HS football: Johnston runs wild as Bishops roll
ZANESVILLE – Travis Johnston made sure his dad's coaching debut went over exactly as planned.
Johnston, a senior tailback, carried 30 times for 279 yards with five touchdowns — 18 for 143 in the first half — as Rosecrans rolled to a 44-0 win against Lancaster Fairfield Christian Academy on Saturday at John D. Sulsberger Memorial Stadium.
"Our offensive line did a great job of blocking," Johnston said. "They opened up a lot of holes. Defensively we got a lot of pressure up front and the secondary did what they needed to do."
It was the first win for Rosecrans' Mark Johnston, Travis' father who took over the Bishops just prior to the start of prior to two-a-day practices.
His team dominated, outrushing the Knights 326-0 in building leads of 23-0 at halftime and 37-0 after three quarters.
They will return to Sulsberger on Sept. 5 against Crooksville.
"For putting in a whole new offense and defense in two weeks, essentially, during camp we just talked about having no fire drills and not just look like you're completely out of whack," Mark Johnston said. "The two things we've talked about — expect to win and be disciplined — I think we were prepared, and we were disciplined for the most part, and they came out and expected to win."
It started with Travis Johnston, a retuning 1,000-yard rusher expected to carry the Bishops' ground game.
He carried eight times in a 14-play, 77-yard drive spanning 8:13 to start the game, capped back Jack Nash's 12-yard keeper. Lane Dailey's first of six perfect extra-point kicks made it 7-0.
When a 10-yard punt left the Bishops at the FCA 19, they needed only three plays to score when Johnston scampered in from the 11 with 1:21 left in the first quarter.
Johnston's 52-yard scoring jaunt, which came after he made a tackle-for-loss on Josh Heeter that led to a punt, made it 21-0 and all but ended any doubt.
He added TD runs of 1 and 35 yards in the third quarter and 35 and 44 in the fourth.
FCA coach B.J. Queen knew stopping Johnston was going to be a tall order for his team, which featured only 19 players and few big bodies.
"He's an All-Ohio kid and you can tell he's an All-Ohio kid," Queen said. "They listed him at 185 (pounds) but he runs like he's 205. He plays a lot bigger than he looks."
With only 16 players dressed, and no backup tailback, Mark Johnston was forced to leave his son and many other key starters in the lineup long after the game was decided.
He was holding his breath, much like many of the Bishops in attendance.
"You sit there with a running clock and you just hope it runs out at quick as possible," Mark Johnston said.
Queen lamented the slow start but praised his players for not rolling over and playing dead when the game was out of hand.
Junior quarterback Caleb Laubenthal was 12-of-22 passing for 116 yards, 55 coming on a nice catch-and-run from Heeter.
"We got down and got discouraged but you have to be able to fight through that," Queen said. "Toward the end the third, early in the fourth quarter we started to do some positive things. Games like this always show you what you need to work on."
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