SEARCH:

Select a School:

Your Hometown:

Archives > Sports Update

Print
E-mail
Comment (No comments posted.)
Rate

RSS
Share
Text Size

Football: Jaguars victorious in coach Dane Johnson's debut

By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com

Published: Saturday, September 1, 2012 12:39 AM CDT

FLOWER MOUND - The Dane Johnson era began the right way Friday.

Fans got to see what the future holds for Flower Mound football as Johnson made his Jaguar coaching debut at Neal E. Wilson Jaguar Stadium.

The fans liked what they saw, and with Flower Mound's (1-0) 33-8 win over Keller Central (0-1), Johnson had some kind things to say about his team as well. This comes after a scrimmage against McKinney Boyd a week ago that wasn't quite as pleasant.

"We made some huge adjustments from last week," Johnson said. "We learned a lot. I knew we could do it, we just had to learn how to do it."

The Jaguars appear to be quick learners.

Flower Mound mixed in some passing and running to get on the board early.

Quarterback Connor Wanhanen rushed three times for 13 yards in the first drive, and he completed four of seven passes for 55 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown pass to Cole McKeel to put the Jags on the board.

McKeel attacked on the ground with a 44-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and Cameron Gable's 44-yard field goal -- this after his first attempt was halted on a last-second timeout call by Central -- gave Flower Mound a 17-0 lead.

For the game, Wanhanen and McKeel combined for 106 rushing yards. Wanhanen completed 12-of-17 passes with one interception for 110 yards. McKeel had five catches for 76 yards.

In fact, Wanhanen and quarterback Matt Hirst combined to throw 15 passes all night -- a sharp contrast from the pass-heavy Jaguars of years past.

"We'll do whatever we have to in order to win," Johnson said. "So if we have to throw 60 passes to win, we will. But I was glad we were able to get down and dirty by running the ball."

Defensively, the Jags were solid as well, using a "bend-but-don't-break" stance for most of the game. The closest Central came to rallying back was with 25 seconds left in the second quarter when a 36-yard touchdown pass from Jake McClurg to Cody Burd cut Flower Mound's lead to 17-6. But the play was almost by accident. McClurg's pass bounced off one receiver's hands, off a defender and into the hands of Burd.

"That just shows why our corner needs to be the deepest guy," Johnson said. "So that was a learning experience."

But aside from that -- Central's other two points came on a safety -- the Chargers couldn't muster much offense.

Running back Malcolm rushed for 124 yards on 12 carries in the first half. But Flower Mound limited him to minus six yards on six carries in the second half.

"Their offensive line did a great job and were constantly rotating," Johnson said. "So we had to communicate all night."

Despite Burris being shut down in the second half, it was mistakes that really hurt Central, and its special teams unit was anything but special.

Two punt snaps sailed over the punter's head. One led to Gable's field goal and another led to a safety.

Central also had a bad snap on an extra-point attempt, a bad snap on a field-goal try and a blocked field goal.

Flower Mound also took advantage of the Chargers' 14 penalties for 105 yards.

Meanwhile, the Jags added some cushion to their lead in the third quarter with an 11-yard touchdown run from Wanhanen and a 27-yard touchdown pass from Hirst to Finn Foster.

In fact, Johnson noticed that as the Jags padded their lead, they started to make some mistakes as well.

"We were still a little sloppy," Johnson said. "I think we lost our focus and relaxed, and we made some silly mistakes. But I don't care who is in there. Whether it's our first-team players or our third-team players, they all practice."

Johnson said the mistakes will have to be reduced next week when Flower Mound hosts South Grand Prairie, which the coach said will be a huge test in stopping the running game.

"Hopefully we can keep improving and win the next one," Johnson said. "South Grand Prairie has some real go-daddies."

Share this Article