Plainfield literally raced to a 20-0 first-quarter lead on Friday night with the help of three huge runs.
From there, host Franklin played the Class 5A No. 5 Quakers nearly even in a 34-13 loss in Mid-State Conference action.
“We compete, we get after it,” Franklin coach Chris Coll said. “We did some good things really in all three phases of the game. It’s really just doing it consistently enough and not hurting ourselves.”
The Quakers (6-1, 4-1) scored on a 68-yard run by Luke Starnes with 7:48 left in the first quarter, then followed with a 77-yard TD run by Ethan Ellis with 4:55 to go in the quarter. A 49-yard run by Starnes set up a Westyn Weyrich’s 6-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0 with 2:17 still left. The PAT failed, but it still looked like the game might be a huge blowout.
Then Franklin’s Greyson Betts scored on a 15-yard runto make it 20-6 in the second quarter. The Grizzly Cubs had chances to draw closer still, but never quite got there.
“We had some drives that were productive,” Coll said. “We just couldn’t finish it. We spotted them 20 points, then our defense stiffened. We’re driving the ball down the field at the end of the first half to make it a one-score game and we can’t finish. Same thing in the second half — we moved the ball some and couldn’t finish. It’s a consistency thing. It’s a maturity thing. The kids are playing hard. They care. From a maturity and experience standpoint, we just don’t do it consistently enough to beat good teams.”
Plainfield scored to make it 27-6 on a 1-yard run by Starnes, who finished with 151 yards on 15 carries.
Franklin senior Alex Leugers broke loose for a 95-yard TD run to narrow the deficit to 27-13 with 7:20 left in the fourth quarter.
Leugers said he can’t recall ever having that long of a touchdown.
“Maybe in sixth grade,” he said. “The O-line opened up a big hole for me, and I just took off.”
Leugers had 179 yards on 18 carries and caught five passes for 53 more. Betts completed 13 of 33 passes for 154 yards.
Plainfield’s final score came on quarterback Bryce Sebanc’s 1-yard touchdown run with 2:34 left in the game. Sebanc completed just 3 of 7 passes for 5 yards.
Franklin had two turnovers and was penalized seven times for 67 yards.
“It’s self-inflicted wounds. penalties and stupid mistakes like that,” Coll said. “It’s execution and blown assignments. It’s a combination of things. We’ll watch film and there will be good things. But then there will be an execution mistake, an assignment mistake.”
Personal fouls were among the penalties.
“It’s been a problem all season long,” Coll said. “That’s on me as a head coach. I don’t know what we have to do to eliminate that, but it’s an issue.”
The Grizzly Cubs play at Greenwood in Week 8 before finishing the regular season at home against Decatur Central.
“We’ve got to come back next week and worry about us and try to be the best team we can be,” Coll said. “That’s all that really matters. The opponent is secondary. We’ve got to continue to get better as a football team.”
