Stout’s present: Demon victory

WASHINGTON — There was a tradition to maintain and a lost season to make up for when Zac Stout took the pitch Monday for Washington’s boys soccer team.

“I’ve always scored on my birthday,” Stout said. “Except for last year because of COVID.”

It’s always in a Southeast Conference game: one his freshman year against Fairfield, one his sophomore year against Keokuk.

Add Burlington to the list because Stout netted three scores in a 5-1 home victory.

Burlington led 1-0 10 minutes into the match, and Stout slammed the near upright with a shot from just 7 yards out a minute later.

“When they scored the first goal, it gave me a lot of motivation,” Stout said. “I wanted to go even harder. I think it gave our whole team motivation to go out and win this game.”

It wasn’t until 10 minutes, 24 seconds before the half that the Demons scored when Noah Suchan dribbled into the box and rocketed a shot to the back of the net.

“It’s hard getting up out of the hole, but we saw we could do it at Fort Madison when we tied it at 2-2 after being down 2-0,” Suchan said. “So we know to keep our heads up and that first goal got us going.”

Stout made it 2-1 at 4:46 with a gift from the Burlington keeper, who dropped the ball, and Stout got his foot on it for a goal.

Just 30 seconds later, Simeon Buie launched a free kick from 60 yards out toward the goal and it deflected off a random head and into the goal for a 3-1 Demon halftime lead.

Less than 3 minutes into the second half, Cole Anderson made a sliding stop of a Burlington shot and a minute later Stout received a present. He came upon a loose ball in the box after a corner kick and netted it for a 4-1 advantage.

Stout got his hat trick when a throw-in from Brayan Arreola was sent past the keeper.

“A hat trick was definitely my goa, l but every single game I want to score as many goals as possible,” Stout said. “I want to do whatever it takes for the team to win.”

“I like the intensity we played with,” Washington coach Sally Hart said. "We have a lot of guys who are young, and they are fitting right in to the mix. Once this team sees what it can do, they will really shine.“

Stout got an unwanted present in an unlikely area of the body when the ball came straight at him from a corner kick. He left the game and did not return.

“We didn’t know what to expect from Burlington, but we feel we can play with anybody,” Stout said. “I felt like we did a good job taking it to them.”

Stout nearly had a fourth goal when his header on a corner kick just went over the crossbar.

“Our passing went really well. In other games it felt like teams were passing around us, but in this game it felt like we were passing around them,” Stout said.

The Demons are 2-1, 1-1 SEC and Burlington is 0-2, 0-2.