JUNCTION CITY – For the third consecutive week, Junction City’s offense turned in a dominant showing.
Jamal Johnson ran for two scores, while Corey Dubose ran for one score and threw for another to lift the Dragons past Bearden 43-2 in 8-2A play that also marked their regular-season finale Friday night at David Carpenter Stadium.
The win clinches the 8-2A’s No. 2 seed for the Dragons (5-4, 3-1), who will enter the playoffs on a three-game winning streak.
Bearden (0-9, 0-3) takes on Fordyce in their final game of the regular season next week.
The Dragons did all of their scoring in the first half, scoring five times on offense while having the ball for only 17 minutes in the game.
Dubose scored on a 7-yard run at the 7:01 mark of the opening stanza with AJ Ivory’s run on the two-point conversion making it 8-0.
After the Dragons recovered a fumble, Johnson, who had 118 yards on just seven carries, scored on a 31-yard run just 1:46 later with Ivory’s two-point conversion pushing the lead to 16-0.
The Dragons recovered another fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and immediately took advantage with Dubose firing a 39-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Allen with Johnson’s extra point making it 23-0.
Junction City padded their lead early in the second quarter with Ivory capping a 55-yard drive with a 24-yard run. Johnson’s extra point gave the Dragons a 30-0 edge.
A week ago at Hampton, Johnson scored a defensive touchdown by returning an interception 72 yards to paydirt.
Against Bearden, history repeated itself with Johnson picking off a pass and returning it 35 yards for a score to give the Dragons a 36-0 lead.
Johnson then capped his night with a 50-yard run with 53 seconds left in the first half. He added his third extra point to make 43-0.
The Bears’ lone points came as the result of a safety in the third quarter.
Ivory added 66 yards on six carries for the Dragons, who had 270 yards of total offense with 231 of those yards coming on the ground.
Junction City’s defense held Bearden to just 95 yards of total offense while forcing four turnovers.