PLAINFIELD
Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher typically likes to defer after winning the game-opening coin toss.
Friday, he broke that habit and took the football first at Plainfielld. It seemed to work to perfection, as the Warriors took a little over nine minutes off the clock before Slate Valentine scored on a 7-yard run.
Unfortunately, that was it for the Warriors as the Class 5A No. 6 Quakers scored 32 unanswered points for 32-7 victory in Mid-State Conference action. Plainfield improved to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the league.
Whiteland (3-4, 2-4) got the fast start Fisher was seeking.
“The plan was 4 yards a carry,” Fisher said. “You can’t lose when you gain 4 yards a carry. We weren’t trying to hit home runs. We were trying to hit singles and doubles, to use a baseball term. We were able to do it early. The fumble on the second drive was big; that was a big momentum changer.”
Trailing 8-7, Zander Hite lost a fumble after a 14-yard catch in the second quarter. It was the only completion in three attempts for Whiteland quarterback Ollie Taylor.
Plainfield quarterback Bryce Sebanc connected with Ethan Ellis for a 9-yard TD pass with 18 seconds left in the second quarter to push the lead to 15-7. Sebanc had scored on a 8-yard run, followed by a two-point conversion run by Brandon Hendry, to give the Quakers an 8-7 lead early in the second quarter.
The rest of the game was all Plainfield, with a 7-yard TD run by Luke Starnes and a 9-yard TD pass from Sebanc to Tommy Spilker on a lineman-eligible play in the third quarter. Leo Heyob added a 28-yard field goal with 1:33 left in the game.
Westyn Weyrich had a team-high 118 yards on 18 carries for the Quakers. Starnes was close behind with 111 yards on 18 carries.
“They’re good on offense,” Fisher said. “We worked all week on setting the edge. They’ve got some good perimeter people. In the third quarter, they got away from us in the boundary and the edge.”
Fisher said there were issues with the kicking game.
“There were things we wanted to do in the kicking game and we just didn’t execute the way we executed in practice all week,” he said. “We’ve been improving steadily in the kicking game and we needed to use in as a weapon tonight. It just didn’t happen; too many miscues, too many mishit balls. We just didn’t flip the field like we wanted to do.”
Valentine led the Warriors with 147 yards on 26 carries.
Fisher said it might have been a different second half if tied at halftime.
“We really needed to score again before the half,” Fisher said.
The Warriors also were penalized seven times for 61 yards.
“Just too many mistakes,’ Fisher said. “Unfortunately, it’s the same thing we’ve been talking about since Week 3.”
Whiteland finishes the regular season with a home game against Greenwood.
