Demons’ Damon All-Area Player of the Year
By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
Often times, in football, the team goes where the quarterback goes.
For Burlington High School play-caller Dalton Damon, he led the Demons to a historic victory against a heated rival and another win in a contest some called the greatest football game they have ever seen.
It is accomplishments like that which led Southern Lakes Newspapers to name Damon its All-Area Player of the Year. Waterford Union High School running back Tanner Keller and Palmyra-Eagle quarterback Brandon Wilde also received consideration for the honor.
Damon turned in a strong year for the team that advanced the farthest of any in Southern Lakes Newspapers’ coverage area.
The senior passed for 1,357 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushed for 940 yards and 16 touchdowns, and led an offense that produced more than 4,500 yards as a unit.
Damon earned first team All-Southern Lakes Conference honors as a quarterback and also earned Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Region in Region 3.
“It’s just a position that everyone kind of looks up to,” Damon said of playing quarterback. “You have a leadership role, even if you’re not specifically given one. You have to be a leader on a team as a quarterback.”
“I like that pressure and opportunity.”
Burlington finished the season with a 9-3 record. The Demons went 7-2 in the regular season, and finished third in the SLC with a 5-2 record.
The Demons advanced to Level 3 of the WIAA Division 2 playoffs before losing 49-0 to host Waukesha West on Nov. 8.
Along the way, the Demons defeated visiting Lake Geneva Badger 33-7 Oct. 25 in Level 1 and Waterford 24-18 Nov. 1 in a Level 2 game at Westosha Central High School in Paddock Lake.
Before the Nov. 1 contest with Waterford, Burlington last defeated the Wolverines in 2014, when the Demons won 27-17 in Southern Lakes Conference play on the road. The Demons’ recent win snapped a six-game losing streak to the Wolverines.
“It was the second time we played them,” Damon said. “The first time, they took it to us.”
The Demons lost 49-14 to the Wolverines Oct. 11 in a Southern Lakes Conference game at Burlington on Senior Night, a game Damon missed due to illness.
Damon said Burlington’s playoff victory over Badger, coming after the Badgers beat Waterford in the regular season, buoyed the Demons’ hopes for the playoffs.
Against the Wolverines, Damon passed for 160 yards, rushed for another 62 and accounted for two touchdowns.
“As a program, it had been a long time since we made it round three of the playoffs,” Damon said. “When we got to the playoffs, we played our best on both sides of the ball. Everything just came together at the right time.”
Another highlight of Damon’s and the Demons’ season came in a 40-37 SLC victory Sept. 20 at Badger.
Earlier this season Badger coach Matt Hensler said people have approached and told him it was one of the greatest high school football games they’d ever seen.
Badger and Burlington combined for 993 yards of total offense. Damon passed for 264 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 63 yards and two more scores.
Hensler said Damon is the type of player Demons coach Steve Tenhagen looks for in a quarterback because of the stress that level of talent places on a defense.
“Dalton is a very good football player – one of those guys that can run the ball and throw very well,” Hensler said. “Any time you have a two-time first team All-Conference player, you know they are talented.”
Damon said he is not feeling too much pressure regarding his future, and said he might study finance in college.
Damon is undecided on whether he will play sports collegiately, but will play baseball for the Demons this coming spring.
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