The Washington boys soccer team took control of the game against Keokuk last night, and came out with the win.

The Demons played back and forth with Keokuk to start the game, but it was the Chiefs who struck first in the 14th minute from A.J. Swan. Washington responded with a goal of their own, as Joe Smith found a way to sneak past the defensive line and put one past the keeper to tie it up.

Keokuk pressured the Demons midway through the half, including getting a penalty kick off a hand ball in the box, but Jacob Baughman shut them down. Unfortuneatley for the Demons it resulted in a corner kick, which resulted in another corner kick that Cole Hinton scored on to take the 2-1 lead at the 22nd minute. The Demons once again got into the offensive zone, and a long throw in by Mason Quigley resulted in a header from Chris Avila that tied it in the 36th minute, and that’s how the first half ended.

In the second half Washington struck early in the 52nd minute, when Giovanni Coronel came up from the striker position and launched a beauty into the back of the net for the go ahead goal. The Chiefs got desperate and won possession time in the second half, but Baughman was keyed in, and it was the Demons that got the insurance goal, as a corner kick from Quigley was sent back and Gustavo Najera came sprinting from his defensive position to head the ball in at the 71st minute.

After the game head coach Steven Caulk said this team believes they can play with anyone on any night.

“They’re coming out here to fight, I mean they deserve all of the credit,” Caulk said. “We’ve really pushed them in practice, we’ve pushed them a lot in terms of conditioning, if you look at our bench, it is not very deep, so these guys come out and they know that they have 40 minutes for a half, another 40 and that’s the end of the game. They come out to fight, and they’re doing it, it’s great.”

Washington is now 3-1 on the season, and play at Ft. Madison on Thursday.