Meshach Sullivan | BeaumontEnterprise.com
Published 11:29 pm CST, Friday, November 23, 2018
HOUSTON — Port Neches-Groves’ second-half outburst led the Indians to a 50-28 victory over Lindale in the Class 5A Division II state playoffs at NRG Stadium on Friday night.
PN-G outscored Lindale 21-7 in the second half behind a dominant defense and a freight train named Roschon Johnson at quarterback.
“It feels great,” Johnson said. “It was a close game in the first half but we are able to execute our game plan and pull out the victory. We’ve got to the third round a couple of times before so we still have a lot of work to do.”
WHAT HAPPENED
PN-G started the game off with a bang. Johnson broke for a 66-yard touchdown on the first possession of the game.
Lindale’s offense started off the game with a trick play. Brayson Campbell found a streaking Conner Boyette for a 74-yard touchdown on the double pass.
Lindale’s defense then forced PN-G’s offense to go three-and-out. Lindale’s offense rewarded their defense with a six-yard touchdown run from Jordan Jenkins.
Johnson’s first three pass attempts were incompletions. On his fourth attempt, he found Jose Ceja for a 65-yard touchdown.
Lindale’s senior quarterback Dillon Heinaman countered Johnson’s touchdown pass with one of his own for 43-yards to Brennan Moore.
The Indians’ Johnson soon began to show why he’s an elite-level quarterback. He scored his third touchdown of the game on a quarterback keeper from one-yard out. He threw for 43 yards on the
drive.
Johnson used his pinpoint accuracy on his second touchdown pass to Ceja for 43 yards. He ran the ball into the end zone to convert the two-point conversion.
PN-G led 29-21 at the half over Lindale.
“I told them to keep playing,” PN-G coach Brandon Faircloth said. “Lindale is an explosive offensive and we just wanted to keep plugging along. We harp on them all the time about being a second-half team and they’ve bought into it.”
Johnson accounted for four touchdowns and 312 total yards in the first half.
On PNG’s first offensive drive of the second half, Johnson broke a few would-be Lindale tacklers on his way to end zone from 87 yards out.
Johnson began to put on a show for the Indian faithful. He bulldozed over Lindale defenders on his way to pay dirt from 73 yards out.
PN-G’s defense would make a huge play with a Kade Martin interception to Lindale’s nine-yard line. Three plays later, Kaleb Wuenschel found Cooper Hammond for a nine-yard touchdown on the reverse pass.
“We’ve always been a second-half team,” Martin said. “We just came together as we always do and just did our thing.”
TURNING POINT
PN-G scored a touchdown with about two minutes left in the first half from Johnson to Ceja. It was PN-G’s first time leading in the game and the Indians would take a stranglehold on the game from there on out.
PN-G scored 21 unanswered points once the second half started and never looked in their rear-view window.
WHAT STOOD OUT
Johnson was an absolute game-changer on the field against Lindale. Johnson had eight plays that went at least 20 yards down the field. Johnson is not an easy quarterback to tackle and that’s because he keeps his legs churning through contact.
The defense for PN-G was on another level in the second half. They let a few plays get behind them in the first half, but that changed out of the locker room. The defense solidified its
second-half dominance with a 4th-and-goal stop at the one-yard line in the fourth quarter.
BY THE NUMBERS
Johnson accounted for 466 yards with six total touchdowns. Ceja had two receptions for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
UP NEXT
PN-G (9-3, 6-1) will face Fort Bend Marshall (12-0, 8-0) in the regional quarterfinals next week.
