The Washington Demons couldn’t quite complete a late comeback and saw an 11-game win streak snapped against a conference rival when they lost 23-20 Friday at Fairfield. After both teams punted on their opening possessions, Fairfield rumbled 65 yards on seven straight run plays to score, with Trojan quarterback Sam Weaton sneaking in for a 4-yard touchdown.
The Trojans built the lead to 10-0 in the second quarter and were driving for more with less than four minutes until halftime when Washington got a fourth-down stop. A 37-yard pass from quarterback Logan McDole to fellow junior Mason Morgan jump-started the Demon offense, which finished the first half with a TD when McDole found Morgan again for a nine-yard scoring pass with 10 seconds until the break.
Only down four, Washington got the ball to begin the third quarter and didn’t waste it, as McDole found a seam and raced 66 yards to the end zone on the first play of the second half to give the Demons a 12-10 lead. But Fairfield had an immediate answer, as junior running back Cason Miller finished off another impressive drive with a 25-yard touchdown run, and after McDole threw an interception, Miller finished off a short-field march by scoring from a yard out.
Down 23-12 heading into the final quarter, Washington nearly summoned the rally they needed. Big plays from McDole running the ball and Morgan catching it got the Demons down to the one-yard line, where McDole punched it in with six minutes to play.
Sophomore Kael Williams threw a running-back pass to Morgan for the two-point conversion, and Washington got a stop with three minutes to go to get the ball back. Unfortunately, the Demons could not convert on fourth down with over a minute left, giving the ball back to Fairfield to kneel out the clock. Afterwards, Washington head coach Nick Ehret told KCII Sports that his team showed great resiliency in the face of adversity.
“I can’t fault their effort,” Ehret said. “They play hard and they fight to the end. That’s great to see. We’re a young football team. We’ve just got to get that execution for four quarters. We had it last week against Burlington, but kind of like Week One against [Oskaloosa], we had some young mistakes [and] we had some costly penalties, and we kind of got handled up front a little bit tonight, so we’ll get back at it and hopefully get back in the win column next week.”
Morgan was the big star of the night for the Demon offense, catching seven passes for 130 yards. McDole ran for 140 yards and passed for another 151. But Washington could not overcome the defense surrendering a season-high 317 rushing yards to Fairfield, resulting in the Demons dropping to 1-1 in the Southeast Conference and 1-2 overall. Washington next plays this Friday night at home against Grinnell, a game you can hear with pregame coverage beginning at 7 on KCII