The Franklinton Demons football team bounced back in a big way last Friday in Demon Stadium as they demolished the Pearl River Rebels, 49-14. The Demons evened their district record at 1-1 and they are now 3-4 overall. The Demons will travel to Lakeshore this week in another district matchup.
The Demons opened the scoring on their first possession of the game as Quarterback Kerston Diddon hit Chakyn McClain for a 57 yard touchdown reception early in the first. After the teams traded possession the Demons scored again, this time on a five yard run by Steven Tate to put the Demons up 14-0.
Pearl River then put together a solid drive and scored on a nine yard run to cut the lead to 14-7. The Demons pushed the score back to a two touchdown lead after Diddon hit McClain again for a 48 yard touchdown and a 22-7 lead after Ricardo Burris scored the conversion. Burris scored late in the first half on a 29 yard jaunt to push the score to 28-7 after the extra point was blocked.
The Demons scored on their first two possessions of the second half on a two yard run by Burris and a nine yard run by Tate.
Late in the third period the Demons made the score 49-7 when Taylor McCray intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.
The rest of the game was then played under a running clock. The Rebels managed a touchdown at the 8:30 mark of the fourth but that was all they could do for the remainder of the game.
Coach Nick Saltaformaggio talked about the difference in his football team. "I felt like we had a good football team. We were just doing things that bad football teams do like turnovers, giving up onside kicks and losing halftime leads. I have a saying, 'no one remembers the halftime score'. We told our kids all week long that if the team that beat Covington and destroyed Pine, we need to get back to that. We had a good week of practice and it showed. We're going to be a tough out if we can get in. We just have to keep on keeping on."
Quarterback Kerston Diddon was 10 of 17 passing for 235 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed once for no yards. Ricardo Burris rushed 12 times for 80 yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Burkhalter rushed once for 4 yards, Steven Tate rushed 8 times for 53 yards, Ty'Juan Causey rushed once for no yards, Cannon Cummings once for 5 yards and Khalifa McClendon once for no yards.
Chakyn McClain caught four passes for 136 yards and a touchdown, Burkhalter caught four for 59 yards and Preston Venable caught two for 40 yards. Burkhalter also passed once for 12 yards to Diddon.
