If the Washington Demons could play a perfect football game, Friday night against Mt. Pleasant would be as close as they could possible get to date.
The Demons won 51-7, putting up the 51 points in the first half, and giving up the seven points in the fourth quarter when the second team defense faced the first team offense of Mt. Pleasant.
The game started with a 40 yard return by Tanner Knupp and a penalty that put the Demons deep in the Panther zone, and off the first play of the game Coker went 34 yards to the endzone. The Demons forced Mt. Pleasant to punt on every possession in the first half, held them to no first downs and never let them get closer than the 30 yard line of their own zone.
The Demons kept rolling on offense on their second possession getting a 25 yard touchdown carry by Carl Sivels to make it 14-0, and less then two minutes later Daryn Seibelius went 16 yards through the air to Gage Redlinger to make is 21-0 with less than half the time off the clock in the first quarter. Washington capped off the first quarter with a one-yard touchdown run by Tanner Knupp to make is 28-0.
In the second quarter it was much of the same as Seibelius ran it in from five yards to make it 34-0 as Mason Quigley saw a defender coming in from the right side and pulled the PAT left. The Demons scored again in two minutes with a 27 yard touchdown pass from Seibelius to Redlinger for 27 yards to make it 41-0, and a one yard touchdown run by Coker with seven minutes left made it 47-0 and that was the last of the touchdowns for the Demons on the night.
Washington had one final drive in the second quarter that they got stopped on, bringing up fourth down and here came the kicking crew out to attempt a 38 yard field goal, and Quigley nailed it for a new season long and a 51-0 score at half. The Panthers had one positive yard of offense in the entire first half.
After halftime the second team offense and defense came onto the field for Washington as the continuous clock was on and the Demons had a substantial lead. The second team defense of the Demons held the Panther for the entire third quarter and much of the fourth before they finally broke through on a 14 yard touchdown run by Dustin Amos to break the shutout, and that was the game.
Demon head coach Randy Schrader said it was a great first half for the team, and that his team knew what was at stake.
“I think that first half, our kids were focused, we were concerned, and we talked about that earlier, but it is a Mt. Pleasant, Washington game and we have a lot of coaches who are Washington guys who understand the significance of it, and we told our guys when you play Washington versus Mt. Pleasant, you play for everyone in our community, the surrounding areas in our school and it is important that we make sure the Washington name is where it needs to be, and in that first half we were pretty tough,” Schrader said.
Coker led the ground game with 113 yards and two touchdowns, while next was Jacob Hennigan who got some reps with the first team offense and had 68 yards. Seibelius went 4-9 for 54 yards and two touchdowns and Quigley was 7-8 in PAT’s and 1-1 for field goals with his new long from 38.
The Demons stay undefeated in district play and will host Ft. Madison next week for senior night at Case Field.