Hounds need win for playoff consideration

RESILIENCE

We’ve been banged up and lost key players. These kids just keep coming back and fighting. Maybe resilience is a better word than adversity just because of who these kids are.”

Derek Doherty, Hounds Head Coach

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison is hanging onto a playoff berth by a thread.
Ranked 20^th in the latest IHSAA RPI Index, the Hounds are 2.4% out of the top 16 teams, which is the determining factor for teams outside the two automatic bids per district.
Head Coach Derek Doherty has said for the past five years Fort Madison is 0-0 and trying to go to 1-0. But even he has looked into the math a little bit.
“We’re on the bubble and a few things that need to happen. If they happen, we’ll get in. It’s another year of we’re right there. Win or you're done. And just because you win, you might not get in,” Doherty said.
We have to focus on our job Friday night because all the other stuff doesn’t matter unless you get the job done there and that will be a tough task in itself.”
The task is perennial rival Washington. The Hounds travel to Case Field to take on the Demons (2-6, 2-2 in Class 3A District 4). Washington has suffered lopsided losses and lopsided wins with the two coming over Burlington and Mt. Pleasant.
Junior Logan McDole and sophomore Kael Williams account for most of the damage on offense. McDole has six passing touchdowns and three rushing scores, while Williams has found the endzone seven times on the ground and is averaging about five yards a carry. Senior Case Evans has caught a few defenses napping and has 84 yards on just seven carries for a 12-yard average and one score.
Evans is also stringent on defense with 52 tackles, 50 of them have been all by himself. Senior Chase Griener has 30 tackles and four sacks. Washington has seven sacks total on the year.
“It's Washington. These guys are going to be playing with their hair on fire. They don’t respect Fort Madison and I don’t mean that in a negative way. They just expect to beat us,” Doherty said.
“The quarterback is good and he likes to be all over the field. So we’ve got our hands full. When you break down film, and we’ve got eight films now, they’ve shown up in everything from spread to two-back to pro, to a flex bone. So they’re varied in formations and do a lot of things.
Fort Madison will counter with Marcus Guzman at quarterback and possibly some time in the secondary on defense. The junior went in at halftime, in a “Remember the Titans” move by Doherty last Friday against Mt. Pleasant and helped shut down the Panthers' passing game.
Doherty said there may be a little more of that this week as the Bloodhounds gasp for some playoff air.
Fort Madison may get tailback Hayden Segoviano back this week after the senior dinged up his arm in the first half last week and sat out the remainder of the game. But they will be without senior Henry Wiseman and junior Brody Cashman, both lost for the season with ACL injuries. Wiseman and Cashman account for seven of Fort Madison’s nine receiving touchdowns on the year. Only Leif Boeding has two other TD catches.
Senior Teague Smith is still just playing on the defensive side of the ball after playing the last three seasons in the offensive backfield and linebacker.
Doherty said injuries have plagued the Hounds this year, but it’s part of the game.
“We’ve been banged up and lost key players. These kids just keep coming back and fighting. Maybe resilience is a better word than adversity just because of who these kids are.”
Doherty said this is the worse year he’s had and he attributes that to lack of depth and scheduling.
“We’ve got great players. But I’ve said it before, we’ve got a lot of kids walking the halls who should be doing something this fall and they aren’t,” Doherty said.
He said players like Henry Wiseman, who plays all three sides of the game, and loves it, get physically pushed because there’s no one to give him a breather.
Guzman is playing with a banged-up knee but had a solid game Friday and has racked up 1,241 yards through the air with eight touchdowns and eight picks. He’s also the leading rusher for the Hounds with 482 yards and 11 scores.
Boeding, Henry Morris, Caleb Bolander, and Cade Denning are the ones running routes now. Segoviano was taking a lot of flips from Guzman out of the backfield and has close to 300 yards receiving.
Junior Triston Marshall stepped into the backfield after Segoviano went down, as well as filling the gap on defense. Segoviano is second on the Hounds in tackles from his linebacker spot with 40. Marshall rolled up three sacks Friday and now has five on the year and 11.5 tackles for loss.
“We had some ideas with some two-back stuff earlier on and he was perfect for it, and we ended up needing him. He wants to be a running back and he will do whatever we ask of him. All our kids are like that and we love that about them,” Doherty said.
“And then he had one heck of a defensive night with three sacks. That put him up toward the top of the district in just one night for stats. So great night for Triston.”
Game time is 7:30 p.m. in Washington. The livestream link for the game is https://www.youtube.com/live/jrB7kwdJl0w?si=nu-MeyDqptFK625c and will be on the air starting with the Pen City Current pregame at approximately 6:45.