PLAINFIELD
Well, that went downhill in a hurry.
The Greenwood football team already was in trouble against Mid-State Conference rival Plainfield on Friday night before a rapid-fire series of unfortunate events unfolded early in the third period.
When it was over, the Class 4A No. 6 Woodmen were staggering out of town with their first defeat of the season, a 63-27 onslaught that completely went off the rails during a stretch of less than two minutes in the third quarter.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryGreenwood (4-1, 2-1) came out of the locker room facing a 21-13 deficit and promptly went three-and-out, and the Quakers stretched their lead to 15 right away on a 7-yard run by Dawson Anderson with 9:30 left in the third.
The tide appeared to shift when Noah Compton took the ensuing kickoff to the house for the Woodmen, but a facemask penalty wiped out that return. Two plays later, Colin Dorsett stepped in front of a Seth Gallman pass and took it 49 yards for a score — and after recovering a squib kick, the Quakers piled on with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ben Slaton to Tyler McCarty that made it 42-13 at the 7:51 mark.
A blocked punt on Greenwood’s next series led to another Quakers score. The Woodmen got fourth-quarter touchdown runs from Anthony Williams and Nick Willham, but Gage Jacobs added a 93-yard kickoff return for the home team in between and Plainfield added another late touchdown.
The Woodmen had started the night with a defensive stop and took a 6-0 lead on a 13-yard Gallman keeper, but Plainfield (3-2, 1-1) responded by catching Greenwood over the top on third and long, with Gavin Jacobs hauling in a 69-yard pass from Slaton for a 7-6 lead.
Brandon Rosado’s 8-yard touchdown run just 96 seconds later put Greenwood up 13-7 at the 5:23 mark of the first quarter. The Quakers punched back again, though, with a pair of long scoring passes from Slaton early in the second quarter — a 67-yarder to McCarty and a 35-yarder to Cade Ritter — and took the lead into the break.
All three of the early tosses were placed just beyond the reach of Greenwood defensive backs.
Still within a score and the ball coming their way, the Woodmen hoped to regain control as the second half began, but just about everything that could have gone wrong did from that point on.
Rosado rushed for 122 yards to lead Greenwood, which lost despite finishing with a 486-429 edge in total yardage. The Woodmen will attempt to regroup when they host Paoli next week.
