The Franklinton Demons football team defeated the Pine Raiders last Friday in Demon Stadium to take the Washington Parish championship. After a hard fought game that was tied midway of the third quarter, the Demons pulled away for a 29-14 victory.
The Demons opened the game driving down to the Raiders 11 yard line but stalled out there, turning the ball over on downs. The teams traded punts before the Demons’ Rajon Covington recovered a fumble. The Demons offense capitalized on the turnover and scored when Jayden Burkhalter caught a 40 yard pass for a 7-0 lead with :15 left in the first.
The Demons drove to the Pine 8 and the 23 on consecutive drives that were both stopped by the Raiders and the 7-0 score stood at halftime.
The Raiders took the opening possession of the second half and put together a solid drive that was capped off with a 13 yard run by Chris Williams for a touchdown that tied the game at 7-7.
The Demons answered with a 67 yard drive that Ricardo Burris ended with a three yard touchdown run. The two point conversion was good and the Demons were up 15-7.
After a Raider punt the Demons again scored as Jacob Crain scored from one yard out to go up 22-7.
Tyler Magee intercepted a Raider pass to end their drive and again the Demons capitalized as Rayden Raborn scored on a one yard run. This put the Demons up 29-7 with 3:41 left in the game.
The Raiders fought back and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive when Chris Williams went in from the 14 to cut the lead to 29-14 with 1:40 left. An onsides kick attempt was recovered by the Demons and they ran out the clock to preserve the victory.
Franklinton Coach Nick Salataformaggio saw good things from his team in the win. "We got our run game going. The last three weeks we’ve played some really good football teams, obviously. I always felt we could run it a little bit --- our offensive line did a great job as establishing a run game is critical. We're where we were last year at this time but I think we're a little bit better. We're beating the same teams worse. So, that's a good sign of a progression in your program. We have a tough game next week, a short week. We just have to keep taking care of business and playing well. We're playing pretty well right now."
Pine Coach Bradley Seal took a broad perspective of the game. "Well, when you take a step back you realize we got beat by a good football team that has done a lot of good things over the last two years. I thought our defense played well. Our offense struggled to get things going. We have to look at the film and get ready for Pearl River."
FHS Quarterback Jacob Crain passed for 176 yards and a touchdown, completing 14 of 23 attempts while running for 57 yards on nine carries. Jayden Burkhalter was the leading receiver with four catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. DaMikies McClain also caught four for 52 yards, Dalton Freeman caught four for 51 yards and Ricardo Burris caught two. Burris rushed for 153 yards on 31 carries to lead the Demons’ rushing and Rayden Raborn rushed ten times for 26 yards and a touchdown. Jayden Burkhalter added 7 yards on three carries and Stephen Tate rushed twice for 21 yards. Chris Gonzales was 3 of 3 on extra points and 0-1 on field goal attempts.
On the Raiders side, Quarterback Trey Knight passed 17 times for 67 yards and a touchdown on 8 completions. He also rushed 5 times for 44 yards. Chris Williams was the leading receiver with 33 yards on two carries, Delvonta Gardner caught three for 14, Gary Brumfield caught two for 12 and Brayon Thomas caught one for 8. Chris Williams was the leading rusher for the Raiders with 40 yards and a touchdown on 7 carries, Braxton Newman rushed 5 times for 18 yards, Brady Ryals rushed once for 5 yards, Gardner rushed twice for 2 yards and Isaiah Matthews rushed twice for 12 yards. CJ Cobon was 2 of 2 on extra points.
The Demons will travel to Fontainebleau on Thursday to take on the 5A Bulldogs who are 2-1 on the season. On a side note the Demon defensive player who was ejected late in the game against Pine will not be suspended for the Fontainebleau game.
The Raiders will travel to Pearl River to play the 4A Rebels, who are 1-1 on the season.
