The Plainfield Quakers ended the regular season on a sour note last night, falling 42-0 to Martinsville. After winning its first three games of the year, Plainfield (5-4) finished up with a 2-4 record, losing its last two of the season. The loss to the Artesians baffled Plainfield coach Brian Woodard, who thought the Quakers could put some points on the board against a porous Artesians defense.
“We need to find out what some of our issues were offensively,” he said. “This is a Martinsville team that had given up a lot of points over the course of the season. We obviously didn’t do something right tonight in terms of executing our schemes.”
Down 14-0 after the Artesians charged full steam ahead with its rushing attack, the Quakers fell behind and were forced to try and catch up.
“Early on, Martinsville was running a simple trap concept that we had no answer for and it was one long run after another,” Woodard said.
Plainfield had an opportunity to pull within seven of Martinsville and were in scoring position, but in what became a familiar theme throughout the night, the Quakers were their own worst enemy. Penalties set Plainfield into first and second-and long situations and the drive fizzled.
“I thought we had a chance to claw back into it and make it 14-7,” Woodard said. “Unfortunatley, because of penalties we put ourselves out of scoring position. That’s disappointing because that is something we can control.”
Woodard did like how the team fought back in the second period, something he has preached to the team all season.
“The greatest positives came in the second quarter,” he said. “To say we played well defensively is a stretch, but in terms of forcing some turnovers and getting the ball back to our offense, I thought we got going a little bit. Our defense gave us the spark that we needed.
“Our kids did what I’ve asked of them all year long and that is keep fighting and playing through their mistakes.”
Martinsville would lead 21-0 at the half, but the Quakers came out of the break optimistic they could put some points on the Martinsville defense.
But after a lengthy run to open the third by the Artesians, Plainfield found themselves in a deeper hole.
“The second half started with a 60 or 70-yard run and it was ‘Here we go again,’” Woodard said. “I think that was disappointing.”
Martinsville stacked the line and were aggressive with several players in the box and made it difficult for the Quakers with its blitzing scheme.
That put Plainfield on its heels and the Artesians put up another unanswered 21 points in the third and fourth quarters.
Austin Blevins led the Quakers with 108 yards on 27 carries while Dillon Hughes had 29 yards on nine touches.
Jake Jay completed 6 of 15 passes for 47 yards.
Plainfield opens sectional play at 7 p.m. Friday as they travel to Indianapolis Roncalli. The Rebels defeated the Quakers 15-10 in one of the two games that were postponed due to inclement weather this season.
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