Washington freshman football team falls just short at Fairfield

Washington came up 2 inches short on a two-point conversion run late in Friday?s freshman football game at Fairfield, and the Demons lost to the Trojans 22-21.

After quarterback Jack Giardino scored a 1-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, coach Jay Zieglowsky and the Demons decided to go for the win. But running back Bryce Rickey was stopped just short of the goal line on the two-point conversion try.

?There?s no overtime in the freshman game, so we decided we were going to go for the win,? Zieglowsky said. ?We could have kicked it, but that didn?t sound like a good idea to me. The players wanted to go for the win. The referee told me we missed it by about 2 inches. It was a good game. The kids played hard.?

Giardino rushed for 75 yards and two touchdowns for the Demons (1-2). He also was 7-for-13 passing for 89 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown pass to Christian Mejia.

Mejia caught four passes for 71 yards and rushed for 42 yards on five carries. Rickey added 41 yards rushing on 15 carries, and Ethan Hansen ran for 16 yards. Dakota Suchan caught a pair of passes for 13 yards, and Jacob Mask caught one pass for five yards.

Jose Tapia made seven tackles to lead Washington defensively. Giardino, Mejia and Darius Stogner each made five stops. Giardino and Michael Ellingson both recovered a fumble in the contest, and Suchan intercepted a pass.

Zieglowsky said the Demon defense gave up a few long touchdowns, though.

?The story of our season so far is big plays,? he said. ?Big plays killed us again. We gave up three touchdown runs of 40, 71 and 60 yards. But if we get that figured out, I think this is going to be a pretty good team.?