Published 11:00 pm Saturday, December 24, 2016
There are times when coaches and even sports reporters sit back and enjoy watching a high school football player perform at almost unbelievable levels.
Port Neches-Groves sophomore quarterback Roschon Johnson had many of those moments in 2016. Because of that he has been named Most Valuable Player of the 45th edition of the Port Arthur News Super Team.
He was also named the MVP of District 22-5A and was mentioned this past week in Sports Illustrated. Not too shabby for a 15-year-old who does not have his driver’s license yet.
Johnson led the Indians to a share of the District 22-5A title, an 11-2 record and a trip to the third round of the playoffs. He finished with 57 total touchdowns, 2,358 yards passing and 1,620 yards rushing.
“It was a lot of fun being the starting quarterback this year,” Johnson said. “With that came a lot of pressure, but I think I handled it pretty well. The playoffs were really fun, especially with as deep as we did.”
There was obviously going to be pressure on Johnson to perform this year regardless of age. He replaced Adam Morse, who finished his career as one of the best signal callers to play at PNG.
“It was nerve-racking going into the season,” he admitted. “Once I got that first game under my belt, I was pretty good with it the rest of the way.”
It needs to be noted Johnson had 75 rushing yards, 154 passing yards and four combined touchdowns in the Indians’ season opener, a 54-27 win over Silsbee.
“During that first game, once I got settled into it, I was good,” he said. “I realized it was just football and I could play my game.”
He played his game all the way through the season finale for the Indians.
Johnson had a streak of three games in a row with more than 200 rushing yards. It started in the last district game and carried into the first two playoff victories.
He had 116 yards rushing, 244 passing and four total touchdowns in the Indians’ season-ending 52-28 loss to College Station, which was not eliminated until the state semifinals.
“It has been a true honor to play with my teammates because some of these guys I will not get to play with again,” Johnson said. “It was really special playing with these guys every Friday night.
“The awards coming in have been a little crazy but I couldn’t have done anything without my teammates.”
Now that most of the awards are out of the way — Johnson is a likely finalist for the Willie Ray Smith Award — he is already thinking of 2017.
“Immediately I started thinking about my junior year,” he added. “I am already preparing for it. We will be ready next year.”
