PORTLAND — After a season in which the Marshfield football team defied expectations, the Pirates are now left to wonder what might have been.

In a muddy, penalty-ridden game on the road against Jefferson in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs, Marshfield saw its season end in a 22-18 loss. Both teams had three touchdowns — the only difference was two extra-point conversions by the Democrats, who also beat Marshfield at home in a preseason game in September.

The Pirates had their chances to put this one away. The real heartbreaker came midway through the fourth quarter, when Marshfield, leading 18-14, drove 47 yards to set up a first-and-goal situation from the Jefferson 3-yard line. After getting to the 2-yard line, costly penalties — including a bizarre facemask call on quarterback Kyle Tedder when he was tackled out of bounds — pushed the Pirates clear back to the 25, and Marshfield turned the ball over on downs at the 10.

Jefferson then took the ball 90 yards to pay dirt behind the rushing of the ever-dangerous Marlon Miles, who scored the winning touchdown on a 2-yard dive with 35 seconds remaining.

“We had our chances and we couldn’t quite get the job done,” said Marshfield coach Kent Wigle after the game. “You’ve got to play better than this to beat a good team.”

Miles torched the Pirates for 200-plus rushing yards for the second time this season, gaining 211 yards and two TDs on 18 carries. Miles took Jefferson’s first snap of the game 71 yards for a touchdown, which brought back bad memories from September for the Pirates. Then, when Democrat quarterback Elisonoa Aluesi went down with an injury in the third quarter, Miles took over under center and led the team to the playoff victory.

“It was just about taking the team and showing them they can depend on you no matter what,” said Miles. “You have to carry them.”

But Marshfield probably hurt itself worse than Miles did. The Pirates racked up 18 penalties for a total of 127 yards. Jefferson had 12 penalties for 91 yards, but Marshfield’s were more costly.

“We gave up some pretty bad penalties and that hurt us a lot,” said Pirates running back Kyle Brown, who led the team with 89 yards on 14 carries. “I think the penalties hurt us more than their run game did.”

The fourth-quarter first-and-goal from the 3 wasn’t Marshfield’s only missed chance to put Jefferson away, either. In the opening quarter, Marshfield moved into scoring position with the help of a diving, one-handed grab from Jordan Shepherd on a pass from Tedder. The Pirates earned first-and-goal and the Democrats’ 4, but were stuffed on three consecutive running plays.

That did set up a series of possessions with good field position for Marshfield, though, as the Pirates moved to the Jefferson 12 on a pass interference call drawn by Shepherd. Then Tedder found Talo Silver in the flat, and Silver lowered his shoulder and bowled through two goal-line defenders to tie the game at 6-6 with 1:29 left in the first.

Marshfield seemed to take command of the game by the half, when the Pirates drove 49 yards for a 1-yard Tedder touchdown run, as the junior leader evaded a tackle in the backfield to get into the end zone to put Marshfield up 12-6 going into halftime.

The second half was a mess, though, as both teams were so hampered by penalties — at one point the game descended into absurdity when Jefferson went 15 yards on a drive that included seven penalties between the two teams — that momentum stopped being a factor.

The game came down to big plays, and Jefferson made more than Marshfield when it counted.

The Democrats went back up on the opening drive of the third quarter, taking the ball 65 yards despite losing Aluesi, eventually taking a 14-12 lead on an Ian Perkins 2-yard touchdown run and a Miles two-point conversion.

Marshfield answered with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter, though, as Brown became the Pirates’ workhorse on a 57-yard drive to a Shepherd 9-yard TD reception from Tedder to put the team up 18-14.

When the Pirates forced the Democrats to punt with 10:55 remaining in the fourth quarter and then drove to the first-and-goal opportunity, it looked like Marshfield was ready to win and move on. It wasn’t meant to be, though.

“We knew we could compete with them,” said Shepherd. “We just had too many mistakes and not enough big plays.”

The loss capped a season in which the Pirates struggled with injuries and adversity all season long, and for many of the players, making it this far was a bonus. That didn’t take the sting off the loss, though.

“I think everybody can say we left everything on the field. It sucks that we came out on the losing end of it, though,” said Tedder. “We went through a lot of adversity this season, overcame a lot and grew as people. I had a blast all year.”

Tedder finished the game with 75 yards rushing on 12 carries, to go with 169 yards passing on a 9-for-23 night, with two TDs and two interceptions. Levi Meline was his favorite receiver, grabbing three passes for 54 yards, while Shepherd had two catches for 45 yards.

“Not a lot of people expected much of us this season,” said Shepherd. “But look at how far we came. It was just great to get to know all of these guys.”