PLYMOUTH — Back during the second week of August, it was all a pipe dream.
It was when the Plymouth football program was trying to decide what was next. It was battling dangerously low participation numbers and a young roster that wasn’t safe to play a full 11-man football season in the Firelands Conference.
HOW'D WE DO? WEEK 10 PICKS All tied up with one week of high school football left
Fast forward to Friday, Oct. 23 and the pipe dream became a reality after the Big Red knocked off Kennedy Catholic 34-0 to clinch a 5-5 regular season and snag one of the four 8-man football playoff spots. It will be the first Week 11 game for the Big Red since 2021.
“It was a pipe dream all the way up to Week 5 when we lost to McKinley,” Plymouth coach John Gillum said. “It kind of felt like the sky was falling and it was all kind of for nothing. Then, we had a long talk on a Saturday morning and the guys responded. We got healthy and got to play three straight home games and the guys bought into everything we were saying back in August and committed to each other.
"Now, we are here.”
The Big Red did it with a balanced offensive attack led by sophomore quarterback Weston Kamann who completed 5-of-8 passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns to go with a two-yard TD run. Lincoln Distl had three catches for 56 yards and a score and Isaiah Miller added a two-yard TD catch to go with his 88 rushing yards and two scores on nine carries. Keegan Beverly added a 32-yard catch and 42 yards rushing on offense and picked off three passes on defense.
They also did it with a stingy defense that allowed just 201 yards of total offense with much of it coming late in the game with a running-clock differential. It was the first shutout since Week 1 of last season.
“It was really all about just seeing the ball and attacking it,” Beverly said. “If I see the ball go up, I am going to go get it. That is just the mindset I have to have for my team.”
The Big Red started the 2026 season going from unsure if there would even be football played on Alumni Field to joining the Northern 8 Conference as an 8-man football member to winning their first-ever 8-man football game then losing their next four to go 1-4 at the midway point of the season.
After closing the year winning four of their final five games, the Big Red put together the first .500 or better season since 2021.
“We have had a lot of ups and downs this year and started the season off very rough,” Distl said. “I honestly didn’t think we would even play football this year, but I am so happy everyone came together and got the team back on the right track.
"It has been awesome to be a part of.”
Beverly agrees.
“We started off the season slow and it was rough, but the entire team got together and decided to lock in,” Beverly said. “We started our winning streak against Chalker and we just kept building momentum. Now, here we are, getting ready to play in Week 11.
“It feels so good. We had only won four games the past three seasons and now, we have surpassed that in one year. That is amazing. We definitely feel a lot of momentum and we hope we can keep it going in all sports this year and in the future. This sophomore class is going to carry on what we started.”
Before the season started, Gillum was in a dark place after seeing a program he cares so much about be forced into 8-man football action. But something switched during the weeks of preparation leading up to that first game.
“It was all worth it once we found out that it was still going to feel like football and we saw all the seniors and underclassmen were going to make special memories,” Gillum said. “It’s why we want football to exist. That was when I knew it was all worth it.”
And it is absolutely worth it after the Big Red clinched a playoff spot.
“It did feel impossible,” Gillum said. “I wasn’t really focused on the standings and none of it was even crossing my mind until the Danbury game and when we pulled that one out, we started really believing in Week 11.”
And that belief hit an all-time high on Thursday night, the night before the Week 10 win.
“It started last night with our end-of-the-year youth flag football night under the lights,” Gillum said. “After all the little kids left, we still had every single varsity player on the field playing catch with each other for another 45 minutes. It was amazing to see and it inspired the message to finish this the right way and see what happens.”
Now, the Big Red await their playoff opponent as either Sandusky St. Mary’s Central Catholic or Fremont St. Joseph’s.
Regardless, the Big Red went from a season of complete unknown to a 5-5 regular season and a playoff berth. Pipe dream or not, it is reality.
“It is definitely a dream come true,” Distl said. “No one on this team has ever had the opportunity to play in a Week 11 game and here we are. It’s awesome to be a part of this.”
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Plymouth's 8-man football dream season continues after playoff berth