FORT MADISON – Fort Madison got a good solid half of football for the first time in what has been a long season for the Hounds.
Head Coach Derek Doherty is just looking for that whole game of football the Hounds will need if they want to get into the win column this year.
The Bloodhounds fell 42-19 to Assumption Friday night at Richmond Stadium and dropped to 0-5 on the season.
“We’ve grown and I’m happy about that. We just haven’t grown enough. That’s our conversation. Keep climbing. But you can't play two quarters or three quarters and they say ‘Hey, we’re done'. It’s a four-quarter football game, and that’s just where we’re at right now,” Doherty said.
The Hounds seemed to have found some answers in the early going jumping out to one of their few leads of the season when they opened the game with a 16-play, 65-yard drive that saw Fort Madison finding success through the air and on the ground.
Quarterback Marcus Guzman rushed for 43 yards and scored on a 1-yard plunge, but he completed his first three passes to three different receivers including Brody Cashman. Cashman, who was playing sick, played “sick” finishing with 141 yards on 10 receptions and a score, with several of his catches coming diving with one and two players defending. Guzman went to him 16 times on the night, the most all-season.
Guzman finished with a season-best 214 yards on two touchdowns and a pick. He completed 18 of 30 attempts, also a season high.
The Hounds held a 6-0 lead but a low-snap led to a blocked PAT.
Assumption, also looking for their first win of the season, took just two plays to tie things up when quarterback Braylon Thomsen went 45 yards on the first play and then Ben Yeggy cleaned things up on the next play from 16 yards out for a 7-6 Assumption lead.
The Hounds were snake bitten on the next series with Guzman coughing up the ball on a 1st and 10 play at the 50. He was able to recover for a 4-yard sack, but then threw his only pick of the night over the middle on 3rd and 4, in Knight territory.
Fort Madison’s defense would get his back, getting a turnover on downs at the Hound 35 when Yeggy was locked up on a 1-yard gain on 4th and 2.
To start the second period, both teams went three and out, but the Knights' was on a strip fumble the Hounds recovered at their own 39-yard line.
Mo Thacher would take the first carry three yards off tackle for Fort Madison, and then Guzman would start mixing in the passing game again hooking up with Cashman for seven yards, rushing for seven more, and then finding Noah Swigart for five yards.
After a scramble sack that gave two yards back, Guzman found Swigart again, this time behind the secondary and Swigart raced the rest of the way carrying one Knight into the endzone for a 39-yard touchdown capping a six-play, 61-yard touchdown drive. The PAT was good and with 8:04 left in the half, the Hounds had a 13-7 lead.
Assumption would then bang on the Hounds' front four with six straight rushing plays on their next possession. Thomsen would throw incomplete twice before finding Braylon Shovlain on a 32-yard touchdown strike to the 1-yard line. The Knights would punch it in from there to retake the lead for good this time 14-13.
That score would hold up for the rest of the half. Fort Madison would go four and out to start the third period, and then get into some field position trouble with a punt that was returned all the way to the Hounds' 23. Assumption would get in three plays later with Thomsen on a 14-yard keeper for a 21-13 lead.
The Nights would hold Fort Madison to four plays on the next possession and then score again on a one-yard plunge going the other way capping a 7-play, 59-yard drive with a double hand-off that racked up 14 yards and another 22-yard run off tackle by Yeggy. Shovlain would go 15 on 1st-10 from the 16 and Yeggy would punch it in from there for a 28-13 lead.
Doherty said that’s where he saw the Hounds break a bit.
“Our technique goes out the window. We do it so well for two quarters and then we think, ‘Ahh, I can take the next play off’, and that speaks to our maturity,” he said.
The Bloodhounds would rev up another drive in the third quarter getting all the way to Knights' 13, but Guzman would suffer another sack for a 10-yard loss on 4th and 7 to turn the ball over. The Knights would score four plays later for a 35-13 lead as the Hounds' defense wore tired.
Fort Madison would get its final score of the night fittingly when Guzman found Cashman in the flat on the north side of the field and Cashman was able to slide into the endzone for the touchdown. The 2-point attempt failed and Fort Madison trailed 35-19. The Knights would score again three plays off the kickoff on a Yeggy 47-yard run to wrap up the scoring.
Doherty said the staff wanted to turn the Hounds a little loose this week
“Quite honestly, we haven’t done much different. Our scouting was spot on, we knew exactly what they were going to do, and we had a great game plan, We attacked it, we just didn’t attack it well enough. We changed things up a bit. We always want them to play with effort, attitude, toughness, those are pillars of the program, but we want them to play fast and free so that’s what we switched up to.”
That strategy pumped some momentum into the Hounds that will be needed next week when they travel to district and conference rival Keokuk Friday night.
“We don’t have a lot of experience. They’re out there thinking a lot instead of just playing and that’s what we lack, that maturity,” Doherty said.
“I know we’ve got a whole lot of work to do. My brain is already on to the next thing. Thinking about tackling we have to fix, drive blocking we need to fix. That’s where my brain is at.”
Swigart finished with seven catches, his best on the season, for 48 yards and a score. Connor Horn had three catches and Tateum Schelich had four. Thacher had 31 yards on four carries to lead Fort Madison on the ground. Guzman carried the ball 29 times for 29 yards and a touchdown. Justin Maitner led the Hounds in tackles with nine including the only tackle for a loss. Guzman had 7.5 stops on the night. Tristan Marshall had four tackles and a fumble recovey.
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