Evergreen romps Ike, but has lots to fix still

Don Johnson Jr., was pretty upset on Friday.

Well, as upset as a coach can be after his team opened the season with a 56-7 win.

“I think this is the most frustrating lopsided win I’ve ever had,” Johnson said after his Plainsmen routed Eisenhower of Yakima in their season opener. “We have a lot of things to clean up. Our league is a tough league, and to compete in our league, we have to play a lot cleaner than that. So we got a lot of learning to do.”

It may have been the most unexpected lopsided win for Johnson, given the way the first half went.

The Plainsmen piled up 110 yards of penalties before the intermission, which allowed Eisenhower to stay within 12-7 at halftime.

“We scored 56 points and we had three touchdowns called back (because of penalties) in the first half,” Johnson said.

The Cadets opened the second half by driving down to the Evergreen 15 before the Plainsmen turned them back on downs.

When Evergreen got the ball back, they got three big runs by three different players, the last being a 28-yard touchdown run by Rey Green, and the Plainsmen never looked back.

“We have a lot of weapons and we expected to use them all,” Johnson said. “We came on the field with a Pac-12 guy in street clothes. It was a chance for our other guys to show what they can do, and not depend so much on our star player.”

That star player was senior Justice Murphy, who had made a verbal commitment to Utah. Murphy had been nursing a sore ankle during fall practices, so Johnson opted to hold him out as a precaution because he felt the Plainsmen could handle Eisenhower without him.

And he was right.

The explosive Green rushed for 143 yards on 17 carries. He also caught two passes for 102 yards, including a screen play he turned into an 82-yard touchdown that gave Evergreen a 28-7 lead in the third quarter.

Quarterback Jerrin Williams passed for 234 yards and rushed for 68 more, and Billy Nelson rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns.

“So we’re an explosive team,” Johnson said. “We can score at any given second. We’ve got athletes all over the field. It’s going to be fun to add Mr. Murphy back into the mix with those other guys next week.”

EVERGREEN 56, EISENHOWER 7

Eisenhower 7 0 0 0– 7

Evergreen 6 6 16 28–56

First quarter

Eve–Billy Nelson 9 run (run failed)

Ike–Devon Lawrence 49 pass from Bryce Reynolds (Crue Gillman kick)

Second quarter

Eve–Micah Bishop-Brown 4 run (run failed)

Third quarter

Eve–Rey Green 28 run (Jerrin Williams run)

Eve–Green 82 pass from Williams (Bishop-Brown run)

Fourth quarter

Eve–Nelson 3 run (run failed)

Eve–Kobey Eaton 45 pass from Williams (Nelson run)

Eve–Eaton 26 pass from Williams (run failed)

Eve–Nathaniel Trevino 2 run (Trevino run)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Eisenhower: Luis Leon 28-134, Reynolds 4-(minus-14), Noah Ramirez 1-(minus-11), Quincy Backes 2-10, Gillman 1-(minus-6), Raul Jimenez 2-3, Julian Batten 2-(minus-1). Evergreen: Green 17-143, Nelson 12-91, Williams 7-68, Bishop-Brown 1-4, Marquis Sampson 1-21, Trevino 1-2.

PASSING — Eisenhower: Reynolds 13-25-0-141; Evergreen: Williams 8-18-0-234.

RECEIVING — Eisenhower: Leon 1-9, Lawrence 4-76, Juan Cervantes 2-12, Ramirez 3-28, Julius Coleman 2-14, Vince Godinez 1-2. Evergreen: Nelson 2-13, Eaton 4-119, Green 2-102.