The Franklinton Demons football team scrimmaged with the Hammond Tornados last Thursday in Demon Stadium. The Demons came out on top of the scrimmage as they scored seven touchdowns to Hammond's four.
The scrimmage began with goal line situations and Hammond scored once on their four plays while the Demons scored three times in their four plays. Chakyn McClain rushed for a touchdown, Ricardo Burris rushed for a touchdown and Kerston Diddon rushed for a touchdown as well.
The second goal line series saw each team score as Stephen Tate scored on a one yard run for the Demons.
The teams then ran a set number of plays with both teams scoring on long plays. The Tornados seemed to have scored on a 76 yard pass but a penalty nullified that play. The Demons scored when Ricardo Burris went 60 yards for a touchdown. Hammond then scored on a 12 yard quarterback run.
A "live" portion of the scrimmage was then held and the Demons drove from their 30 to score when Kerston Diddon hit Jayden Burkhalter for a 32 yard touchdown. Hammond answered with a drive that was capped off with a 14 yard pass. The Demons responded quickly as Diddon hit Burkhalter again for a 70 touchdown on the first play of the drive. Hammond was held on downs and the time ran out on the live portion.
Coach Nick Saltaformaggio, entering his fourth season as head coach of the Demons, was pleased and pointed out numerous things that he liked. "I thought it was a very competitive scrimmage between excellent football teams. The most important aspect was we had no injuries which allows our players to jump right into summer weight training and conditioning. I thought we were physical and competed every down at a high level. The fact that we played a ton of talented young players was impressive. Our returning players obviously stood out. Jayden Burkhalter, Chakyn McClain and Ricardo Burris were explosive. We also discovered some other players that will be winners for us in Steven Tate and Preston Venable. Kerston Diddon and Devin Harris played extremely well. The offensive line grew throughout the scrimmage and will only get better. Kaleb Wright is the only returning starter up front and all of those guys are under classmen. Defensively, it was the best we have looked in a while. We had some big plays go against us, but those are tackling issues that we can correct. We were strong up front, Kaleb Garrett is a handful and our strength is becoming more pronounced. Matt Harding, Rashard Ginn and Brayden Stafford all rising sophomore players are going to be excellent. The outside linebacker combo of Tyler Magee and Demontre Taylor are dynamic. The secondary is still a work in progress but played without two seniors that I held out because of slight injuries. I see big things coming from Cole Stewart and O'Sean Warren. ."
Kerston Diddon passed 17 times completing 12 for 216 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for a touchdown. Ricardo Burris rushed 6 times for 70 yards and a touchdown while Stephen Tate rushed 5 times for 16 yards and two touchdowns. Chakyn McClain caught one pass for 9 yards and Jayden Burkhalter caught 9 for 198 and two touchdowns.
