Lights go out on Washington football season opener

By JOE GEREN

The Hawk Eye

BURLINGTON — It seemed a little bit of everything happened in Bracewell Stadium Friday night. Even the stadium lights went out.

The brief darkness didn't deter Burlington High School's football team, which came from behind to defeat Washington's Demons, 39-18, in the season opener for both teams.

There were a lot of big plays. There were some head-scratchers. And there was a defensive team's nightmare in Burlington running back Bryant Williams.

Williams touched the football 20 times for 280 yards total offense and scored four touchdowns — two rushing, one receiving and one return.

"We thought they were just going to come right at us and that's just what they did," said new Washington head coach Nick Ehret, who replaced James Harris. Harris lost his first game as Liberty head coach, 41-0 to Iowa City West. "If you've got backs like that, I'd do that, too. They were good up front and 25 (Williams) is a heck of a back. So, they did what we thought they would, but you've still got to stop them."

Stopping the Grayhounds didn't happen often in the second half- after the Demons won the first half, 18-14.

"We've just got a lot of athletic kids who are playmakers and it showed,“ Burlington coach Jim Krekel said. "In the locker room at halftime, we just said everybody's got everybody's back. That's what happened in the second half."

Williams' 83-yard sprint with 7 minutes, 8 seconds left in the third quarter gave Burlington a 21-18 lead.

Burlington dropped the football several times in the first half, but the Grayhounds protected the ball better as the game wore on. Krekel compared fumbles to spread teams’ interceptions.

Washington game-opening drive saw quarterback Ethan Patterson’s four-yard touchdown as the 16th run of an 80-yard drive. His pass for the PAT failed.

The Demons led 12-0 for just six seconds. Jacob Miller returned a Burlington fumble 52 yards to the end zone. Williams returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yard return as time expired in the first quarter.

Washington went up 18-7 with 10:16 left in the second quarter on a 31-yard Patterson to Lucas Kroll pass.

Then it bordered on the bizarre.

Burlington punter Carlo Martinez-Hale fumbled a bad snap midway in the second quarter, picked the football up on his own 6 and scrambled 92 yards, pulled down at the Washington 2 by Kroll. A sneak by quarterback Kanyae Baker pulled the Grayhounds to within 18-14.

Procedure penalties helped stall Washington in the second half while the Grayhounds got stronger.

Burlington added another third quarter score and two more in the fourth quarter.

BY THE NUMBERS

467 — Burlington's total offense;

305 — Washington's total offense;

224 — Rushing yards for Williams on 19 carries, an average of 11.8 yards per touch;

175 — Total offense for Washington's Patterson, who gained 65 yards on 14 carries and passed for 110 yards;

9 — Number of completions by Patterson on 26 passes;

9 — Number of total passes by three different Grayhounds with four completions;

94 — The rushing total for Burlington's Martinez-Hale on four carries;

56 — Williams receiving yardage on one catch, a third-quarter touchdown;

56 — Baker's total passing yardage on one completion in four attempts;

56 — Receiving yardage for Washington's Ethan Zieglowsky on five catches;

4 — Number of Williams touchdowns.

COACH KREKEL

"I think both teams kind of went through (first game jitters). You look out and it looked like a circus was in town, but it was a good circus for us."

The stadium lights went out briefly just before the second half kickoff. "I don't know what that was about, but it didn't detract our kids concentration and stuff like that, so that's important.

"We knew coach Ehret, coming from where he is, we knew they'd probably try to spread the ball out. We kind of expected it. We just didn't how we'd match up with their kids and we have to have a game to make that happen. I think now we have a pretty good measure of our kids.

"We're going to celebrate this night and tell me tomorrow who we play next week."

COACH EHRET

"We had a lot of guys go down (to leg cramps and other injuries). We had some young guys and we just wore down. We had cramps. We had a lot of other things. We're missing a lot of guys that just didn't travel, but that's football. That's the way it is. You've got to strap up and go with the guys you got.

"Good things happened in the first half, but, yeah, the kickoff return and the punt that we should have had him down. Those are the plays that we've got to take care of.

"We knew it was going to be a dogfight and we didn't do enough to come away with a victory.

"We've got to shore some things up on the offensive line. We've got to practice a little better. We've got a tough game, a rivalry game with Mount Pleasant next week, so we've got to get ready."