FORT MADISON – No cupcakes.
Fort Madison Head Coach Derek Doherty has been saying all year, the Bloodhound football team has no cupcakes.
“It’s what we need to do if we want to be the program that we want to be,” he said.
The Hounds are coming off a 48-14 loss to Class 3A’s top-ranked Williamsburg last Friday and now run square up against No. 7 Davenport Assumption (3-1), whose only loss was a 48-21 affair with Class 4A’s No. 3 North Scott. That game was tied going into the fourth quarter.
“We don’t look at a football game, or at least we try not to, as one test, if you will. We’re not outcome focused, we’re process focus. A lot of good things happened in that game,” Doherty said of the loss to the Raiders.
“We found out that we’re not proficient, if that was our assessment of competing for four quarters against the best team in the state.”
Doherty said the Hounds have been looking for consistency all year and that again was the message this week in practice.
The Knights put senior tailback Angelo Jackson on full display. Jackson has 750 yards rushing over four weeks and 11 touchdowns. The Hound defense has been solid against the run this year and Williamsburg ran into that last week. But when Fort Madison took away the run in the first quarter, the Raiders went to plan B and Iowa recruit Derek Weisskopf over the left side of the secondary to back the Hounds off a bit.
Doherty said that was the weakness but that can be corrected and not everyone has that kind of talent at those positions.
“I really do believe that we proved we can play with those teams. We’re gonna have to do that the rest of the way. I’ve said it a hundred times. We don’t have cupcakes on our schedule. We have to line up and be our best. We can’t play an A game we have to play A+ games overall,” he said.
Assumption rolls out quarterback Jake Timmons who’s thrown for 631 yards and four scores on the year. He’s only completed about 10 passes per game, preferring to run.
“On paper, it looks like it’s a good matchup. Very tough test,” Doherty said. “Right away Jackson stands out and I started looking at flim from last year and was hoping that kid was a senior. Nope he was a junior so we get him as a senior. I think we have kids that stand out on film, too. It’s going to be a great battle.”
Doherty said as good as Jackson is, it starts with a solid offensive line.
“He’s getting that done because of the guys in front of him. We’ve gotta be in it four quarters if we want a swinging chance at these guys.”
Fort Madison took a hit Friday night when Brody Cashman, who is an intergral part of the Hounds' pressure defense, and has been a spark on offense as well, went down with an knee injury.
Doherty said the prognosis on that was still unknown but gave a little hint to the seriousness because he said his heart breaks for Cashman who had really come into his own as an athlete, not just in football.
The Hounds will rely again on the flex option with junior Marcus Guzman who can run or throw, a hallmark of Bloodhound football the last several years.
Hayden Segoviano has become a healthy option out of the backfield carrying the ball and catching some swing pitches that have resulted in big yardage.
The Hounds had a small case of the drops last week. Guzman went 23-35 for 220 yards, but about a half dozen of the incompletions were off Hound receivers' hands.
Guzman had the two touchdowns for Fort Madison last week and he leads the Hounds on the ground with six touchdowns on the year on 169 yards rushing. Segoviano has 210 yards.
The senior is also second on the team in tackles with 19. Senior Teague Smith leads the Hounds with 20, four of those for losses.
Tonight’s game is located at Pat and Jack Bush Stadium at the St. Vincent Athletic Complex in Davenport beginning at 7:30 p.m.
If you can’t make the game and want to watch the livestream, go to this link with coverage beginning at about 7:10 p.m.: https://www.youtube.com/live/LWZLLvAuBTY?si=4k5kb92NztfXlrOS.
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