11/16/2024
BY JACK BULLOCK
JOHNSTON CITY - Watching the Johnston City Indians' offense is like appearing on the TV game show “Let's Make A Deal” while knowing exactly what's behind Door #1.

The Tribe built its reputation on running the ball and the Pana Panthers couldn't stop Coach Todd Thomas' club on Saturday.

JC put together three long drives to score three of its touchdowns in the 28-13 victory Saturday afternoon.

Johnston City's defense also made the grade as they stopped the guests on crucial fourth down plays and produced three turnovers.

The victory sends the program to its second 2A semifinal appearance where they will host Moroa-Forsyth next Saturday.

The Trojans bested Quincy Notre Dame, 22-21 to advance.

Running back Jace Weaver, a 5-4, 145 sophomore, led the ground and pound offense with 116-yards rushing on 13-carries, which included a pair of touchdown runs of 16 and 32-yards.

The other two scores were runs by 6-1, 245 power runner Evan Sanders.

Sanders delivered a pair of TD runs from seven and two-yards out along with being a stalwart on defense.

He also made a big hit on Pana quarterback Wyatt Kile in the fourth quarter for a sack and fumble recovery that set up the Indians' game clinching score.

The Johnston City defense held the Panthers to just 228-yards of total offense as Coach Trever Higgins' club were eliminated as their season ends at 10-2.

The Indians amassed over 300-yards on the ground overall and quarterback Kaden Koenig wasn't called on to do much in the air as the junior completed just 2-of-2 passes for 45-yards in the contest.

The rest of the plays were on the ground as the Johnston City offense controlled the ball, the clock and eventually the win.

“This is an offense (option) that you don't see a lot. Our scout team did a really good job this week but they (Johnston City) didn't do anything differently. I honestly thought we were 'light's out' defensively today but if we had had a better offensive game-plan today maybe things turn out a bit differently,” said Coach Higgins. “I thought we had a good plan but in the first half we weren't able to score.”

Kile threw for 115-yards on 13-of-21 attempts and a touchdown but he also pitched two key interceptions to go with his one fumble as the three turnovers by the Panthers led to the season coming to a halt.

Running back Isaiah Harbert led Pana with 73-yards rushing (16-attempts) an scored both of the Panther TD's.

Of the 115-yards passing from Kile, senior wide receiver Sam Sims was responsible for 82 of the yards on six catches.

Johnston City's first long drive of the game came at the end of the first quarter and carried over into the second.

Eleven plays from their own 20.

The possession came about by junior defensive back Trey Johnson stopping the Panthers with an interception in the endzone.

Sophomore running backs Marcus Leitzen and Hayden Burton helped out with the rushing attack and the pair were at the forefront of the first scoring drive, culminated with the 16-yard jaunt by Weaver, where he took a pitch from Koenig and ran around the right side and went untouched for the score.

The two-point conversion run by Sanders made it 8-0 with 7:55 left in the first half.

Pana nearly got back into the contest with just seconds left in the second quarter.

Koenig fumbled the ball and Pana lineman Carter Barber picked up the ball and rumbled 32-yards up the field before being dragged down at the Johnston City 16 with only :09.7 left in the half.

Kile, after throwing an incomplete pass on the next play, was forced to scramble on the final play of the half and was brought down at the Indians' 11 as time expired.

“It (the fumble recovery and return) is one of those momentum shifts you see in high school football. But they (JC) were able to take it back (stop) and that could have been a big momentum swing,” said Coach Higgins. “If you don't call the right plays you go home and that is what happened. Although the score doesn't indicated it with the late score but I thought our defense played well. They were putting up 40-points against everyone except Dixon. I thought our defense played well enough to win but our offense did not.”

This turned into a turning point as the half ended with the Panthers' down 8-0.

“That was a huge play (series) and we talked about going in that scenario, you have to know situations,” said Coach Thomas. “I told them to keep the guys inbounds, bend but don't break, that is kind of our philosophy. I think we made defensive plays when we had to. We kept them from getting into a groove. They (Pana) are very talented, very good in the spread offense.”

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