Hounds fade fast at No. 2 Williamsburg

NEED HIGH LEVEL OUTPUT

I believe in us physically and schematically, but the hardest thing is getting them mentally in it from a competition standpoint. If you want to play at a high level, you have to compete at a high level.”

Derek Doherty, FM Head Coach

NEXT WEEK

Davenport Assumption at home, 7 p.m.

WILLIAMSBURG – Former Arizona Cardinals NFL coach Denny Green was caught in a post-game tyrant years back screaming  “They are who we thought they were!”.
Fort Madison got a taste of who Williamsburg was Friday night when the second best team in  the state in 3A rolled over the Bloodhounds 67-6 in Williamsburg. The loss sent Fort Madison to an 0-4 start and an 0-1 start in District 4 play.
The Hounds gave up 46 yards on the Raiders first three plays from scrimmage following the opening kick, but then were able to slow the hosts down. With the help of three false start penalties, Fort Madison slowed the high-scoring Raider offense to the point of a 4^th and goal at the 1-yard line. But quarterback Grant Hocker who threw seven touchdowns on the night bulled in from the one to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead with 7:58 left in the first quarter.
The Hounds stay poised and came out with some confidence the Raiders weren’t ready for and went 24 yards on eight plays with quarterback Marcus Guzman rushing for 15 yards and going 2 for 2 for six yards. However, a Henry Graham 4^th and 7 punt from Fort Madison’s own 44 was blocked setting up a second score from the Raiders just three plays later when Hocker found senior Rayce Heitman on 28-yard catch-and-run for a 14-0 lead with 3:45 left in the quarter.
Fort Madison would go all Guzman on the next series and the quarterback responded with runs of 6, 1, 2, and a 44-yarder off right tackle for a touchdown to make it 14-6 with Graham’s PAT going wide left.
But that’s about all the offense Williamsburg would allow the Hounds to muster while the No. 2 Raiders scored a touchdown on every single possession the rest of way while holding Fort Madison to just seven net yards of offense the rest of the game.
Hocker regularly found receivers beyond the Bloodhound secondary or on out routes where catches turned into big gains. He had touchdown throws of 1, 8, 12, 17, 19, 28, 37 yards on the night. On the Raiders last scoring drive in the second quarter they threw the ball five times scoring on an 8-yard pass play with back-up quarterback Bryson Wetjen hooking up with Lincoln Shropp.
The running clock became a factor with about two minutes left in the 2^nd quarter and cut the second half to less than 30 minutes of play.
Head Coach Derek Doherty said the Hounds showed up with effort, attitude, and toughness.
“Yeah, (Williamsburg's) a really good team, but in that first quarter we were competing and then I don’t feel that we did that in the second quarter,” he said.
“Things started getting hard and we started shying away and that’s just a  suffocating feeling. How do you get kids to want to put their best out there all four quarters. That’s been our challenge to them.”
He said the Bloodhounds new they were coming up to face a great program and the only expectation was for them to bring their best self.
"Honest to God, that’s all we asked of them," he said.
The Hounds had that mentality in the first quarter making the fresh Raiders work hard after the first three plays from scrimmage and then Guzman getting through the defensive line and outrunning everyone for half the field to the red turf endzone at Bob Murphy Stadium.
“These guys are so hard to read. It’s so hard to get a pulse on them. We even have a psychology curriculum that we’ve implemented,” he said.
“I believe in us physically and schematically, but the hardest thing is getting them mentally in it from a competition standpoint. If you want to play at a high level, you have to compete at a high level.”
Guzman finished with 61 yards on 13 carries and a score and threw for just three yards on 5 of 17 passing. Stefan Berlett came on in the fourth quarter and completed 2-of-3 passes for 13 yards with the Williamsburg bench on the field.
Schelich had three catches on seven targets for 11 yards to lead Fort Madison in receptions. He also had 58 return yards on the night. Fort Madison had just 78 total yards of offense on the night. Brody Cashman had 10.5 tackles chasing plays down from behind, including one tackle for loss.  Noah Swigart had 6.5 tackles.
Williamsburg improves to 3-1 on the year and 1-0 in district play. Fort Madison will take their winless record back home to host 0-4 Davenport Assumption next week at Jim Youel Field.