The Washington Demon football team opened up its season at Case Field last night when they welcomed Marion to town, falling 40-14.

A game that was expected to be closely knit all the way through had the opposite outcome.  It was all Marion out of the gate, under the skill and leadership of senior quarterback Trevor Paulsen.  The Indians clipped down the field on their first three possessions (scoring twice and turning the ball over once), making it look effortless against the Demon defense.  The D played pretty lights out in the second half, but it was too little too late.

This was the first game for James Harris as head coach of the Demon football team.  He says the loss can be credited to the lack of experience, but also to the coach.

“There’s a lot of things.  It comes down to the leadership and the execution.  We didn’t come out; we had a lot of guys that lacked experience, and we didn’t execute well.” Harris said.

“And that comes all back to coaching and the person at the top.  Personally, I feel accountable for our lack of execution early, and we never really bounced back.”

Despite the loss, Harris doesn’t chalk this up as a failure.

“I don’t believe you ever really fail.  You either succeed or you learn, and we did a lot of learning tonight.”

Their next action comes this coming Friday when the Demons travel to Oskaloosa for a game that has been a shootout the last two years.  Coverage for that one will be on FM 106.1 KCII with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show starting at 7, kickoff at 7:30.