By Fred Kroner
Luke Johnson was a true Bulldog on Friday night (Sept. 9).
The Mahomet-Seymour junior running back rushed for a career-high 337 yards on 28 carries and scored five touchdowns as the Bulldogs romped past Mount Zion, 49-14, in the school’s first football road game of the season.
Johnson’s single-game rushing effort was the best by an M-S back since Andrew Brewer set the school record with 363 yards in 2008 against Normal University High.
The 190-pound Johnson was playing his third game since returning from a season-ending injury in 2021.
“He had shown signs of the old Luke,” M-S coach Jon Adkins said, “but you could tell he was coming off an injury.
“On Friday, he looked like the old Luke, and even better. He got beat up, and kept chugging along. He was that workhorse and was fun to watch.
“I’m proud of the five guys up front for creating the holes.”
Playing on an offense that features the state’s reigning season passing leader in Wyatt Bohm, Bulldog backs are seldom the main option.
“When you have an All-State quarterback, and the weapons around him, it’s never the first idea to take the ball out of Wyatt’s hands,” Adkins said.
And yet, at Mount Zion, Bohm completed 5 of 11 passes for 42 yards. The Bulldogs didn’t even throw a pass in the second half.
The offensive play-calling decisions, Adkins said, were based on Mount Zion continually playing five or six players in the secondary.
“They were so concerned with our passing game that we had to adapt and go with other things,” Adkins said. “Luke is always part of the game-plan, but he became more of the game-plan.”
Johnson scored the game’s first TD on a 13-yard first-quarter run.
After the Braves pulled into a 14-14 tie in the second quarter, Johnson raced to the end zone on runs of 3 and 13 yards before halftime to lift M-S into a 28-14 lead at the break.
Johnson broke loose on scoring jaunts of 41 and 44 yards in the third quarter as M-S created an insurmountable lead.
Adkins was as surprised as anyone by the direction his team’s offense took.
“If you would have told me Wyatt would complete five passes for less than 50 yards and no touchdowns, but we would score 49 points, I’d have lost my paycheck,” Adkins said. “I would have said there’s no way that would happen.
“This shows how much of a balanced team we have. In Week 1, we stretched the field vertically. In Week 2, we got the screen game going and this week, we did it on the ground. I’d hate to prepare for us. You have to pick your poison.”
Quenton Rogers scored the other two Bulldog touchdowns, one on a 31-yard pass from Lucas Dyer and the other on a 37-yard run in the final period.
Kicker Kyle Walmer was perfect on his seven extra-point kicks.
Statistically, it appeared Walmer had a sub-par game on kickoffs, averaging 26.8 yards on his eight kickoffs. Adkin said he executed the game plan to perfection.
“Hats off to Coach (Keith) Pogue for what he does with special teams,” Adkins said. “We knew they were dangerous on kickoff returns, and we short pooch-kicked all night long, and we didn’t allow any big returns.”
Though Mount Zion scored 14 points – the third straight M-S opponent to score two TDs – Adkins said there was no disappointment on the defensive side.
“To hold their running game to what we did (29 yards rushing on 24 attempts) and to hold their entire offense under 200 yards (194), after they’d scored 90 points the first two games, wow,” Adkins said. “I’m very happy with our defensive performance.
“It was an incredible job by the coaching staff and the kids for the job they’ve done.”
Brennan Houser (nine tackles), Nick Golden (five tackles) and Braden Houchin (five tackles) were the defensive leaders.
Finishing with four tackles apiece were Ben Wagner, Kale Schweighart and Tyler Majeres. Donnovan Lewis intercepted a pass and Jayvon Irwin recovered a fumble.
“Lewis’ interception was at our 5-yard line on a drive they were about to score and take the lead,” Adkins said. “He was all over the field.”
The coach also praised the play of the interior linemen – Irwin, Jack Gallier, Mateo Casillas and Ryan Yancy – for “putting their quarterback under duress. I was impressed with what they were doing.”
Two unheralded players took their positions in the secondary, Dayten Eisenmann and Evan Anderson.
“Dayten did a great job shutting their wide-outs down,” Adkins said.
Anderson wasn’t even on the field when the game started, but was summoned after Jake Waldinger received two first-half unsportsmanship penalties and was ejected.
“Evan is a JV kid, but when the situation happened with Jake, he came in and did a fantastic job,” said Adkins, who disagreed with the flags on Waldinger.
“They thought they saw something and flagged it,” Adkins said, “but it was absolutely, completely wrong.
“I feel for him. Now he has to sit out the next game. Jake is one of the best kids in the entire school. Players have bad games. Coaches have bad games and officials have bad games. They have to understand what is right is right. Friday night, those guys didn’t get it right.
“I was proud of how all the kids handled the adversity, stayed the course and battled through it.”
The M-S win at Mount Zion was the school’s first on the Braves’ field since 2013. The victory also keeps other goals intact.
“We’re happy we beat Mount Zion,” but we have bigger goals,” Adkins said. “We have the chance to be back-to-back conference champs for the first time since ’04 and ’05, and the chance to have back-to-back undefeated regular seasons for the first time since 1960 and ’61.”
The Bulldogs are 3-0 overall and 2-0 in Apollo Conference games and return to action on Friday (Sept. 16) at Lincoln (2-1).
“If we’re not disciplined, we could get caught up with their deception (in the backfield),” Adkins said. “We have to stay true to our keys.”
The M-S freshmen team is 2-1. The Bulldogs’ JV squad is 1-0 entering a Monday (Sept. 12) game against Mount Zion.
