Homewood-Flossmoor’s Ronald Johnson swears he doesn’t have any hard feelings against Sandburg.
“Aw, no, these guys are all my friends,” he said after throwing three touchdown passes against his old team Friday night. “We still hang out on the weekends and stuff. I still see them all the time.”
The quarterback, who transferred to H-F from Sandburg after his junior season, just played with a vengeance in the Vikings’ 21-8 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory.
Johnson threw TD tosses of 27 yards to Vashon Nutt, 11 yards to Patrick Sheehan and 7 yards to Taje Smith to stake No. 7 H-F (7-2, 5-2) to a 19-0 first-half lead. At halftime he was 7-of-9 for 142 yards and finished 10-of-16 for 143.
“We came out and did our thing,” Johnson said. “We always have a great game plan. We’ve got the best offensive coordinator (Tom Cicero) and head coach (Craig Buzea) in the country.”
H-F’s start was stunning.
With first down at his own 33, Johnson handed off to Nutt, who raced 40 yards on a sweep around right end. On the next play, he passed to Nutt for a score.
On the Vikings’ next possession, Johnson hooked up with Willie Ross on a 41-yard pass. Three downs later he put up a floater to the end zone that Sheehan wrestled away from a Sandburg defender. H-F’s third scoring drive of the half was an 89-yarder, highlighted by a 49-yard pass from Johnson to Ross and a 7-yard toss on fourth-and-goal to a wide-open Smith.
Sandburg (7-2, 5-2) had one good scoring chance starting at the H-F 34, but back-to-back tackles for one-yard losses by Vikings defenders Thaddeus Little and Damon Davies stalled the Eagles at the 11.
The Eagles finally broke through with 10:41 remaining in the fourth period on a 5-yard run by Miles Taylor and a 2-point conversion catch by Bobby Krop.
H-F scored the final two points when H-F’s Little tackled Taylor in the end zone for a safety.
In addition to his touchdown catch, Smith rushed 26 times for 136 yards.
