Eden Johnson, Gov. Mifflin, a smash hit in win over Wilson (updated)
Eden Johnson has a linebacker mentality and running back skills.
He just happens to play quarterback for Gov. Mifflin, but don’t let that fool you. He hits on both sides of the ball.
“We always preach, ‘Be physical,’ ” Johnson said. “You can’t coach that.”
Johnson helped set the tone with a powerful touchdown run and later with a chilling hit in the secondary as the Mustangs dominated rival Wilson 42-14 Friday night in the GoBigRecruiting.com Game of the Week at Mifflin Stadium.
The Mustangs reached the end zone on each of their first four possessions, hammered the Bulldogs relentlessly on defense in the first half and came away a second straight mercy-rule win over the Bulldogs, something the Mustangs had never done before.
They led 35-0 five minutes into the third quarter.
Johnson and the Mustangs were excited by an SRO crowd of more than 5,000, which ringed the field and extended outside the gates.
“We all come to play, every week,” said Johnson, a senior who transferred to Mifflin from Philadelphia West Catholic just before his junior season. “We’ve got a great team.”
There’s no arguing that after watching the Mustangs (2-0) roll to a 28-0 lead in the first 15 minutes.
The Bulldogs (1-1) loaded up to stop Nick Singleton, and they did a relatively good job wrapping him up and preventing breakaway runs. Still, the Penn State recruit found his way to the end zone three times, his 80th touchdown, a 32-yard run early in the fourth quarter, giving him the Berks career record.
He ran for 137 yards on just 15 carries to push his career yardage total to 4,691, just 87 shy of the Berks record.
“I’ll probably get that next week,” he said of the rushing record, “but getting the touchdown record means a lot. I can’t take all the credit. My linemen do a great job.”
Singleton had an impactful game, no doubt, but he wasn’t the only one hammering the Bulldogs. The Mustangs, ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 5A, showed power and speed up and down their lineup.
They dominated every phase of the game, made big runs on offense and pounded the Bulldogs with big hits on defense.
“They’re a good football team,” Mifflin coach Jeff Lang said of the Bulldogs, “but our kids just got up for the game.”
Realistically, it was over in a matter of minutes.
The Mustangs took advantage of short fields and scored on each of their first four possessions after starting at the Wilson 35, 35, 46 and 40.
Senior fullback Trey Rock gave Mifflin the lead with a 9-yard TD run less than seven minutes in but the aggressive tone was set came on the next series, after Brad Hoffman was sacked and fumbled and the Mustangs recovered and took over at the 35.
With the defense keying on Singleton, trying to take away his outside bursts, Johnson ran an option to his right and cut inside. He lowered his shoulder at the line of scrimmage, ran over a defender, then turned up field for a 35-yard run that made it 14-0 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the opening period.
“I told the whole team all week that when the safety comes down I’m gonna run him over,” Johnson said, “and I ran him over.”
“That got our sideline excited,” said Lang, “and that momentum just kept going.”
The Mustangs were relentless on defense, forcing Hoffman out of the pocket and making him throw on the run. Several times the coverage was so tight in the secondary he couldn’t find any open targets; he was sacked twice in the first quarter.
Even when he did have time to throw, Johnson, fellow safety Ayden Martin and the Mifflin corners gave him very small windows and knocked down several of his passes. He completed just 10-of-28 throws.
Hoffman was picked off twice, once by Singleton in the red zone, another time by Johnson in the end zone after the Bulldogs had reached the 6 in the final minute of the second quarter.
Singleton had just six touches and 59 rushing yards at the half, but it didn’t matter. Mifflin led 28-0 anyway.
“Obviously they were keying on me most of the game,” he said, “(but) we have great play-makers like Eden, Trey Rock running down the field.”
The Mustangs maintained possession of the Gurski-Linn Trophy for the second straight season and set themselves up for another big season.
“To control the game like this, it feels good,” said Lang, “because they’re a quality football team. It’ a measuring stick for the rest of the season and I think we have a pretty good measure of what we can do this year.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wilson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 14 |
| Gov. Mifflin | 20 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 42 |
Scoring summary
| Team | Player | Play | From | PAT Player | Extra Point |
| Gov. Miffllin | Rock | 9 run | Schools | kick | |
| Gov. Miffllin | Johnson | 35 run | Schools | kick | |
| Gov. Miffllin | Singleton | 37 run | Run failed | ||
| Gov. Miffllin | McNeil | 2 run | Johnson | run | |
| Gov.Mifflin | Singleton | 8 run | Schools | kick | |
| Wilson | J.Jones | 6 run | Rada | kick | |
| Gov. Miffllin | Singleton | 32 run | Schools | kick | |
| Wilson | J. Jones | 2 run | Rada | kick | |
Team statistics
| Wilson | Gov. Mifflin | |
| First downs | 16 | 15 |
| Rushes-yards | 32-83 | 40-278 |
| Passing yards | 99 | 24 |
| Total yards | 182 | 302 |
| Passes | 10-28-2 | 1-1-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-1 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 2-24.0 | 1-26.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 5-32 | 8-67 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Wilson: J.Jones 16-71, Lenart 4-6, Flite 1-3, Hoffman 10-3, C. Jones 1-0.
Gov. Mifflin: Singleton 14-137, Johnson 8-71, Rock 8-40, D. McNeil 6-28, Martin 1-5, B. Jones 1-2, Team 1-(-1), Hartre 1-(-4).
PASSING
Wilson: Hoffman 10-28-2–99.
Gov. Mifflin: D. McNeil 1-1-0–24.
RECEIVING
Wilson: Drake 4-31, J.Jones 2-8, C. Jones 1-33, Williams 1-17, Lenart 1-8, Dendall 1-2.
Gov. Mifflin: Martin 1-24.
Interceptions
Gov. Mifflin: Singleton, Johnson.
