Veritas football destroys Flint Hills, 52-12 / LJWorld.com

Archive for Saturday, September 6, 2008

September 6, 2008

Who was that Veritas Christian High football player wearing No. 7 on his uniform? There wasn't a No. 7 on the Eagles' roster.

"Uh, I kinda lost my blue jersey," Jeremiah Johnson said sheepishly.

Johnson lost his jersey, and Flint Hills Christian lost track of him. The 6-foot-2, 155-pound senior scored five touchdowns in the Eagles' season-opening 52-12 victory Friday night at the Veritas field.

Johnson, who usually wears No. 10, caught three TD passes from quarterback Nick Bennett and ran for two more scores. He rushed 24 times for 100 yards and caught five passes for 71 more yards.

"Jeremiah has good speed and is a slashing runner," Veritas coach Doug Bennett said. "He ran physical today : probably more physical than I'd like because we have to make sure he can last the season."

Johnson gave Bennett a bit of a scare late in the first quarter after being flattened while returning a punt (he does that, too). Johnson left holding his stomach.

"I didn't have the breath knocked out of me," Johnson said. "It just felt like my stomach was swelling."

Whatever it was soon went away, and Johnson missed just one series on offense and one on defense (he does that, too).

"Miah is just a great athlete," said linebacker Hogan Randall, who shares the team's captaincy with Johnson. "He's a great runner who can hit holes and juke guys."

Randall, who had four sacks, was the ringleader of a defense that was responsible for Flint Hills Christian having a dozen plays for negative yards.

"We did very well : better than I thought we might," Bennett said. "Defensively, we made more big hits than we made all of last season."

Johnson's five-TD performance overshadowed an impressive varsity debut by Bennett's son Nick, a freshman who completed 11 of 14 passes for 117 yards.

"He ran the team well," Bennett said of his 5-9, 145-pound son. "He did a lot of little things. He's not as big and strong as some of the other guys, so he has to do the little things."

Bennett was also impressed with Neal Daniels, a senior transfer from Olathe who didn't play football last year. Daniels returned a kickoff 72 yards for a touchdown with 7:35 remaining for the Eagles' final score.

Veritas (1-0) has the next two weeks off.