Inexperience costs Bloodhounds in lopsided loss

BURLINGTON – “Our time’s coming. I promise you that.”
Those words from Fort Madison Head Coach Derek Doherty following Friday’s season-opening 62-19 loss to Burlington were labored, but optimistic.
What amounted to a jayvee vs. varsity blowout seemed at times to be a jumping-off point for the Bloodhounds, who’ve now lost 11 straight.
The Hounds had no answer for the Grayhounds' Keshawn Wyldon, an all-district honorable mention senior transfer out of Iowa City Liberty, who scored three TDs on runs of 18, 44, and 45 yards. Wyldon would find running lanes throughout the night out of the Bloodhounds' power sets, and then outrun everyone to the endzone. He had 133 yards on just eight carries.
And then John Phillips made things even more difficult, shurking tackles all night to lead all rushers with 155 yards and a touchdown. Burlington then moved Phillips from running back to quarterback to replace Caden Zaugg with the game out of reach, and Phillips chewed up yardage on keepers there.
“(Wyldon) for them is a game changer. I mean he's a shot of juice - that dude’s a dude. He single handedly made a ton of plays. He came down here from Liberty, so he's been up there getting coached. We knew he was going to pose some problems,” Doherty said.
Doherty chalked the loss up to the inexperience without trying to lean on it.
“We're young. We're gonna go through growing pains. Some of this stuff is inexcusable, but we're going to keep chipping away and I firmly believe our time is coming.”
The Hounds weren’t without their moments of life Friday night. Sophomore Mo Thacher ran hard all night behind a line that was providing some openings against a much larger Grayhound front three and four.

Thacher actually got the Hounds on the board with a 2-yard pitch play where the Hounds stretched out Burlington’s defense and Thacher actually rolled on a Burlington defender at the goal line before hitting the turf for a 20-7 Burlington lead.
It was all Grayhounds from there, save for an Eric Cornelis touchdown in the fourth quarter and a Brody Ulik 8-yard sideline grab and go. Cornelis led the Hounds in rushing with 59 yards on six carries, much of that coming against BHS’ reserves.
Stefan Berlett was 7 of 13 for 71 yards with no interceptions and a TD. He also rushed for 17 yards on five carries.
Doherty said the Hounds started nine sophomores against the junior and senior laden Grayhounds, but he said they still need to find their game gear.
“Early on we were getting open, we were just dropping balls. We were making very young mistakes and that's not an excuse. But it also doesn't mean that we can't make plays. And we probably needed a little bit of this, you know,” Doherty said.
“I'm fully confident that these guys are going to commit to the process and our time is going to come and we're going to keep chipping away.  I'm glad that they don't like the outcome and I don't either. This sucks right now and it sucks for our guys and I hate that we have to go through it, but that's where we're at.
“But I promise you, we're going to keep at it here. I told them no one's coming to save us.”
Marshall Heitman led the Hounds in tackles with 6.5. Liam Prier had the only tackle for a loss on the night for Fort Madison with a two-yard solo. Aurelio Jacuinde provided a spark for the Hounds on special teams almost breaking two returns for scores. He was brought down from behind both times, but showed flashes of explosiveness, and had 5.5 tackles, five solo.
Fort Madison opens the home season next Friday with West Burlington. The Falcons knocked off Danville 19-13 in their opener Friday night.