Coming into Friday’s opener at Burlington, Demon head football coach Nick Ehret knew his team was going to be in for a much tougher night than last year’s 69-0 beatdown of the Grayhounds. Between battling cramps and trying to stop runningback Bryant Williams, tougher it was indeed. Their first trip to historic Bracewell Stadium ended in a stunner for the reigning district champs Washington, as the Grayhounds ran their way to a 39-18 week one victory.

As heard on KCII, the Demons got the start they were looking for with a methodical seven minute opening drive capped off by a three yard touchdown rush from first year quarterback Ethan Patterson. Later in the first the Grayhounds coughed the ball up for the second time when Kanyae Baker’s option pitch hit the ground and fell into the hands of Jacob Miller, who had a scoop and score 50 yard scamper to the house for a 12-0 advantage. Special teams had a rocky end to the first half for the orange and black with Williams taking the ensuing kickoff 82 yards to pay dirt and then a Burlington snapping blunder on a punt that looked to be a big loss turned into a 92 yard race down the sidelines. Those touchdowns were sandwiched in between a 38 yard scoring strike from Patterson to Lucas Kroll and Washington had a slight 18-14 lead at half. 

Struggling to snatch the momentum back, a Demon team that was already shorthanded due to injuries started dropping like flies with numerous stoppages of play for cramping issues on the humid night. Williams had no trouble taking advantage with the 5’8’’ 170 pound back reaching the endzone four more times including an 82 yard touchdown run early in the third. The senior finished with 19 carries for 224 yards and five touchdowns altogether. Burlington (1-0) had minus 10 yards rushing in last year’s meeting, but finished with 370 yards on the ground last night. Coach Ehret told KCII Sports Williams was a handful. “They did exactly what we thought they would, but you still have to tackle them and that is something we struggled with all night. He is a big, physical back and we were too high trying to tackle him. We have a lot of adjustments to make, but hats off to Burlington. They played a physical football game and were able to get the victory.”

The Demons start the year 0-1 and look to bounce back Friday for the home opener against Mount Pleasant (0-1).