All gas, no brakes. The driver’s seat for the Class 3A District 5 football crown is currently occupied by Washington, as the Demons boosted their resume with a 41-27 road victory last night against fellow league favorite Mount Pleasant to spoil homecoming for the Panthers.
Washington fans were gifted a lot of gray hairs after watching last year’s 64-61 rollercoaster win against the Panthers, but luckily for them, anxiety levels were low last night and a big reason why was an almost flawless first quarter. After the Panthers coughed the ball up on the first play from scrimmage, the Demons took advantage of a short field capped off by a four-yard score by Trashaun Willis. The Willis to Ethan Patterson connection was a well oiled machine in the first half, as they found each other for a couple passing touchdowns from 27 and four yards out to take a 21-0 advantage after one. The Panthers could not do anything right offensively until a sustained drive in the second reached pay dirt to push the score to 21-7 at half.
Whatever momentum the Panthers felt at the break was squashed in the third when Willis found the end zone on a 29-yard rushing score and a 16 yard touchdown pass to Spencer Sotelo to open up a 34-7 advantage. Mount Pleasant never stopped pushing and scored a few late touchdowns, but never threatened to get closer than two possessions and the Demons cruised to their 10th straight win in the rivalry.
Head Coach James Harris tells KCII Sports it was all about the fast start. “I thought our team played fantastic to start the game. We get the turnover, our offense was clicking, we are filling our gaps, and doing everything we needed to. Hats off to our coaching staff for the plans we had coming into the game. On the offensive side Trashaun played exceptional, our offensive line had great protection, and Patterson balled out. There was a lot of good stuff that happened tonight at a tough place to play.”
Willis accounted for all six Washington touchdowns with three on the ground and through the air. The senior carried the rock 14 times for 95 yards and completed 13 of 19 passes for 129. Patterson was his main target with six receptions for 65 yards and the two scores. Lucas Kroll led the defense with 12 tackles and numerous pass breakups. Mount Pleasant racked up 379 yards of total offense, but was hampered by 11 penalties for 105 yards.
The Demons move to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the district. They return to Case Field for homecoming on Friday to face Fairfield (1-3).