The Franklinton Demons football team lost their last game of the season this past Friday at Lakeshore, 31-28 in a hard fought game that they held a lead in for portions of the second half.
With the loss the Demons fell to 3-7 overall and 2-3 in district. The loss knocked the Demons out of contention for a playoff spot as well. The game was played without their head coach, Nick Saltaformaggio, as he had surgery during the week.
The Demons fell behind early as Lakeshore used a seven minute, twelve play drive to score at the 4:42 mark to go up 7-0. The Demons defense stopped a Titan drive at midfield and also stopped their next drive with a Skyler Williams interception before going into halftime trailing 7-0.
In the second half the Demons scored to tie the game on Conner Magee's 40 yard run before Lakeshore again went on a long sustained drive to go back ahead 14-7. Magee again ripped off a long run, this time 58 yards, to tie the game at 14-14 before the Titans kicked a field goal to go ahead 17-14.
Magee, for the third time ripped off a long run, another 58 yarder, to put the Demons ahead 21-17 before the Titans returned the kickoff for a touchdown to go back ahead 24-21. On the first play of the Demons ensuing drive Rayshone Manuel brought he Demon fans to their feet with a fantastic 89 yard run to put the Demons in the lead again at 28-24 with 7:00 on the clock.
The Titans scored on their ensuing drive to go back ahead, 31-28, with 5:00 left in the game. The Demons were forced to punt from their own redzone and the Titans then ran out the clock.
Coach Matt Hughes, acting head coach in Coach Salt's absence, talked of the Demons adversity they had faced during the week. "Obviously, this was a difficult week for our team with Coach Salt being out due to a double hernia removal. Also, our special teams coordinator Coach Oestreicher had an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday, so he was out as well. That was difficult. And yet, I'm so proud of our players and coaches for how they handled the adversity. They were phenomenal. We conducte3d ourselves with class and dignity tonight. Our kids played with great effort and produced one of our cleanest games of the year. Defensively, I really thought we had a good plan. We didn't always play with great pad level and we struggled to get off the field on critical downs. It took us a while to get going offensively. Coach Hawthorne did a great job of making adjustments up front and giving me valuable information. He is a phenomenal coach and an integral part of our offense. The fumble on the first drive ended up being critical. The kickoff return for a touchdown was huge. It allowed them to quickly flip the momentum of the game back in their favor. We grabbed it back a few times, but could never quite hold on to it. In the end they simply made a couple more plays than we did. I have the deepest appreciation and love for our seniors. They have experienced tremendous adversity, including three different head coaches in a four year period. That is rare at FHS. And yet, they continued to give us everything they had. I'm so proud of them."
Demons junior quarterback Conner Magee had a career game with 207 yards and three touchdowns rushing and completed two of three passes for no yards. Micah Hart rushed three times for twelve yards, Rayshone Manuel rushed five times for 113 yards and a touchdown, Michael Brock rushed once for one yard and Sy Austin rushed twice for five yards.
The Demons were penalized three times for thirty yards.
