The Washington Demons couldn’t keep up with the Grinnell Tigers in Week Four of the high school football season. Washington fell 35-18 to Grinnell Friday night at Case Field, largely thanks to a strong start for the Tigers. While Grinnell scored a touchdown on three of their first four possessions, Washington had three punts and a turnover.

The Demons did summon a scoring drive late in the first half, with a 48-yard pass from quarterback Logan McDole to fellow junior Jayfred Espinosa setting up a short TD run for sophomore running back Kael Williams that cut the deficit to 21-6 at halftime. But the Tigers scored on the first drive of the second half and controlled the rest of the game, building as large as a 29-point lead.

Williams would come up with two more long scoring runs and finished with 155 yards on 16 carries. Espinosa finished with two receptions for 58 yards, but Washington only passed for 93 yards in total.

The Demon defense surrendered a season-high 439 yards to Grinnell, with senior linebacker Casen Evans leading the team with 11-and-a-half tackles. After the game, head coach Nick Ehret told KCII Sports he felt that, despite some early struggles, Washington never stopped fighting.

“I’ve said it all year [that] our boys battle,” Ehret says. “They don’t quit [and] they play hard. We did some real nice things toward the end of the game. Grinnell’s a good football team, and hats off to them. They’ve got some nice players and they executed well. It’s just kind of back to the drawing board for us, but, again, there’s some things to build on.”

With the loss, the Demons fall to 1-3. Next up is the start of district play and another conference battle, as Washington will look to spoil homecoming for Southeast Conference rival Keokuk this coming Friday. You can hear all the action starting at 7 on 106.1 FM KCII.