It would seem Junction City’s defense is picking up where they left off at the end of the 2018 season.
The Dragons came up with a critical stop in the red zone at the end of the first half and threw a shutout in the second half to top Hamburg 14-7 in a benefit game Thursday night at Junction City.
“We had great pressure on the quarterback,” Junction City coach Brad Smith said. “We did that quite a bit. We had good pressure on their QB all night long. We blitzed once or twice to get that pressure. Jamie Carroll and (Kyle) Kidwell had good pressure.”
Smith also singled out Wizdom Brown, A’Donnis Jones, Jakyrion Barnett and Tate Barnett for their work up front and at linebacker.
Late in the first half, the Lions marched to the 5, but were turned away.
“We made a mistake and let them get down there, but we fixed our mistake,” Smith said. “It looked like they ran two inside runs, and we stuffed both of them. I don’t think they made a yard. We had a corner blitz on one and the interior part just smashed the other part right as the horn sounded to end the first half, which gave us some momentum. It was really, really enjoyable to watch.”
In addition to their stop near the goal line, Smith said the Dragons also had a stop on a fourth-and-1. Junction City’s defense also had an interception returned for a touchdown by Harlandus Frazier called back due to a penalty.
The Dragons got a look at senior Jamarco Singleton, who has been sidelined with an injury.
“Jamarco Singleton is a kid that’s been injured,” Smith said. “We got him a few snaps. He got cleared today (Thursday), and we didn’t play him a bunch. We wanted to see how he moved a little bit, and he came in and made a big play. We had some younger kids make big plays.”
For Smith, the game was what he was expecting.
“Pretty much,” Smith said. “We did a lot of really good things, but made just enough mistakes and missed plays, especially defensively. We overran a gap a couple of times, not tackling well at times at linebacker and in the secondary. It’s what it was supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a learning experience. We did play about five to seven kids that this was their first meaningful varsity action, and Hamburg is pretty solid.”
The Dragons’ points came on a touchdown run by Jakiron Cook on their opening possession of the first half and a touchdown pass from Gabe Richard to Jamal Johnson in the second half that proved to be the winning points.
However, there were some areas that Smith wasn’t happy with.
“We made the critical stop yourself mistake,” Smith said. “We had a dropped pass on one, didn’t stay on a block long enough another time. We were fixing to have a huge run, but we dropped the ball.
“We got it back, but it was going to be a huge run. It was a gaping hole. That’s just concentration. You have to stay hot wired every time you do something, and we didn’t. We found out what happens when you relax. That’s what you have to find out. You can do it against each other, you can do it in the Purple & Gold, but when somebody else gets out there, and they’re trying to whip your tail, that’s when you learn.”
Although Cook is certainly expected to get the lion’s share of the carries in the backfield, sophomore A.J. Ivory impressed the coaching staff with his performance.
“A.J. Ivory ran the ball great both with the ones and the twos,” Smith said. “That’s definitely going to help us down the road because the more guys you’ve got to tote the football, the fresher Mr. Cook is going to be when he gets the ball.”
Smith said the Dragons emerged from the game unscathed from an injury standpoint.
“We got out of it real healthy,” Smith said. “The effort was good. I think we’re ahead of ourselves on conditioning, and that was one of my big fears is how would we stand up in the heat. We played two full quarters and we tried not to sub a whole bunch in the first two quarters, because next week, it’s four for real.”
With a week to get ready for their season opener at Harmony Grove, Smith said his team is looking to build off of Thursday’s effort.
“We’ve got to try to work and get better and fix what we did wrong and whatever we did right, we’ve got to do it a little better,” Smith said.