PLAINWELL — No one saw this coming.

After the Dowagiac football team turned in its best performance of the year in a 28-20 last-second loss to undefeated Edwardsburg the week before, the Chieftains appeared ready to make a turn at the postseason.

Unfortunately, Dowagiac went to Plainwell and turned in what veteran head coach Mike Stanger called “as bad a loss as we have had here in a decade.”

The Chieftains dropped to 2-3 with a demoralizing 53-8 loss to the Trojans, who are now 4-1 on the season.

“We did not control either side of the line of scrimmage,” Stanger said. “We were arm tackling instead of wrapping up the runners and we turned the ball over way too many times. After taking a step forward against Edwardsburg, we took two steps backward Friday night.”

Dowagiac was out of the game early as it trailed 35-0 at halftime.

“It snowballed on us early,” Stanger said. “We did not respond to the adversity. As coaches and players we have to take a look in the mirror and do whatever we have to do to make sure this never happens again.”

One of those things will be getting back to basics as the Chieftains prepare to host Sturgis at Chris Taylor-Alumni Field Friday night.

“We lacked fundamentals on both sides of the ball,” Stanger said. “As a coach, we have to go back and work more on the basics and not worry about adding anything new. We have to get better at the fundamentals. That is all we can do.”

Stanger and his staff are no strangers to having to play their way into the post season after a slow start.

So, there will be no panic as the team prepares for the Trojans.

“This is not where you want to be,” Stanger said. “We know we have to take them one game at a time. We definitely have to take steps forward and we have to take them consistently. We cannot take one step forward and then take two steps back.”

 

PLAINWELL 53, DOWAGIAC 8

Dowagiac        0          0          8          0 – 8

Plainwell         14        21        18        0 – 53

PL – Alex Brown 8 run (Brown kick).

PL – Brown 30 run (Brown kick).

PL – Austin Williams 3 run (Brown kick).

PL – Williams 2 run (Luke Morrell kick).

PL – Brown 1 run (Luke Morrell kick).

PL – 2 pass (conversion good).

D – Brenden Dudley 2 run (Caleb Murphy run).

PL – 10 run (Luke Morrell kick).

Varsity records: Dowagiac 2-3, Plainwell 4-1