Belle Plaine suffered a double loss Friday night. Fourth-rated West Branch came to town and handed the Plainsmen a 34-12 setback and the home team lost star running back Brian Crow for at least the remainder of the regular season when he went down early in the fourth quarter with a dislocated shoulder.

Bohlen said the good news on the injury was that there was no ligament tear and no bone chips. He said Crow’s loss will be an added incentive for the team to qualify for postseason play with the outside chance that he might be able to return.

Early on it appeared that the two veteran opposing coaches were staging the football equivalent of a chess match, putting their main weapons out there time after time until the opponent found a way to stop him. The Plainsmen took the opening kickoff and drove down the field, with Crow getting the call on eight of the first nine plays from scrimmage. But the drive stalled on fourth down at the Bear 18 on an incomplete pass and on their second offensive play of the night, the Bears took the lead when their main man, senior Cole Kelly, raced 76 yards for the touchdown. Brandon Young kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 6:50 left in the first quarter.

West Branch made it 14-0 with just 19 seconds left in the quarter when Jayson Madsen went over from two yards out with the first of his three touchdowns on the night.

The Plainsmen scored their first touchdown of the night midway through the second quarter as they took advantage of a Bear mistake. Ryan Rupp recovered a fumble at midfield and eight plays later, Crow went in from two yards out to make it 14-6 at the half.

Coach Todd Bohlen, who said his team did a nice job on that initial drive of the game and then saw the Plainsmen battle back in the second quarter, said he and his staff felt good going into the locker room down by a touchdown at the half.

But on their first possession of the second half, the Bears widened the margin on a three-yard run by Madsen with 9:31 left in the third quarter. The extra point kick made it 21-6. Then on the first play of the fourth quarter, the visitors made it 27-6 as Madsen capped a 38-yard, six play drive with a one-yard plunge to make it 27-6.

The final West Branch score came with 9:36 left in the game hen Rilen Carew picked off a Plainsman pass and raced 57 yards for the touchdown. It was right after that when Crow came off the field with his shoulder injury, which eventually led to a trip to the hospital and the diagnosis.

The Plainsman reserves accounted for the last score of the night. With just seven seconds remaining, Devon Parr found Kyle Janss in the corner of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown pass. The conversion run failed.

As the Belle Plaine coaching staff prepares the game plan for this week’s trip to Iowa Valley, they will have the unfortunate task of trying to replace an offensive weapon who had followed up last season’s 1,665, 29-touchdown performance with 612 yards and seven touchdowns in under five games this season.

Bohlen said they had been preparing for this possibility, or for giving Crow some rest time for the past few weeks, moving Seivon Steward, Cooper Northrop and Kyle Janss around to different offensive positions. He said the aim this week is to stiffen up the defense, because Crow was a definite presence on that side of the ball as well, although the coaches had attempted to limit his defensive reps to keep him fresh for the offense.

He said Iowa Valley will not offer the typical shotgun spread as in the past. Just as both teams worked at ball and clock control last week, he expects the Tigers to attempt the same thing this week. They have been playing four sophomores and four freshmen on both sides of the ball, so the coach hopes that the Plainsman depth and experience will be a big plus in this week’s contest.

The Tigers will be coming off their first win of the season. Last week, they throttled Van Buren, 42-6.

Before he left the game early in the fourth quarter, Crow had carried the ball 27 times for 114 yards and a touchdown. Steward had six carries for one yard, Damon Rhoades had 11 carries for 38 yards, Chris Janss had one carry for minus one yard, Northrop had one for two yards, Kyle Janss had five carries for 51 yards and Ryan Rupp had one carry for 0 yards.

Crow caught one pass for four yards and Kyle Janss had one reception for 15 yards and a touchdown.

On defense, Chris Janss had seven tackles and a fumble recovery, Steward, Austin Chekal and Keegan DeMeulenaere each had two tackles, Rupp had 10 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery, Rupp had five tackles with one for loss, Rhoades had two tackles, Northrop, one, Scott Wheeler had four, Garrett Rollins had six with one for loss, Blake Chekal had one with one for loss, Jacob Miller, Kyle Janss and Zach Snyder each had one and Ben Ehlen had a fumble recovery.

West Branch               14        0          7          13        -           34

Belle Plaine                 0          6          0          6          -           12

BP                   WB

First downs                 14                    8

Rushing                       52-203             30-256

Passes                          2-9-1                2-7-0

Pass yds.                     19                    25

Punts                           4-31                 3-29

Fumbles                       2-0                   3-3

Penalties                      4-27                 2-20