Darius Johnson leads A-K Valley contingent in Foothills Classic

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, June 15, 2018 | 11:48 PM

Darius Johnson came into Friday's Foothills Classic all-star football game at Hempfield with a lot of confidence.

The Valley standout got his chance to shine, and he didn't waste the opportunity.

Johnson, who will play in college at IUP, caught eight passes for 151 yards, including touchdown catches of 15 and 5 yards.

His efforts were in a loss, however, as the Blue team captured a high-scoring 65-35 victory.

Despite the loss, Johnson said he enjoyed the chance to record a few more memories under the Friday night lights.

“Every time I touched the ball, I tried to make the best of what I could do,” said Johnson, who joined Valley teammate Shawn Demharter, as well as Burrell's Jacob Robertson and Seth Tatrn and Kiski Area's Jesap Wilson and Kadin Harden as Alle-Kiski Valley representatives on the Red team.

“Everyone was looking to me to make plays, and I wanted to do what I could for the team. Everybody wanted to win, but at the end of the day, it's not about the score. It's about how you play and how much you threw your heart out on the field.”

Numerous times in the second half, Johnson lined up against Jeannette do-everything skill player Robert Kennedy, who had 12 interceptions last fall to lead the Jayhawks to the PIAA Class A title.

“I caught a couple of passes on him, and he also did a good job on me,” Johnson said. “It was fun to go up against him.”

Kennedy also showed his star power on offense for the Blue team with four touchdowns — three rushing, one receiving — and was named the Blue team MVP.

Kennedy will play at Lackawanna Community College in the fall with the hopes of eventually catching on with a Division I school.

“There was a lot of talent, skill and speed on the Blue team, on both teams,” said Robertson, who played defensive back and lined up one-on-one with Kennedy on several occasions. “It was interesting to go out there and try to stack my talent against theirs.”

While only 21 points were scored last year — all by the Red team — Friday's game featured 100 combined points. It had the feel, at times, of an Arena Football League game that normally reaches the 100-point mark.

“It was such an honor to play in this game,” said Tatrn, a Westminster commit. “It was so much fun, and I made so many new friendships this week. I expected a lot of big plays in the game, and that's what happened. It will be a game I will remember forever.”

Injuries and other commitments caused the original roster numbers to dip below 30 for both teams. That gave more players the chance to rack up their number of plays.

“The first possession, it was kind of hard, and it took a few series to really get into game speed,” said Harden, a Geneva commit who played defensive tackle.

“Once we got into the second quarter, we were good. No one was going extremely hard because we were trying to avoid getting hurt. We just wanted to have a good time and make the most of it.”

Greensburg Central Catholic's James Rice, a Leechburg resident and Mt. Aloysius baseball commit, caught a 30-yard touchdown from Derry quarterback Ryan Polinsky and finished with three catches for 52 yards.

Rice, also a starting infielder for the Centurions baseball team, played in Monday's PIAA Class A semifinals against Vincentian.

GCC lost that game, giving Rice an opportunity for a quick turnaround. He joined his Red teammates Tuesday to prepare for Friday's contest.

“We were hoping to get into the state championship for baseball, but we fell a little bit short,” Rice said. “But I knew that I had this opportunity to play one more high school football game. I was really excited to be able to turn it around really quick, get to practice and get to know my teammates.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Mlove_Trib.