By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

PLAINVILLE -- Plainville sophomore Andrew Casey has enjoyed success in multiple sports, including first team all-Mid Continent League honors in basketball last winter, a second-place finish in the MCL basketball tournament, and a trip to the baseball state tournament in the spring.

During the fall, though, Casey has yet to experience a victory. Plainville carries an 18-game losing streak into Thursday's regular-season finale against WaKeeney-Trego.

"I was just thinking about that a little bit ago," Casey said before Monday's practice. "I haven't gotten a win yet. I would really like to get a win and see how it feels, especially at the varsity level."

The losing skid started back in the 2007 playoffs when Plainville lost to Smith Center 83-0 in the historic 72-point first quarter for the Redmen. Last season, Plainville went 0-9 under Cardinal coach John Petrie. In 2009, first-year head coach Joe Simon took over, and the Cardinals, starting multiple freshmen and sophomores, have been outscored 365-22.

"It hurts me a lot," Casey said. "We win in basketball and baseball. Not winning in football, we are just kind of not used to that."

The 22 points ranks third to last among Kansas 11-man teams, better only than 6A Leavenworth (15) and 2-1A Yates Center (20). In addition, Casey, who picked up honorable mention all-conference honors at punter and collected 95 tackles at linebacker, has missed half the season with a knee injury.

"I hope that we are able to come in and compete with everybody that we play," said Simon, a former Liberal assistant.

"I don't show up and try to keep it close. I am out to win every game. Of course, you play teams like Smith Center and Oakley that are outstanding programs and got things going in the right direction -- and Ellis also -- I knew that it would tough and we would have a lot of tough games, but I wasn't expecting the lumps that we have taken."

On Thursday, though, Plainville has a chance to end the losing streak when the Cardinals play host to Trego (0-8) in the district finale at 7 p.m.

The winner heads to the postseason and will play Smith Center in the first round on Tuesday. Plainville and Trego have each lost 59-0 to Smith Center, which is on a nation-best 75-game winning streak.

"I just want to win the game," Casey said. "I don't care if we play Smith Center or not. I want a rematch against Smith Center. But I just want to play and go out and win, getting our first win and ending that losing streak."

The Cardinals also will see a familiar face on the sidelines when they face the Golden Eagles. Petrie took over the Trego program in the spring. He has now coached at multiple area schools -- La Crosse, Otis-Bison, Plainville, Hoxie and Trego. This will mark the last game Plainville and Trego will face off for the foreseeable future. Trego will move down to Eight-Man, Division I football next season while Plainville will remain 11-man. The Plainville school board voted 4-3 to keep 11-man football.

"We definitely want to win," Simon said. "I think the boys are fired up to play against Coach Petrie and they want to win, also. We don't want to go 0-fer again this year. The guys have been working hard and they have kept a pretty good attitude this year even though we have struggled quite a bit. The main thing is going out Thursday and competing and giving the crowd a game."

Plainville has had just one competitive contest all year, an 18-6 loss to Hoxie last week. The Cardinals scored eight points in the season's first six weeks, including five shutouts. Simon said the team has started "anywhere from four to seven freshmen," has four to five sophomores that see significant playing time, two to three juniors and three senior starters. Senior Jaden Perkins starts at quarterback, while Casey plays linebacker and fullback. Senior Alex Dreher is the linebacker and tight end -- "he has really stepped up here lately," Simon said -- while junior Conor Anderson and sophomore Bryan Brungardt are wingbacks in the wing-T offense and 4-3 defense. Even with the struggles of a young team, the town has stayed supportive.

"The morale of the team has been great and it's been up," Simon said. "We have a lot of guys that have been putting dinners on and showing up for games, cheering for them. In practice, they get fired up and hit and fly around and have a good time. We have been working them pretty hard and just try and get better at this point."

"Our town, they are backing us up 100 percent," Casey said. "They know we can get a lot better. They know in the next few years that we are going to be pretty solid."

Casey, the lone returning Cardinal who picked up all-MCL honors, gave Plainville a setback in Week 4 when he was injured early in a 50-0 loss to Colby.

"We put a lot on his shoulders and we were hoping that he wouldn't get beat up and that he wouldn't get hurt," Simon said. "Of course, he did. That changed the mentality on our team. We had a hard time with it. The kids had to learn how to play without him.

"I think that was our biggest challenge because they had been used to him carrying the load for so long around here in all sports. It changed our game plan around quite a bit. We couldn't just line up and give the ball to him and just pound it up the middle. The guys responded. We found different guys that would step up and produce for the offense, especially. Defense is probably where we missed him the most," Simon added.

Casey returned last Friday against Hoxie and will play Thursday as Plainville looks to end the losing streak that's stretched through all of his two-year high school career.

"It would mean a lot," Casey said.