The FHS Demons are 12-2, next stop is Superdome for the state championship

The Franklinton Demons football team will play in the Division II Non Select state championship game this Friday at the Superdome at 7 p.m.

This was made possible by the Demons’ 35-29 victory over the Iowa Yellowjackets last Friday at Demon Stadium. The Demons improve their record to 12-1 this season, their best mark since 2014. The Demons return to the championship game for the first time since 2010 and play the 18th seed Cecilia Bulldogs. The Demons have played Cecilia twice over the years and have a 1-1 record against her. They played and beat them in 1981, but lost to them in 2022, both times in the playoffs.

Against Iowa, the Demons got on the field first with 4:57 left in the first period when Sy Austin came in from five yards out. The defense was offside on the extra point, so the Demons went for a deuce and were successful as Austin went again to make the score 8-0. Iowa responded with a score as they allowed a 57-yard touchdown to make the score 8-7.

The Demons responded with a 65-yard drive that Ausitn capped off with a one-yard run at 10:27 of the second to make the score 15-7. The Yellowjackets were forced to punt and the Demons scored again, this time on a 60-yard pass from Jacob Crain to Conner Magee that increased the score to 22-7 with 8:11 left in the first half.

DJ Anders intercepted an Iowa pass on their next drive to give the Demons the ball at the Iowa 25. The Iowa defense came up big and the Demons turned the ball over on downs. Iowa then put together a long, sustained drive that put them within 15 of the Demons. The Demons defense held them on downs, but a penalty gave them an untimed down. The Demons once again defended well, but another penalty gave them another untimed loss. Again, the Demons defense played well and the Yellowjackets failed and the score was 22-7 at halftime.

Iowa came out fired up in the third period and scored twice to tie the game as they scored on a 7-yard run and a 66-yard pass, using one play to score, and the game was tied at 22-22 The third was a draw with 5:52 minutes.

The Demons scored with 10:01 on the clock in the fourth to take a 29-22 lead when DaMikies McClain caught an 11-yard pass from Crain. Iowa responded again, scoring on a 10-yard pass with 3:22 left in the game, making the score 29-29.

The Demons advanced down the field and scored on a beautiful 31-yard pass from Crain to Dalton Freeman with just 1:18 left in the game. The extra point was deferred after a penalty and ruled no good, giving the Demons a 35-29 lead.

Gabe Ezell took the kickoff into the end zone and the Yellowjackets moved to midfield before running out of downs and time there.

FHS coach Nick Saltaformaggio, who is taking his third team to the championship game, said his team played great.

“It went like our year. We just fought and fought and fought and at the end of the day we just found a way to win. We found a different way, we played good defense tonight, Jacob (Crain) was phenomenal and our kids were resilient and played phenomenally well.”

Offensively, Jacob Crain led the way with 365 yards and 3 touchdowns with one interception. He also ran for 10 yards on four carries. He had 15 completions on 24 attempts.

DaMikies McClain was the leading receiver with four catches for 121 yards and a touchdown.

Conner Magee had three receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown. Dalton Freeman had two receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown. Sy Austin had two balls for 37 yards.

Jayden Burkhalter had one reception for 13 yards and Christian Young had one for 4 yards.

Sy Austin rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.

Gabe Ezell was 3 of 4 on extra points.

•For championship game tickets, see Damon Smith’s column on page A6.