BRUSH PRAIRIE — The Hockinson Hawks were coming off their best football season in school history.
They made it to the state playoffs for the first time, and then they reached the Class 2A quarterfinals.
It was a season full of accomplishments.
Still, the Hawks needed to do more.
Coaches realized shortly after the 2014 season that they had to become less predictable. The Hawks could not just run the ball and rely on their defense, even if that defense was so strong.
They had to utilize one of best wide receivers in the region.
After all, the Hawks have Kedrick Johnson, a 6-foot, 3-inch senior with speed who also cleared six feet in the high jump at the state track and field championships last spring.
Now the Hawks are showing they can throw the ball.
Johnson has four touchdown receptions in the first three games of the season and is averaging 21 yards per catch. He also has 61 yards rushing with a touchdown, and oh yeah, a defensive touchdown.
The big change this year for Hockinson came about a year after a big change for Johnson.
“The summer going into my junior year, that’s when I really figured out who I am as a football player,” Johnson said. “I learned not to be scared. Sophomore year, I was really tentative. I was focused on getting hit by a defensive back. That summer, I learned not to even think of the DB. Just focus on the ball, getting the ball.”
Johnson had plenty of individual success last season — he had five touchdown receptions — but the numbers were not consistent. That was more a philosophy of the offense, though, according to Hockinson coach Rick Steele.
Hockinson won the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League with the run-and-defense approach. In the two biggest wins of the regular season — against Woodland and R.A. Long — the Hawks did not complete a pass.
“Both teams had nine, 10 guys in the box. It just made it harder. We worked on the passing game a lot in the offseason. We have the best wide receiver who has ever played here. We have the best tight end (Cameron Loos) who’s ever played here,” Steele said, also noting the skills of Mitch Lines, Bailey Jones, and Devan Riggs. “We realized we have a very good receiving corps. We’ve got to make people play us honestly.”
Johnson has 252 receiving yards through three games. He had 286 for the season last year.
Some of those 2014 yards came after a one-handed catch to set up a touchdown in the state preliminary round playoff, the game the Hawks rallied from a three-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter.
“I remember thinking, ‘This kid is special,'” Steele said, adding the Johnson could start for any team in the county, regardless of classification.
Johnson said last year was special.
“It was a great family. The connection we had with all of our team was amazing. I loved being part of that team,” he said.
The success of the 2014 squad only makes the 2015 Hawks want more. Johnson is not focused on how many yards he gets or how many touchdowns he scores.
“Just team goals,” he said.
One in particular.
“We’re really focusing on going to the Tacoma Dome,” Johnson said, referring to the state semifinals and/or beyond.
Part of the plan to get there means the Hawks will air it out more this season. Sophomore quarterback Canon Racanelli is 30 for 50 for 512 yards and six TD passes.
“If we run the ball, I’m all for it. I’m still going to give 100 percent,” Johnson said. “Once I find out we’re going to pass, my eyes light up. I get excited.”
In fact, he acknowledged he has to work on getting rid of a “tell” to the defense.
If it is a pass play, if the first option is to Johnson, he has found himself cracking a smile at the line of scrimmage.
The Hawks have every reason to be smiling as they prepare for 2A GSHL play. The defending league champions still can run, still can play defense. Now, though, they have added an air attack, taking advantage of the all of their talent.
Hockinson offense picks up the pace
A sophomore, Hockinson quarterback Canon Racanelli already knows that a QB can never really be satisfied.
“We’re still trying to get some things down, get quicker,” he said of the start of the season.
The Hawks are picking up the pace and passing more this season — a change in philosophy in order to take advantage of the team’s skill set.
“I think our offense looks pretty good,” Racanelli said.
It’s just not on all cylinders yet. And that’s OK. The season is only three weeks old.
Last week, Racanelli was limited to 10 passes. (It was a blowout victory.) Yet he had four touchdown passes.
The Hawks, when in no-huddle mode, are snapping the ball at roughly 20 seconds after a play ends. Racanelli wants that number closer to 15 seconds.
No matter when the ball in snapped, the system is more fun for tight end Cameron Loos, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound beast who already has offers from Portland State and New Mexico State, according to coach Rick Steele.
“This is the best offense,” Loos said. “I love it. It gets me involved more.”
More importantly, he said, it gives the Hawks a better chance to win.
“It’s a second-half offense. The second half is when it starts to take off,” Loos said.
Perhaps that is because of the pace, because it can tire a defense.
“It can be dangerous,” Loos said.
