Johnsonville football season ends on strong note

Johnsonville – Head coach Ken Cribb knew 2024 could be a difficult season for his

Johnsonville High School football team. The Flashes had lost a lot of talent from a team that had

played for the Class A state championship the two previous seasons, going 13-1 in 2022 and 11-3

in 2023.

However, there was no way to anticipate exactly what Johnsonville would have to go

through.

“It was a crazy season,” Cribb said. “I’ve never been part of one quite like it. We lost 14-15 kids

for the year for various reasons. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. That’s tough on anybody

when they lose that many, much less a 1A school.”

Yet when it was all said and done, the Flashes ended up with a respectable season. They finished

with a 5-7 record, beating 8-win Branchville 43-41 in overtime in the first round of the state playoffs and

pushing Lake View to the limit before losing 21-14 in the second round.

“We were just able to hang in there and we got better the longer we played,” said Cribb, whose

squad lost to Region 6 foe Lake View 37-0 in the regular season. “We finished on a high note.

“The record wasn’t the kind that we’re used to. It was just a battle. We had seven or eight kids go

down with knee injuries. I’m really proud of them though. They kept getting a little better all the time.”

Johnsonville had four players selected to the All-Region 6 team. They were senior outside

linebacker/wide receiver Keith Davis, senior OLB/WR Landyn Cribb, senior offensive tackle/defensive

end Bubba Tapia and junior OT/defensive end Jason Brigham.

Davis finished with 101 tackles to lead the team while Cribb had 46. Bricen Howell had 66

tackles as an OLB.

Johnsonville loses 11 seniors but Coach Cribb thinks there is an opportunity to bounce back.

“I’m excited about what we’ve got coming back. We had a ton of sophomores playing at the end

of the year. We’re going to get better and right the ship.”

BOYS BASKETBALL SPLITS FIRST TWO REGION GAMES

The Johnsonville boys basketball team started the year with a 2-5 overall record while splitting its

first two region contests.

Leading the way was junior Takhari Ross. He was averaging 14.2 points and 3.5 steals both team

highs. He was also grabbing 4.2 rebounds to go with 2.7 assists.

Sophomore Terry Parrott was also scoring in double figures at 10.3 points to go with 4.8

rebounds and 2.2 steals. Sophomore Jackson Eaddy was leading in rebounds at 5.5 and blocked shots at

2.2 while averaging 8.7 points.

Sophomore Zaghe Davis led in assists at 2.8 while scoring at a 3.8 clip. Senior Xavier Johnson

was 6.3 points and 3.8 rebounds.