Chalk up another win for the Washington football team on Friday night, as they opened district play with a home bout against Fort Madison on heroes night and came away with a 29-7 victory.
A baseball score showed up on the scoreboard for much of the first quarter with the Demons leading 2-0 after a sack by Reece Mayer on the third play from scrimmage that resulted in a safety. That set the tone for the stingy Demon defense with Fort Madison having negative yards at half and they registered 0 rushing yards for the game with just 28 passing yards. With the defense doing their thing, the offense found their footing late in the first when Trashaun Willis called his own number on an option play and scampered 72 yards to the house with help from downfield blocking. That 9-0 advantage stretched to 15-0 right before half when a great punt return by Jacob Miller with just six seconds left in the second set up a Willis to Spencer Sotelo 15 yard touchdown pass to give all the momentum to the home team. Head Coach James Harris knew that was a big point in the game. “I was recently talking with a coworker of mine about how important momentum is right before the half. We stopped them and I wasn’t sure if we should call a timeout since we were stale offensively. Looking at the clock I figured why not. Our punt return guys were able to stand them up that allowed Jacob to have the big play and great job by the offense on the next play. That was a huge moment right before half.”
The good times rolled into the third when Willis added to the lead on a nine yard score and Ethan Zieglowsky picked off Will Larson and maneuvered 55 yards to paydirt. That was the first of two picks on the night for the junior and Sotelo also had one in the fourth deep in the redzone. The Bloodhounds took advantage of Demon penalties in the fourth to get on the board, but too little, too late.
Willis recorded 76 yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns and one passing. Wilx Witthoft added 65 yards rushing and Lucas Kroll led the defense with 10 tackles.
Washington moves to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in district play. They hit the road Friday to Mount Pleasant (2-1).