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Washington Evening Journal
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Plainsmen look to flush season-opening result
Ready to bounce back in home opener against Colo-Nesco
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
JANESVILLE — A whole season still lies in front of the Belle Plaine football team.
That was the message the Plainsmen were given after they were defeated 50-0 by Janesville in their 8-player season opener Friday night.
Flush it and move on.
“We still have seven games to play and prepare for,” Belle Plaine coach Scott Nilles said. “The district games are really what counts.”
The team scrambled to find a Week 0 game last week after the announcement that Lone Tree, a team in the Plainsmen’s district, dropped its varsity football season due to low numbers.
Janesville pushed its size advantage up front from the get-go, making use of its 6’5“ tight end and 6'7" lineman.
“I knew coming in starting some younger guys with not a lot of game experience that it would be tough against a big, physical team like them,” Nilles said.
The Wildcats scored on their opening drive on a 34-yard touchdown pass to Logan Lashbrook, and also succeeded on the two-point conversion.
In response, the Plainsmen had their best drive of the game.
A couple of first downs, including a nice pass to Derek Kressley from quarterback Aidan Timm, had the team inside the 10. The drive stalled, resulting in an interception on fourth-and-six.
“Our first drive, we were marching down the field, then we had a penalty and a turnover,” Nilles said. “We had glimpses, we just had to be more consistent, but we can fix the mental mistakes.”
Following the interception, Tayler Kibbee scored on a 10-yard run to the left side.
The Wildcats added three more scores before half, making it 36-0 and activating the running clock in the second half.
Janesville added two more scores in the second half, as both teams got reps for backups.
The Plainsmen showed a willingness to pass the ball, which resulted in a few nice catches by Peyton Dostal.
“Our identity is always going to be running the ball and having ball control,” Nilles said. “We’re going to have to keep getting better at passing, but Aidan does have a good arm.”
As the team looks to sprinkle in passing packages, goal number one is to improve the running attack.
“We have to figure out our run game first,” Nilles said.
The Plainsmen are back in action at home Friday against Colo-Nesco.
JANESVILLE 50, BELLE PLAINE 0
Janesville.....16 20 6 8—50
Belle Plaine.....0 0 0 0—0
Scoring summary
JV— Logan Lashbrook 34 pass from Blayne Porter (Porter run)
JV—Tayler Kibbee 10 run (Porter run)
JV— Porter 4 run (conversion failed)
JV — Talan Pletz 8 pass from Porter (conversion failed)
JV— Porter 26 run (Kibbee run)
JV — Pletz 1 run (conversion failed)
JV— Brady Eastman 10 run (Judah Hovengae run)
