By SCOTT NOVAK

Dowagiac Daily News

Senior Brandon Douglas made the most of his eight carries Friday night, scoring on half of them in a 47-0 Wolverine Conference victory for the host Chieftains over Plainwell on Homecoming night.

Douglas scored on runs of 5, 4, 57 and 15 yards all in the first half as the Chieftains (5-1) rolled up a 40-0 halftime lead.

Douglas finished the night with a team-high 82 yards.

He opened the scoring with a 5-yard run to give the Chieftains a 7-0 lead after Cody Carnell’s kick to cap a short drive for Dowagiac.

Plainwell kicked the ball short on the opening boot, which was fielded by Anthony Nelson and returned to the Trojans’ 24-yard line.

After a short run by Nelson on the first play from scrimmage, Chieftain quarterback Austin Adams called his own number and rambled down to the 5-yard line.

Douglas then capped of the three-play drive with the touchdown run just 1:04 into the contest.

Dowagiac, winners of four straight, wasn’t done in the opening 12 minutes.

On the Chieftains’ next possession, Douglas scored from 4-yards out after Dowagiac drove 63 yards in six plays.

This time a bad snap caused a missed extra point, but the Chieftains led 13-0.

The final touchdown of the opening quarter was another quick strike by Dowagiac.

The drive was just three plays and covered 70 yards, the last 57 of which came on the feet of Douglas.

Carnell, who missed last week due to injury, would be perfect the rest of the night on his extra point kicks.

The Chieftains would score three more times in the second quarter to build up a 40-point cushion before the rain started to fall.

Jon Myers got into the scoring action with a 10-yard run, while Douglas scored his fourth and final touchdown from 15 yards out.

The last score of the opening half came when Nelson broke though the line from 5-yards out after Plainwell turned the ball over on downs at its own 42-yard line.

Nelson’s touchdown also set up a running clock for the second half.

Dowagiac completed the scoring in the third quarter with its longest drive of the night.

The Chieftains took 10 plays to cover 69 yards, completing the drive with a 22-yard run by Cody Nowak.

After posting back-to-back 500-plus yard rushing performances, the Chieftains were “limited” to just 313 yards on the ground. Dowagiac did throw for 89 yards as Austin Adams and Mike Pranschke combined to be 5-of-6.

Adams was 4-of-4 for 65 of those yards. The two quarterbacks hit five different receivers.

Defensively Dowagiac was all over the place and at times, may have looked to the Trojans that they had more than 11 players on the field.

The Chieftains limited Plainwell to a total of 92 yards. The Trojans ran for 58 yards and were just 2-of-9 passing for 34 yards.

Nelson led the Chieftains with another double-digit performance in tackles. Coming into the game, Nelson led the team with 47 stops and added 10 more to his total to keep him on pace to finish the season with more than 100 tackles.

Brothers Troy and Tremail Butcher both recovered fumbles for Dowagiac.

The Chieftains will now begin a three-game stretch to finish the regular season against teams in the upper half of the Wolverine Conference.

Dowagiac, which needs just one more win to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight season, travels to Gull Lake on Friday night.

The Chieftains will finish the regular season against Otsego and Paw Paw.

Plainwell 0 0 0 0 – 0

Dowagiac 20 20 7 0 – 47

D – Brandon Douglas 5 run (Cody Carnell kick)

D – Douglas 4 run (kick fails)

D – Douglas 57 run (Carnell kick)

D – Jon Myers 10 run (Carnell kick)

D – Douglas 15 run (run fails)

D – Anthony Nelson 5 run (Carnell kick)

D – Cody Nowak 22 run (Carnell kick)