Washington beats winless Ft. Madison

Washington successfully defended the Case.

The Demons capped off a 4-0 campaign Friday at its home venue Case Field with a 42-15 win over Fort Madison. Washington successfully navigated tests against Burlington, Oskaloosa, Fairfield and now Fort Madison at home this season.

“Although we went against a lot of good teams throughout the season, had a tough schedule, we defended Case,” junior Blaine Rees said. “We came back and we fought hard. We fought hard for the turf that we own. So that was huge. That was a big team goal.”

  Buy Photo

Demons quarterback Kael Williams finished the game with 210 rushing yards and three touchdowns on just 10 carries. The senior opened the game with a 57-yard touchdown and scored from 11 yards out in the first quarter. He added a 54-yard touchdown run in the second after he faked a jet sweep to Carson Brown, then faked out a defender, bounced right towards the sideline and sprinted to the end zone to give Washington a 28-7 lead.

Williams also connected on his first touchdown pass in six games when he found Liam Roberts for a 30-yard strike in the third quarter to make it 35-7. Williams finished the game 9 of 11 for 146 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions.

“It feels really good,” Williams said. “And my other receivers too, Nic Stone, Aidan Schmitz, Carson Brown, all the guys who fill in for them, they’re doing their job too, blocking for me all night, and when we get those short bubbles, they do their job on those too. It just feels good to get it clicking in the air and those guys make me look good, and they make each other right with the blocks.”

  Buy Photo

Senior Caden Greiner also hauled in a long pass from Williams when he made a diving 27-yard catch at the one-yard line. Greiner found the end zone on the ground one play later to restore a two-score advantage after Fort Madison made it 15-7 earlier in the quarter.

Roberts’ touchdown made up for a score that was called back during a first quarter that was riddled with penalty flags. The refs called nine penalties in the opening 12 minutes, eight of which went against the Demons with varying degrees of dubiety.

Washington was hit with three more penalties inside the first seven minutes of the second quarter. Coach Kelly Williams called timeout after the third penalty to settle things down.

“I brought everybody off to the sideline and just said, ‘Obviously they’re watching us, and some of those penalties we can control and some of them we can’t, and we’ve got to fix the ones that we can control,’” Williams said. “And next Friday may be completely different, it may go the opposite direction. So, just control what we can control, keep playing hard.”

The flag frequency decreased after the timeout just as Washington’s grip on the game increased. Nic Stone ensured that Fort Madison wouldn’t capitalize on its opening drive when he intercepted Bloodhounds QB Stefan Berlett. It was Stone’s third interception in the last two games.

  Buy Photo

After the game, Washington’s seniors soaked in the moment with photos. A few took handfuls of grass from a portion of the field that was painted with the “No. 80” logo in honor of Carson Ryan, a fellow senior on the team who died in a hunting accident last month.

Kelly Williams also thanked Fort Madison for their gestures to honor Ryan. The Bloodhounds displayed a “W” with pyrotechnics before a middle school football game against Washington earlier this season. During Friday’s game, Fort Madison coaches dawned No. 80 shirts on the sidelines. Several Bloodhounds players wore orange tape over their cleats.

The Washington and surrounding communities have come together in immense strength and support in the weeks since the tragedy. The bond between the upperclassmen of the Demons not only remains an example of that support, but is one the players will carry well beyond their playing days at Case Field.

“I love these guys to death, and obviously we’ve gone through some rough patches this year, and just a lot of things going on, and we never drifted apart,” Kael Williams said. “We all stuck together, and I just hope that kind of contributes to leaving your jersey in a better place and showing the younger kids, if you stick as a unit, you can do anything.”

Washington (4-4, 2-2 Class 3A District 4) will play its final regular season game against Keokuk on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7:30 at Calvert Stadium.

“We’ve got to carry over this momentum to Keokuk,” Williams added. “It’s the last one at Case, but we’ve got more work to do.”