Knights rise over Demons

With the district title on the line, a fast start was key on Thursday night.

Unfortunately for the Washington football team, the quick start came at their expense, as 40 seconds into the second quarter Davenport Assumption jumped out to a 19-0 lead.

The Demons would close the gap to two points twice in the game, but ended up falling to the Knights 33-24 at Brady Street Stadium in Davenport.

?It?s easy to say they outplayed us the majority of the time tonight,? Washington football head coach Garrison Carter said. ?The disappointing thing was they were more physical and wanted it more at the end. That needs to be rectified.?

The loss ends Washington?s winning streak at seven games, and has the Demons wrap up the regular season with a 7-2 record (5-1 in district play).

Assumption claimed the district title with the victory, while Washington finished second in the district for the second straight season. The second seed will guarantee the Demons a home game in the first round of the playoffs on Wednesday.

With senior running back Jack Giardino out, the bulk of the rushing attack went on the shoulders of sophomore quarterback Ryan Reighard, who finished the night with 217 rushing yards at a rate of 6.8 yards per carry.

The Demons also had a good night from junior Bryce Craff who picked up 36 yards on the ground.

Reighard was efficient in the passing game as well, completing 13 of his 17 attempts for 151 yards and two touchdowns. Both of those scores went to sophomore Jaivonn Willis, who caught seven balls for 106 yards.

Assumption opened the game strong, with senior quarterback Joe Argo finding senior receiver Will Ontiveros for a 56-yard touchdown less than a minute into the game.

After a Demon punt, Assumption marched down the field again and an Argo run made it 13-0 Knights.

Washington looked to be gaining some momentum back on the ensuing drive, as Ryan Reighard busted off a big run across midfield, but the ball was punched out and recovered by Assumption, who capitalized early in the second quarter with Argo?s second rushing touchdown of the night to make it 19-0.

After that, everything seemed to shift for the Demons.

Washington used a methodical drive to answer the Knights? touchdown, as Reighard found Willis for a 23-yard touchdown reception, and on the next Assumption drive, junior Karlton Skubal picked off Argo to set the Demons up at the Knights? 46-yard line.

Reighard capped off the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run, to make it 19-14 at halftime, and gave Washington a breath of new life heading into halftime.

?I think the momentum started on the play we fumbled,? Carter said. ?Ryan broke a long run and fumbled it, but they came to the sidelines thinking that we can do some things on these guys.?

Washington?s Anthony Torres nailed a 35-yard field goal to open the second half for the Demons, making it 19-17, and an Assumption fumble recovered by Demon junior Austin Hazelett two plays into the ensuing drive set Washington up at the Assumption 26.

Washington went three-and-out, which would have set up a fourth-and-two, but a dead ball personal foul pushed Washington out of field-goal range, and the Demons ended up turning the ball over on downs.

Assumption drove the ball down the field and punched the ball in to make it 26-17 with 10:55 left in the game, and after converting a fourth down and a third down, Washington was able to bust off a big play.

From the Demon 44, Reighard found Willis wide open 20 yards downfield, and Willis used his athleticism to get by a couple of Assumption defenders to finish off the 56-yard score.

?I told Jaivonn to run that route on the play before, which was a run play,? Carter said. ?The corner came in hard to stop the run, so I told Ryan that I wanted him to run the same play, but throw it to Jaivonn. We kind of drew it up in the sidelines there and it worked out.?

The Demons had closed the gap to two points with 7:30 left, but Assumption used its ground game to effectively seal the game, finally capping off the drive with a Joe Argo 4-yard run with 1:44 left. That gave Assumption a two-score lead, and the Demons weren?t able to find the end zone on their next drive as time ran out on the regular season.

?There are three things that stand out right away,? Carter said. ?You can?t get down 19-0 to a good team, you can?t have drives end in the red zone because of penalties and when it came down to stopping their run or them running out the clock, they did that. Those things are simple solutions and what we need to address right away.?

Washington will learn its first-round playoff opponent late Friday night when the rest of the Class 3A districts are finalized, and the playoff game will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Case Field.