Hounds still finding maturity in losses

FORT MADISON – Growth and a little maturation surfaced in the second half of the Fort Madison Bloodhounds loss to West Burlington Friday night.
The Hounds lost 32-13 in the non-district battle, and Derek Doherty said he saw some things that again speak to the Hounds inexperience. The loss drops the Hounds to 0-2 with two more non-district games including Central Lee at home next week and then Class 3A’s top-ranked Mt. Vernon Mustangs on the road the following Friday.
“It’s blocking, it’s tackling, it’s angles. I think we’ve got the right drills, I think our practice script is good. Are we taking those drills serious? After tonight, I’m not really sure. Our angles were bad, our tackling was bad, and our execution on completing plays was frustrating,” Doherty said.
“We’re extremely rookie-ish.”
The defining moment was the start of the second half with Fort Madison down just 13-6. Sophomore quarterback Stefan Berlett had completed his eighth pass in a series that saw 12 culminating in a 10-yard strike to Conner Horn in the east endzone of Jim Youel Field on the Hounds final drive of the first half. On the 3rd quarter kick, West Burlington rolled an onside kick up the middle of the field and no Hounds pounced on the ball, nor did they make contact with the front of the Falcon kick-off team who ran down and covered the live ball almost untouched. They would score four plays later when quarterback Kellen Porter slid in off the left side for another touchdown and a 19-6 lead.
The Bloodhounds would suffer the left side of the Falcon offensive line all night long. West Burlington Head Coach Joe Bowman kept pounding the tackle gap and left end and was rewarded with three touchdowns, two in the fourth quarter to put the game away on runs of 49 and 60 yards by Marcus Zachary Joyce, who didn’t have a carry last week against Danville.
“They went into an odd front that we kind of freaked out about at first,” Doherty said. “But we’ve faced an odd front because we run an odd front. So I’m interested to see how many times they ran the same play left, or right.”
“We got picked on on our outside linebackers and we told them this is what was going to happen. You have to set an edge and fight through doubles. You aren’t gonna be the guy who gets the tackle, but you’re the guy who makes tackles happen.”

The Hounds changed things up in the third period and ran sophomore Aurelio Jaciunde in at quarterback. The Falcons saw the speedy Jaciunde in the backfield and called a time out. Fort Madison then ran a keeper through the right side with Jaciunde getting a nice seven-yard run called back on a holding penalty.
Berlett went back in on the following series trailing 19-6 with the two squads getting defensive stops through most of the third. With 8:25 left in the game Berlett made a game of it when he found Owen Huffman behind the Falcons’ front set with the Hounds set up for a bubble screen. Huffman sneaked out behind the secondary and made the catch at about the 20 and raced into the west endzone making one Falcon miss on the way.  The PAT was good and Fort Madison was within a score at 19-13.
The Falcons would score four plays later when Zachary Joyce went again off the left tackle through a wide open hole and raced down the north sideline into the east endzone for 49-yard score. He would score again five plays later this time from 60 yards again off the left tackle to set the final score.
“Football’s a game of peaks and valleys and we talked to our kids all week about every play has a life and legacy. You never know when you're gonna be backed up and breaking one off for 88 yards and what a legacy that would be. But then there’s the downside of it. Did you take that play off and something bad happens,” he said.
“It a maturity thing in every single sport. Everybody wants to win. They wanted to win, we wanted to win, but it’s not about winning. It’s about executing to influence the win.”
Berlett attempted 37 passes as the Hounds ground game was stifled early on. He completed 18 of those for 128 yards and a couple scores.  Jordan Thompson caught seven passes but was targeted 16 times for 44 yards. Huffman had one catch, the 34-yard touchdown. Conner Horn and Jaciunde each had three catches. Mo Thacher had nine carries for 41 yards.
Marshall Heitman had nine tackles, five solo and one tackle for loss. Cal Hennings had two tackles behind the line of scrimmage for nine yards. Eric Cornelis had 5.5 tackles in the loss.