Hounds face familiar foe on Homecoming

FORT MADISON – It’s Homecoming 2024 and the Hounds are hoping the pre-Homecoming activities will bring some energy and the season’s first W.
The Hounds lost to No. 10 Mt. Vernon last week to fall to 0-7 on the year, but are looking to Mt. Pleasant this week at home to get off the schneid.
The Panthers come into the week 1-3 in Class 3A District 4 play and are 3-4 overall. They feature a two-back system that gave Keokuk some fits last week in a 34-27 win on Mt. Pleasant’s home turf.
Seniors Zach Newton and Payton Walker account for the lion’s share of the Panther offense. Walker has seven rushing TDs to go along with 348 yards rushing, while Newton calls the signals throwing for a score against seven picks and rushing for 219 yards. Another senior, Cooper Coleman has a couple scores and close to 200 yards rushing on 75 carries. Junior Ramzy Davis has been a pleasant surprise out of the backfield with five touchdowns and 209 yards.
Newton's top targets have been Walker and Avin Troung. Troung has big-play credentials with more than 33 yards per catch for 200 yards on six grabs. Walker and Max Sloat are the mainstays in the Panther D combining for 66 tackles on 16.5 tackles for loss.
Fort Madison has gotten a little more creative over the last week or so, but Head Coach Derek Doherty said even at 0-7 the Bloodhounds went right back to work this week.
“We went right back to work. It’s what I love about these guys – there’s no quittin’ in them. They’ve faced adversity every week this year and they still come back ready to face it and work to fix it. You gotta be thankful for that,” he said.
The Hounds ran freshman Stefan Berlet in at quarterback last week in the Hounds’ 56-7 loss in Mt. Vernon. The intent was to create a different look to get quarterback Marcus Guzman out in open spaces. The Mustangs were able to sniff it out for the most part and the Hounds only score came a on look-what-I-found catch by Tristan Marshall, who caught a ball behind the secondary that was intended for Brody Cashman in the slot. The ball bounded off Cashman’s hands and found Marshall, who turned and raced 75 yards to the endzone in the third period.
Fort Madison has had trouble transitioning successful weeks of practice into game time situations.
“We’re going to keep doing some different things, because we don’t have an identity yet, even this late in the season,” he said. “We’ve got some things we’ve been working on and we're gonna try to make those things happen.”
With it being Homecoming this week, Doherty and the staff have been telling the guys it’s only a distraction if you let it be one. The annual powder puff football game was Thursday and Powder Puff volleyball game is on game day.
“Gotta keep the main thing the main thing and that means in how we do things,” Doherty said. Our leaders are guys that push.”
Doherty said Mt. Pleasant has some good wins and they are once again big up front.
“They’ve had some big wins and had a really big game last week against Keokuk. They have a lot of two back stuff and good lead blockers in there. It’s a nice pull scheme and they are big up front again. Not sure where they keep finding them, but wish we could do that.”
Fort Madison will regain the services of Brody Ulik who was carted off Mt. Vernon’s Martha Parsons Activity Complex field Friday night.
Doherty said at this point in the season, you will want the win, but he insists on staying true to the process.
“It’s what we preach. We have in-game goals and the big thing from these guys is how you do things. It doesn’t matter if you play the worst or the best, you have to be consistent,” he said.
“We’re really focused on the process. That may sound weird, but the kids are not outcome driven. They are, however, outcome focused.”
He said they will once again try to show a little creativity to get the best athletes the ball.
“Marcus, the majority of the time, will be the best athlete and we want to get him in space, but we have a couple other kids that can do things, too. We’ve given him more of a leash to do things on his own, - RPO and other green lights,” Doherty said. “He’s settling more and more into it. It’s been a big learning curve and there’s a lot more on his plate. I don’t know if that’s good, bad, or in between. He’s doing a good job and everything he’s learning again is new.”
The Hounds start play Friday night at 7:30 at Richmond Stadium’s Jim Youel Field.