It was an emotional night at Case Field Friday and the Washington football team came out with a decisive 35-7 win over Fairfield on homecoming.
After both team’s traded punts early it was Fairfield that drew first blood when bruising runningback Tristin Waugh marched the Trojans right down the field. The drive was capped off by a 18 yard touchdown pass from Carson Crile to Leone Gichure to take a 7-0 lead. The Demons returned the favor the next drive utilizing the run game with a steady dose of senior runningback Jack Redlinger. The Demons found the equalizer on a five-yard touchdown run by Jaivonn Willis. The Demon defense turned up the intensity and got a huge play from Mario Tapia who picked off a Crile pass and took it back to the opponent 40 on a 20 yard return. Four plays later Redlinger ran it in from 15 yards out and the Demons took the lead for good. Washington took a two-touchdown lead into the break when Willis took a direct snap and showed off his arm finding Sawyer Whisler for a 28-yard touchdown pass. After the two-point conversion the Demons led 22-7 at the break.
In the second half it was big plays from the defense and special teams that broke the game open. Early in the third quarter Ryan Reighard came in on a blitz and crushed Crile right when he threw, which caused a bad pass that fell into the arms of Cale Hobscheidt. The athletic defensive end did the rest as he took it 50 yards to the house for the pick-six. Later in the quarter Washington dialed up a designed fake punt where Tristin Westphal-Edwards showed off his speed and went 65 yards into the endzone. The score would stand the rest of the way and the Demons captured the 35-7 homecoming win.
After nearly 100 rushing yards in the first quarter for Waugh, the Demon defense held strong the rest of the way holding him to 133 yards total on 31 carries. The Demons showed why they are the leading rushing team in the district racking up 389 yards on the ground led by Redlinger on 17 carries for 136 yards.
With the win Washington improves to 4-1 as Fairfield drops to 1-4. The Demons get back on the gridiron Friday traveling to Keokuk.