Hounds bottled up by Demons

FORT MADISON – It certainly wasn’t the night the Bloodhound fans or Head Coach Derek Doherty were looking for Friday night at Richmond Stadium.
The Hounds took it on the chin in a 49-6 loss to Washington (4-4) in a game where nothing was going Fort Madison’s way. And the salt is the Bloodhounds have top-ranked Solon on the road next week.
Doherty said he challenged his team to get up and go to work with one game left in the season.
“This is what a man does. A man doesn’t lay down. He freakin’ wakes up the next day and goes right back to work,” Doherty said.
“I know I’m going to. I assume my staff’s going to. That was my challenge to them. We’ll find out on Monday whether they are becoming young men or not.”
Washington came out and set the tone quickly on 1st and 10  following a short opening kick to the Demon 40. Senior quarterback Nic Stone dropped straight back and threw a 42-yard strike to Ashton Manz who was brought down at the 18 of Fort Madison.
Five plays later Liam Roberts, who would be a thorn in the Hounds’ side all night, would go in on an end-around to the left side for 7-0 lead with the PAT.
Fort Madison would run twice on the next series before junior Owen Huffman would throw one of three Bloodhound interceptions on the night. That tied the season total for Huffman. With the turnover, then Stone would throw a screen to Blayze Richardson who would get free down the sidelines for a 51-yard touchdown on the very next play for a 14-0 lead.
Fort Madison’s Mo Thacher would get his longest run of the night on a 26-year scamper up the middle on 1st and 10 from the Hound 40. He would get runs of 5 and 1 on the next two plays before Huffman through his next pick.
Washington would run down and score four plays later when Bowden Brown stepped through the Bloodhound secondary and raced 55 yards for the score.
Both teams would force turnovers on downs on the next two possessions. The Hound had a nice defensive stand about three minutes into the second quarter capped by a Ren Watson sack on 3rd and 16 with Stone scrambling all over the place looking for a receiver. Stone would throw incomplete on 4th and 29 following a Demon penalty and Fort Madison would take over on downs at their own 34.
The Demons would get a four-and-out forcing a Bloodhound punt to the Demon 30. Stone would fumble on the first play of the series and Fort Madison would recover right there at the 30 and 1st and 10.
The next series was emblematic of the Hounds' night. Fort Madison would go 11 plays and lose five total yards. They advanced all the way to the seven before three penalties and a sack forced them all the way back to the 35. Then Huffman threw a pass down the left sideline that was tipped by a Demon defender and dropped into Jayden Cratton’s hands for a score cutting the lead to 21-6. The PAT was blocked.

Washington’s Julian Parsons would take a ball 50 yards on the fourth play of the Demon’s next possession to answer and reset the score at 28-6 at the half.
Fort Madison couldn’t get anything going in the second half despite rotating Stefan Berlett in for Huffman at quarterback. Washington got the running clock going with their second touchdown of the second half making the score 41-6.
"I think it comes down to wanting to make plays and being excited to make plays. They were, and we were scared to make mistakes," Doherty said.
"We played on our heels and played cautious all night. We talked about that. We know they were going to bring it and play with some reckless abandon. We showed up and didn’t look like we had energy to play."
Doherty said Berlett has been accepting different roles all season and moving him in at quarterback was trying to find some energy for the team.
"Stefan’s been busting his butt all year in practice and accepting different roles. Things weren't working so you gotta change it up sometimes, and he did some nice things. We had to try to get something going."
Huffman finished 6-of-13 for 57 yards and touchdown against two interceptions. Berlett was 3-4 for 21 yards and one pick. Thacher was held to just 68 yards on 23 carries as the Demon defense bottled up the middle pretty good all night.
Watson led the Hound defense with 6.5 tackles, five solo and two tackles for loss. Liam Prier had six tackles and Marshall Heitman had 4.5. Prier, Cal Hennings, Nolan Lamb all had tackles for losses. Lamb had three for 12 yards.
Fort Madison falls to 3-5 on the year and will wrap up the season with a road trip to the Class 3A No. 1 Solon Spartans next Friday night.