Competing for a playoff spot starts now for the Washington Demon football team when they open class 3A district 5 play today at Grinnell for week five action.

The Demons will try to get right after a 1-3 non-district slate including a heart wrenching 23-19 loss to Fort Madison last week. Trying to establish the run game will be the goal after just 91 rushing yards a game thus far. Ethan Patterson has thrown for 728 yards for five touchdowns with three of those to Lucas Kroll. The senior Kroll leads the defense with 40 tackles for a unit that has surrendered 33 points a night. Grinnell has been a program on the rise coming off of a state quarterfinal berth last year with an 8-3 record. They are 2-2 this fall and lost to North Polk 42-21 last week. Colin Gibson has completed 23 of 44 passes for 389 yards and five touchdowns. Cole Johnson is their feature back with 357 rushing yards and four scores. 

Demon head coach Nick Ehret tells KCII Sports the Tigers want to tote the rock. “They are a run heavy offense and are big upfront. They aren’t doing anything fancy, but they will throw a lot of bodies at you. We have to be stout upfront, be sound in our assignments, and need to tackle well. Those are some things that have been a difference in a few of our games so we have to clean that up for this one.”

This is the first meeting between these two programs since 2011. The district action begins at 7:30 p.m. in Grinnell. Our coverage begins at 6 p.m. with the Football Friday Preview and we take over from Grinnell at 7 p.m. on FM 106.1 KCII.