The Franklinton Demons football team moved their record to 2-1 last week with a solid victory over the neighboring Pine Raiders.
The Raiders record drops to 2-1 after the 48-20 loss.
The Demons will play the Sumner Cowboys this week on the road while Pine will host Pearl River for homecoming.
The Demons got on the board first as Kerston Diddon capped off a 48 yard drive with a quarterback sneak to go up 7-0. After a Pine fumble the Demons scored again on a 20 yard pass from Diddon to Jayden Burkhalter with 6:23 left in the first. After a Raider punt the Demons scored again on a 72 yard touchdown reception by Burkhalter for a 20-0 lead with 1:50 left in the first.
The Raiders then got on the board on a 30 yard run by Steven Daniels at the 11:04 mark of the second quarter.
After an onsides kick attempt was covered by the Demons they had a short field and took advantage as Ricardo Burris went in from 12 yards out for a 27-7 score.
Pine answered with a 52 yard run by Braxton Newman to cut the lead to 27-13 with 6:27 left in the second.
The Demons responded with two more touchdowns before halftime as Burkhalter scored from 38 yards out on a pass from Diddon and Burris added another nice touchdown run of 11 yards. The score would be 41-13 in favor of the Demons at halftime.
In the second half Pine scored late in the third period to cut the score to 41-20 as Brayson Pittman scored from 14 yards out.
The Demons scored on the ensuing possession as Chakyn McClain caught a 61 yard pass. The Raiders drove to the Demons five before turning the ball over on downs with 8:00 remaining in the game. The Demons then drove from the five to the Raiders three before time ran out.
FHS Coach Nick Saltaformaggio saw improvement from his team. "It is always great to beat your rival. Incredible crowd and truly amazing for the people of Washington Parish. You always want to see improvement from your team and we are seeing that. We can still improve and will need to in order to get to December. Kerston, Jayden, Chakyn, Ricardo and Steven are all playing at a different level. Defensively we are improving but our tackling has to be improved."
Demon quarterback Kerston Diddon had a good night with 267 yards and 4 touchdowns passing on 12 completions on 15 attempts while rushing for 10 yards and a touchdown on six attempts. He also had one interception.
Ricardo Burris rushed 18 times for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns. Stephen Tate rushed 8 times for 64 yards, Jayden Burkhalter rushed twice for 23 yards and Chakyn McClain rushed once for 3 yards. Jayden Burkhalter lead all receivers with 158 yards on 7 catches with 3 touchdowns. Chakyn McClain caught 4 for 88 yards and a touchdown while Rhett Anderson had one catch for 10 yards.
Pine Coach Bradley Seal also saw improvement during the game from his team. "Franklinton has a really good team. They made some plays early and we had some mistakes that put us in a hole. I think after the first quarter we played much better but never were able to get back in it. I like our football team and I like where we are headed," he said.
For Pine Brayson Pittman was the leading stats player with 75 yards rushing and a touchdown on five attempts. He also caught two passes for six yards. Isaiah Matthews had 8 carries for 56 yards, Braxton Newman rushed 4 times for 13 yards, Steven Daniels rushed once for 30 yards and a touchdown, Cooper Thomas rushed 10 times for 35 yards and Brodie McNeese rushed twice for no yards. Thomas passed 9 times with 4 completions and 26 yards. McNeese passed twice with one completion for 14 yards and a touchdown.
