 passing for 94 yards, throwing touchdown passes to Jamie Andrews and Liam Davis.

Heath McGilvray also found the end zone on a short touchdown run in the win.

One of the reasons first Johnson, and now Murphy, have been able to break off some big runs this season has been the play of the offensive line. Big chunk plays from the skill players are always needed, but the nuts and bolts for the success of Plymouth South over the last few years is focused at the line of the scrimmage.

“It’s not a big secret that our offensive line is what gets us going. They are the heart and soul of the entire operation,” Fruzzetti said. Center Jake Doonan returns for last year’s championship squad and he’s flanked by some big bodies in Carter Reynolds, Mike Sciarini, and Harry Ottino. With senior captain Anthony Smith currently out with an ankle injury, Mike Halloran has stepped into the starting lineup and played well.

Out of the field since being injured in a loss against Foxborough, Smith could return as early as Friday against North Quincy on Senior Night for the Panthers.

Johnson’s return from a foot injury is a little further down the road. Fruzzetti said everyone will know more about things look going forward by the end of the week.

The sophomore running back has been one of the most electric players in Eastern Mass. high school football this season with 16 touchdowns and 1,147 yards on the season. Johnson was hurt in the win over Pembroke two weeks ago when he twisted his foot while going out of bounds on a fourth quarter carry.

“We’re going to wait and see about Casious. We want him back as healthy as possible,” Fruzzetti said.

South attention now shifts from Quincy to Friday night’s home game against North Quincy, a re-match of last season’s Patriot Cup championship game that South won with a score in the final minute of the game.

Needless to say, NQ would like nothing better than a revenge win and a chance to knock the Panthers off the chase for a third Fisher Division title in a row. The Raiders are 3-2 on the season with one league loss on their record to Scituate.

“They’ll be ready to try and hand us a loss,” Fruzzetti said. “They’re a tough, physical football team and everything with them starts with (senior captain) Matt Craig. He’s tough as nails and starts on both sides at middle linebacker and running back. He is a very good overall football player.”

Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and you can follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.