Over the past two weeks, the Washington Demon football team (4-3 overall; 3-1 in district) has been outstanding offensively.
It started during Washington’s homecoming game against Fort Madison, where the Demons scored 56 points in the first half and would end up blowing out the Bloodhounds 65-20. Last week in Keokuk, the Demons scored 47 first half points, and would end up ruining the Chief’s Senior Night game 67-27.
A lot of credit for the Demons’ recent offensive success has to be given to senior quarterback Daryn Sebelius. In the last two games alone, Sebelius has totaled 862 yards of total offense and scored 12 touchdowns total (10 passing, 2 rushing). Head coach Garrison Carter says it was nice to come in this season with a three-year starter at the quarterback position, and that Sebelius is starting to grasp the new offense.
“Daryn (Sebelius) just fits what we want to do so perfectly.” Carter said, “You hate to say it’s a system thing because Daryn (Sebelius) obviously is the reason we are running the system but he has bought into it and has done really well. He is a threat to pull it at any point and run, he’s got a great arm. He is accurate and we ask our quarterbacks to be accurate and to put some throws on the money.”
Coming into the week, Sebelius is the top quarterback in Class 3A football in total yards, third in the state in passing yards, and trails only Fort Madison’s Kameron Cooper as the top rusher in Class 3A district 5. Defensively, the Demons were able to force the Chiefs into throwing two interceptions to junior Dakota Suchan, who was starting at safety for the first time last week. For Suchan he appreciated the opportunity for playing time on the defensive side of the ball.
“It was nice knowing the coaches wanted to give me playing time.” Suchan said, “I think it helped moving Daryn (Sebelius) up to outside linebacker.”
It’s rivalry week for the Demons as the team prepares for a trip to Mount Pleasant for a matchup with the Panthers. With a record of 2-5, and 1-4 district play, Mount Pleasant head football coach Shawn Striegle says having their longtime rival on the schedule is a late season motivator for his team.
“We don’t have much of a shot of being in the playoffs.” Striegle said, “It really comes down to what kind of man do you want to be when you are playing the game of life? It’s really not that much different in playing the sport of football.”
The rivalry renews tonight in Mount Pleasant as the Demons travel to face the Panthers. Coverage begins with the Washington Hy-Vee Pregame Show at 7 p.m. on FM 106.1 KCII and online at KCIIradio.com.