Demons chase down Bloodhounds

FT. MADISON - Friday's 36-7 win over Ft. Madison High School's football team was the opposite of last week's loss to Solon when the Demons came out on fire for a 20-7 lead by halftime but lost 35-20.

Washington led just 6-0 in the first half on a one-yard run by Luke Turner. Wyatt Stout, who rushed for 150 yards on 16 carries, said of the sluggish first half, 'We had a few players who weren't in the right positions in the first half.”

The halftime pep talk changed that.

We didn't make any adjustments at halftime,” Washington coach James Harris said. 'We just started blocking the guys we were supposed to block.”

'They locked in mentally and started to regroup,” Stout said. He said the linemen did a good job in the second half. 'They moved some guys and made some holes.”

He praised Zac Stout. 'He had a couple of clutch catches,” Wyatt said.

Wyatt Stout had a 48-yard rushing touchdown with 3 minutes, 55 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 22-0.

On the second play from scrimmage for FM, following that score, quarterback Will Larson threw an interception right into the hands of Dillon Sanders, who easily took the ball 22 yards for the touchdown and a 29-0 lead.

Sanders said, 'We were executing really well” in the second half. He blamed miscommunication on the first-half struggles.

As for other teammates who deserved some credit, he said linebacker Lucas Kroll 'did a good job of keeping the outside contained,” and FM was unable to move the ball much up the middle.

Safety Brady Knutson 'was playing good and made some good tackles,” Sanders said.

'We came out a little bit flat,” Harris said. 'We played well defensively after that. We started blitzing. Our defensive backs did a nice job of holding up. Coach Kelly Williams does a good job with our defensive backs. We need to work on playing a complete game.”

Trashaun Willis led the Demons with 7.5 tackles including two for loss.

Chris Faulkner of the Ft. Madison Democrat contributed to this article.