For the second straight season, the Johnston football team is off to an 0-3 start, losing its non-league game, but more importantly dropping its first two Division II-B games as its defense has now allowed 88 points in those two league games. The Panthers lost to last year’s Division II-B regular season champion North Kingstown 48-14 last Friday night in a pinkout game at Johnston High School where all the Panther players and the majority of their fans wore pink to raise money and awareness for breast cancer.
“We have a good bunch of guys that are trying their hardest,” said Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo. “When you play a good team that is well coached you are going to pay a price. Tonight we made mistakes and we paid the price. We have to play tougher and more consistently and the inexperience is causing us to be inconsistent. We have flashes of greatness and then hiccups along the way, those hiccups are pushing us back.”
The Panthers moved the ball well on their first possession of the game with wide receiver Nassir Vasquez starting the game at quarterback. Vasquez moved the Panthers downfield with some productive runs out of the wildcat offense.
“Vasquez can make things happen,” Acciardo said.
On fourth-and-2 from the N.K. 20, JHS could not convert as it would fumble. Johnston’s defense got it the ball back thanks to a sack by Carson Kenny, which was followed by a John Soto interception at the Skipper 20-yard line. It was Soto’s third pick in two games. JHS failed to convert inside the red zone as Vasquez was sacked on fourth down.
With 3:34 left in the opening quarter, the Skippers’ Chris George would run 78 yards for the first score of the game, but JHS would respond with a 55-yard run by Joe Turchetta that got JHS back inside the Skippers’ red zone for the third time in the quarter. This time, the Panthers found the end zone on a 6-yard Turchetta run with 49 seconds left in the first quarter. Turchetta was the Panthers’ leading rusher with 78 yards while Vasquez added 66 yards on the ground. The 2-point conversion was no good because of a holding penalty, but the Panthers trailed by a 7-6 score.
In the second quarter, a Crosby Lynch 25-yard pass to Liam Lynch set up a Charles Compton 2-yard score and a 13-6 advantage. George would limp off the field on the previous play but would later return.
Soto would return the ensuing kickoff 25 yards to the N.K. 40, but JHS would turn the ball over on downs. With 1:39 left in the first half, Lynch connected with George for a 60-yard touchdown pass to up the Skippers’ lead to 21-6 lead. Kyle Nelson came into the game at quarterback and was intercepted by Ben Thomas. Lynch hit George for 40 yards as he bounced off tacklers that helped to set up a 15-yard touchdown with just 15 seconds left in the first half, giving N.K. a 27-6 lead at the break.
The Panthers turned the ball over midway through the third quarter, which led to a Joe Gilmartin to Lynch 19-yard score, allowing N.K. to take a 34-6 lead. Nelson connected with Vasquez for a 35-yard gain and Elijah Burgess would find the end zone from 12 yards out. His successful 2-point conversion made it a 34-14 game. Two more Panthers’ turnovers in the fourth quarter would lead to Skipper points as Reese King and Peter Kershaw each made an appearance in the end zone. Both of them broke free of tacklers when it appeared that they were wrapped up by JHS defenders.
Johnston turned the football over a total of six times in the game, with N.K. turning five of those miscues into points.
“The theme tonight was that we shot ourselves in the foot, like in the first quarter when we had the ball in the red zone and fumbled,” Acciardo said. “In the end, we have to play better all around as a team. You can’t prepare poorly and expect to play well on game day. We are learning the hard way. There is no free lunch in this league, it’s baptism by fire.”
The defending Division II Super Bowl champion, Moses Brown, comes to town tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Quakers are 2-0 in league play this year, defeating North Kingstown 39-13 two weeks ago and rolling past Mount Pleasant 49-6 last week. Moses Brown beat Johnston twice last season, including a 41-14 decision that eliminated the Panthers from the Division II tournament in the semifinals.
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