The lights for Johnson’s football field were finally operational Wednesday morning, only hours before kickoff against visiting Minneapolis North in the reborn Twin Cities championship game.
The original hope was such illumination would be ready for the season’s start, but at least the Governors’ dozen seniors got to play a home game at night. Sadly for Johnson, that brightness fell upon a 46-0 loss.
J’Marion Sanders caught six passes for 147 yards and four touchdowns. The Polars’ Jeremiah Jackson had three receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Logan Lachermeier completed 11 of 18 passes for 236 yards and five touchdowns and had two tosses intercepted.
Minneapolis North’s Tyshone Jenkins ran 18 times for 184 yards and a touchdown. Teammate Tavin Stoll carried three times for 39 yards and a score.
The Polars led 13-0 after a quarter and 25-0 at halftime. It was 39-0 following the third stanza and onlookers wondered if the final quarter would be contested following a half-hour delay to tend to an injured Johnson player who was taken away by ambulance.
North scored its final touchdown upon the resumption of play and improved to 8-0. Johnson fell to 5-3, its best record under fourth-year head coach Richard Magembe, who inherited a team that had gone 1-7 the year before his arrival.
The Governors now await their seed for the Class 4A, Section 3 tournament.
“We had a solid game plan, but we didn’t execute the way we needed to,” said Magembe, whose team lost at Minneapolis North, 45-18, on Sept. 26.
The Governors were unsure at times what plays or defenses to run. Magembe said that with those 12 outgoing seniors leaving behind only 23 other players, he was trying to get underclassmen some game action.
“We have to try and work in younger guys as much as possible,” he said. “But with youth comes inexperience and with inexperience comes mistakes. Sometimes you’re not sure or confident about what you’re doing, but those are the growing pains for a program like ours.”
Magembe said there was no question in his mind about resuming play after the ambulance departed and stricken relatives of the player inside it drifted off the field.
“An injury can’t scare you from finishing a game,” the coach said. “You can’t send that message to the kids and have them play fearful, because that’s a disservice. It’s a part of the game and I’m proud of our boys for finishing.”
Johnson managed 33 yards rushing and senior quarterback Ali Farfan completed 10 of 20 passes for 80 yards. Two of his attempts were intercepted. Senior receiver Anthony Stevenson had four receptions for 52 yards.
Notes: North’s previous game was a forfeit victory. Prior to that date, Lachermeirer led the state with 1,782 passing yards and 23 touchdowns. He’s the son of former Bethel University quarterback Tom Lachermeier, the Polars’ offensive coordinator and a social studies teacher at their school… Johnson’s worn turf field is scheduled for replacement next season… The Governors’ logo of a top-hatted gentleman wearing a monocle is virtually identical to that of Austin Peay University in Clarksville, Tenn., which shares the same nickname… The 2023 documentary “Boys in Blue”, which aired on the Showtime channel, followed the North program and its longtime coach, Charles Adams III, who became the Minnesota Twins’ director of security after 20 years as a Minneapolis police officer.
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