"As one of our few seniors - I think we only have eight - I knew I had to keep pushing everybody. Had to make them show pride. Had to keep talking to them.
"I told them we were going to play our hardest every game. Like every game was our last. Like it was a playoff. I said, 'Even though our record might say otherwise, we're going into these expecting to win.' "
Then came Thursday . . .
Johnson put a memorable moment where his mouth was. 'Brook bested host John Bartram, 14-6, in Public AAAA Gold and Johnson made the difference, turning a pass from Michael Shenoster into a tiebreaking, 29-yard touchdown with 6 minutes, 11 seconds remaining.
Soon, Yvon Dessus was making a leaping, stake-to-the-heart interception, the Panthers were running out the clock, and first-year coach Rendell Ivory was trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid a sideline soaking.
Oh, and Johnson's smile was brighter than the late-afternoon sun.
"This shows what we can do," he said. "Bartram probably came in here expecting to roll us. Washington crushed us [40-0] and Bartram had four [long] touchdowns against them [in a 38-28 loss]. We're no joke."
Johnson finished with two receptions for 67 yards. His 39-yarder, in the third quarter, advanced the ball to Bartram's 17, but 'Brook then babbled backward, losing - gulp - a total of 25 yards.
Shortly into the fourth quarter, Khalil Havens partially deflected a punt, and the Panthers were in business at Bartram's 43. A fourth-down, offside penalty was a killer, and Johnson's TD came two plays later. Again, Bartram ventured into the neutral zone and Shenoster needed to cover only 1 1/2 yards on the conversion run.
On his TD play, Johnson lined up on the left and expected to run a slant.
"When I started to come off the line, the defensive guy pushed me out of bounds," Johnson said. "I thought it was like the NFL, where if you go out, you can't be the first guy to touch the ball.
