Pride and bragging rights.
With both teams having been eliminated from Wolverine Conference championship and playoff contention, that’s what was at stake when Plainwell and Otsego met for the 115th time in their historic rivalry that dates back to 1896.
And when the final whistle sounded Friday, Oct. 21, it was the Trojans who were celebrating a 29-7 victory on the Bulldogs’ home field.
Plainwell ended the season at 4-5, while Otsego finished at 1-8.
“I’m so proud of our guys for the way they kept working and battling even when things weren’t really going our way,” said Plainwell coach Darren Conklin, whose team’s run of consecutive playoff appearances ended at five straight. “Obviously we were all disappointed we didn’t have a better season, but these guys never quit on me.
“In fact, these last three weeks of practice have probably been the best three-week stretch we’ve had in my time coaching here. The kids were just fired up and dedicated to ending this season on as high of a note as possible.”
The Trojans couldn’t have ended on a much higher note than beating their longstanding rivals to take a 65-44-6 lead in the all-time series.
“That’s what’s so great about this rivalry,” Conklin said. “It really doesn’t matter what the records are for either team. It doesn’t matter if you’re 8-0 or 0-8 coming in. These teams love to compete against each other and it’s always a special environment.”
For Otsego, the loss was a disappointing end to a tough season for coach John Kubiak’s squad.
“The bottom line is we made too many mistakes,” Kubiak said. “We’re young and we’re still learning. But you can’t make as many mistakes as we did when you’re playing at the varsity level and expect to get a win. We need to work on cleaning up those things moving into next season.”
The game remained scoreless through the first half before Plainwell running back Alex Brown found the end zone on a 6-yard scoring run less than two minutes into the second stanza. Brown also made good on the conversion run to make it an 8-0 lead.
That started a string of four touchdowns on five possessions for the Trojans, with two in the second quarter and two in the third. The only possession in that span on which Plainwell didn’t score was the final possession of the opening half when time expired.
Brown also scored the second TD, this time from eight yards out, with Luke Morrell’s extra-point kick making it 15-0 at halftime.
In the third quarter, a 1-yard run from Nick Lindsey and a 3-yard run from Mark Andrysiak—both of which were followed by extra-points kicks from Morrell—extended Plainwell’s lead to 29-0.
For full story, pick up a copy of the October 27 issue of The Allegan County News or The Union Enterprise or subscribe to the e-edition.