The Washington Demon football team is going for the undefeated district season, and a regular season outright championship tonight when they take on Centerville.
Washington has blown through most of the teams they played this year, with the closest win coming at the beginning of the season when they won 35-14 to Mid-Prairie.
Washington has been led all season by their senior running back Alex Coker, who is just 12 yards shy of reaching 1000 on the year. He has 17 touchdowns and almost averages 10 yards per carry. Daryn Seibelius is behind him with 489 yards and five touchdowns, he is also 29-71 for 434 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. The other supporting cast consists of Carl Sivels with 370 yards and five touchdowns and Tanner Knupp with 268 yards and seven touchdowns.
On the receiving end, Gage Redlinger has 113 yards on three catches and three touchdowns, while Coker is racing up the stat sheet with 107 yards on four catches and two touchdowns.
On the defensive side of the ball, Jeff Knupp, Tanner Knupp and Garrett Covington are all tied at 52 tackles on the year, but in this game the Demons will look to Sivels who leads in interceptions to keep the passing attack at bay.
Centerville has been without their starting quarterback for a week, taking them from a sure No. 3 seed down to fighting to staying in the playoffs tonight. The Big Reds do bring back their quarterback Michael Starcevich who is 84-150 for 1,661 yards, 13 touchdowns and two interceptions. The rushing game is almost nonexistent, as Starcevich leads the way. On the receiving core, Centerville likes to throw to Kolton Gonnerman, with 54 catches and 987 yards and eight touchdowns he leads 3A in yards. They do have other targets as well with Garrett Moorman with 473 yards and four touchdowns and Graydon Schmidt with 275 yards and two touchdowns.
The Centerville defense is anchored by Gabe Cowan with 107 tackles on the season.
Demon head coach Randy Schrader says composure and preventing the big play from getting the team down will be a big key to tonight’s matchup.
“I think we have to keep our composure, I think that is the big thing, how are we going to handle some adversity, because man they throw the ball all over the field, and when you have as many athletes as they do at the skilled positions, if we break down in coverage and they get one over the top on and score on us, how are we going to handle that, because we’ve done a good job defensively all year, of really not allowing people into the end-zone against our ‘D’,” Schrader said. “So what’s going to happen if they happen to break one, we blow our coverage and they hit a big one, are we going to respond back on specials, and is our offense going to come and respond to that, and that will be the key I think, it’s just how are we going to handle our composure.”
Washington and Centerville play tonight at Centerville, and you can hear this game right here on AM and FM KCII with pregame at 7 and kickoff at 7:30. The one to count on for today’s local sports coverage is AM and FM KCII.