Johnsonville playing for Class A football state title again by overcoming graduation losses
Flashes will clash with defending state champion Christ Church again on Friday at 2 p.m.
Johnsonville – Well look who’s back playing for the Class A football state championship again this year! Johnsonville High School!
It may be the same school, but it’s certainly not the same group of Flashes. JHS lost eight starters from its offensive unit, including 2,000-yard rusher Daquan Burroughs. Defensively, they replaced the entire secondary and three of the four starters along the front.
Yet here Johnsonville is, ready to do battle with Christ Church for the championship once again. The teams will face off on Friday at 2 p.m. at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg.
“It’s real special,” said Flashes head coach Ken Cribb, whose squad lost to the Cavaliers 43-20 last season. “These kids have worked real hard, and they’ve done things the right way. It’s great to see them be rewarded.
“At one point, we were 2-2 and things didn’t look so great. The kids just hung in there and kept getting a little better every day. That’s what I said at the beginning of the year, that it was going to be a growing process and hopefully we’ll be a better football team by the end of the year than we are at the beginning. We kept improving and getting a little better every week.”
One of the three returning starters on offense was an important one in senior quarterback Malik Shippy. The Furman commitment will be concluding his career as a 4-year starter in the championship game.
“Malik’s my guy,” Cribb said. “He’s been a good one. A good player, a better person. A great leader. He’s the kind of guy you want to be your quarterback and be the face of your school.”
Shippy completed 105 of 181 passes for 1,649 yards and 22 touchdowns against just four interceptions. He’s rushed for 293 yards and six touchdowns on 84 carries.
Stepping into the hole left by the graduation of Burroughs was senior Neal Martin. He’s rushed for 1,318 yards and 16 TDs to go with 13 catches for 148 yards.
Freshman Zaghe Davis has been productive in the backfield as well. Davis has 83 carries for 665 yards and four touchdowns along with six catches for 68 yards.
Senior Travis Wilson is easily Shippy’s favorite target with 36 catches for 731 yards and 13 touchdowns. The other starting wide receivers are senior Zavier Grant and junior Quandrell Woodberry. Woodberry has 22 catches for 259 yards and two TDs.
The starting tight end is tight end Dylan Smith. He has three catches for 15 yards and a touchdown. Other key pass catchers are CJ Woodbury with 10 catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns, and Jordan Burgess has eight catches for 146 yards and two scores.
The offensive line is anchored by senior center Taylor Davis. Lining up on his left side are sophomore Brayden Baxley at guard and junior Michael Tapia at tackle. On the right side will be freshman Daniel Ortiz at guard and sophomore Jason Brigham at tackles.
“I feel we’ve made some improvements offensively,” Cribb said. “We had to replace a lot on that side of the ball where we brought back three starters. They’ve hung in there and kept getting a little better every time. I think we’ve gotten to be pretty serviceable on offense when we click.”
The Johnsonville defense has seemed to come into its own in the state playoffs. After shutting out St. John’s 57-0 in the first round, the Flashes have produced three strong performances against traditional Class A powers. They beat Lake View 35-14, Lamar 14-12 and Bamberg-Ehrhardt 20-10 to win the lower state championship last week.
“I’m proud of them,” Cribb said. “We’ve been mixing and matching and trying to find the right fits and the best schemes that will fit our kids. They’ve gotten better, and we’ve coached them up a little bit better, and we’ve improved as the season went along. Now they’re starting to play with some confidence. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made.
“Just experience, no teacher like experience,” Cribb responded when asked the reason for the improvement. “You’ve got to fail before you can succeed. We’ve made some mistakes, but we learned from them, and it seems like we’re getting a little better on that side of the ball.”
Junior linebacker Landyn Cribb – no relation to the head coach – leads the Flashes in tackles with 114. He also has 18 tackles for loss, two quarterback sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception.
Martin and sophomore Bricen Howell are the other starting linebackers. Martin has 99 tackles, 17 TFLs, three sacks, one FF, two FRs, and Howell has 83 tackles, 10 TFLs, one sack and one FF.
Junior strong safety Taysawn Brown leads the way in TFLs with 29 to go with 103 total tackles. He’s also forced a fumble and recovered a fumble. Sophomore free safety Clovell Woodberry has 80 tackles and one TFL.
The cornerbacks are juniors CJ Woodbury and Quandrell Woodberry. CJ has 38 tackles, four TFLs, one interception that he returned for a touchdown and seven pass breakups. Quandrell has a team high 11 PBUs, 40 tackles and two TFLs.
The defensive line is led by Wilson and senior Luke Altman at the ends. Wilson has 89 tackles, 23 TFLs, four sacks and two FFs, while Altman has 83 tackles, 18 TFLs, three sacks and one fumble recovery.
The defensive tackles are senior Payne Alford and junior Jaiden McFadden. Alford leads the team in sacks with five to go with 84 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and a team high four fumble recoveries. McFadden has 34 tackles, seven TFLs, one sack and one forced fumble.
Senior Reid Baxley handles the placekicking and punting duties. Baxley is 40 of 43 on extra point attempts and is averaging 33.1 yards per punt on 33 attempts.
Davis has returned a punt for a touchdown and is averaging 8.8 yards on 13 returns. On kickoffs, the Flashes have 10 different players who have returned kickoffs.
Coach Cribb said the Flashes need to focus on playing as good of a game as it can to pick up a win on Friday.
“We’ve got to play good football,” he said. “Christ Church is a really good football team They throw it really, really well. They fly around on defense. We just can’t make mistakes. We can’t get behind the sticks, can’t make that big mistake. We just have to kind of hang around, make it a game in the fourth quarter and see what happens.”
Offense
10 -- QB – Malik Shippy, Sr.
15 -- RB – Neal Martin, Sr.
9 -- WR – Travis Wilson, Sr.
5 -- WR – Zavier Grant, Sr.
7 -- WR – Quandrell Woodberry, Jr.
54 -- LT – Michael Tapia, Jr.
72 -- LG – Brayden Baxley, So.
52 -- C – Taylor Davis, Sr.
77 -- RG – Daniel Ortiz. Fr.
70 -- RT – Jason Brigham, So.
89 -- TE – Dylan Smith, So.
Defense
44 -- DE – Luke Altman, Sr.
23 -- DT – Jaiden McFadden, So.
59 -- DT – Payne Alford, Sr.
9 -- DE – Travis Wilson, Sr.
4 -- LB – Landyn Cribb, Jr.
15 -- LB – Neal Martin, Sr.
33 -- LB – Bricen Howell, So.
3 -- CB – CJ Woodbury, Jr.
7 -- CB – Quandrell Woodberry, Jr.
19 -- FS – Clovell Woodbury, So.
2 -- SS – Taysawn Brown, Jr.
Special Teams
96 -- PK/P – Reid Baxley, Sr.
4 -- Holder – Landyn Cribb, Jr.
52 -- LS – Taylor Davis, Sr.
21 -- PR – Zaghe Davis, Fr.
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