The Franklinton Demons football team suffered a heartbreaking loss last Friday on the road at Covington. The Demons are now 1-1 on the season with a big game coming up Friday against Pine in Demon Stadium. The Raiders are 2-0 on the season with a big win over Independence last week. The Demons edged the Raiders 29-28 last season in an overtime thriller.
The Lions opened the scoring on a 22 yard pass on the opening possession of the game to go up 7-0. Early in the second quarter they scored again, this time on a 14 yard pass to go up 14-0 at the 10:20 mark of the second period.
The Demons scored late in the second quarter when quarterback Jacob Crain found DaMikies McClain for a 29 yard touchdown. The two point conversion was no good and the Demons went into halftime trailing 14-6.
The Demons and the Lions battled evenly throughout the third period with neither team scoring.
The Lions pushed the score to 21-6 when they scored on a 17 yard quarterback run at the 8:47 mark of the fourth. The Demons answered with a good drive that was capped off with a 16 yard reception by Jayden Burkhalter to make the score 21-13 with 6:15 to go in the game.
The Lions quarterback again scored on a run to push the score to 28-13 forcing the Demons to answer, which they did with a nice drive that ended with a 12 yard pass to Colin Stewart to make the score 28-20.
The Demons then recovered an onside kick at their own 44 before driving down to the one yard line. Jacob Crain went in for the touchdown from there to cut the lead to 28-26 with just :09 left in the game. The Demons two point conversion attempt was smothered and the game ended with the Demons falling in a heartbreaker 28-26.
Coach Nick Saltaformaggio showed a lot of fight. "We played extremely hard for 48 minutes. We have played excellent competition and have showed that we can be a very good team. We have to continue to get better and realize that this team has a tremendous opportunity to play a long and successful season."
Jacob Crain passed 40 times completing 25 for 285 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. He also rushed for 5 yards on 6 carries with a touchdown. DaMikies McClain was the leading receiver with 8 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown, Jayden Burkhalter caught 6 for 110 yards and a touchdown, Ricardo Burris caught 3 for 15, Dalton Freeman caught 3 for 11 yards and Colin Stewart caught 3 for 27 yards and a touchdown. Ricardo Burris rushed 21 times for 57 yards and Rayden Raborn rushed once for 2 yards. Chris Gonzales was 2 of 2 on extra points.
