If the other five football games in Sedona Red Rock Junior High School’s fall schedule are anything like the Scorpions’ 38-0 opening win Sept. 1, it could be the start of something big.
Eighth-grader Micah Johnson, forced by a sore elbow from quarterback to slotback, provided most of the offensive fireworks in the shutout of Joseph City Middle School, breaking loose for a 45-yard touchdown on the second play of the game en route to three more scores.
“We broke it open early,” said head coach Tod Christensen, who expects a full roster of 17 for the Scorpions’ second game on the road Wednesday, Sept. 21.
In his place four yards behind centers Trenton Hyer and Risland Griffin-Barnes in the pistol formation starts fellow eighth-grader Joey Johnson, who threw to his teammate for touchdown catches of 20 and 70 yards.
“Our core group of linebackers, slots, quarterbacks, athletes in general is the best I’ve ever seen in Sedona,” said Christensen, in his sixth year as football coach locally. “I’ve got five kids that could start for any team I’ve ever seen.”
Count in this select group the other slotback, cornerback and starting kicker, Carlos Landeverde, who ran for a 40-yard touchdown of his own late in the fourth quarter. That would cap the scoring after he intercepted Joseph City on its deepest drive at the SRRHS 20-yard-line.
“The kid’s got a leg-and-a-half,” said Christensen, whose 4-4 stack defense only allowed two first downs Sept. 1. “Even if someone was able to outrun our linebackers, they won’t get through Carlos — and nobody got through our linebackers.”
Micah Johnson joins eighth-graders Jaiah Grondin, lineman Xavier Stimple and Christensen’s son, Clay, in that corps.
“We have more speed than any team I’ve ever coached in Sedona,” Tod Christensen said. “Our line is going to be a work in progress but our offensive scheme is going to really capitalize on our speed and take some pressure off of the line.”
Clay Christensen can also join Stimple along the offensive line if necessary, as only one of the seven linemen played for the Sedona Youth Football team last season — the team’s only girl, eighth-grade right tackle Genna Ryan.
“She’s got great footwork,” Christensen said. “She’s very talented athletically, very coachable, just light-years more aggressive than where she was last year.
“She’s great at the initial point of contact, but then she just stops. We need her to finish tackles and to keep driving through.”
That isn’t all the Scorpions need to improve upon for their next game Wednesday, Sept. 21, as the competition only gets tougher after Joseph City.
“I would suspect they had the weakest team we’ll see all year,” said Christensen, who can’t wait to play Chino Valley, which he’s never beaten. “We got hit in this game far fewer times, but frankly, the line is our weak spot: Joey got sacked twice and fumbled once. He got it right back, but we had a couple other bad snaps where we turned the ball over.”
For the full Sedona Red Rock Junior High School football schedule, please see the Friday, Sept. 9, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
