JJ Johnson certainly did his part in Crown Point’s latest milestone victory under second-year coach Craig Buzea.
The senior quarterback had a hand in each of the Bulldogs’ touchdowns on Friday.
“He’s the straw that stirs the drink for us,” Buzea said.
Johnson ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries and also threw a touchdown pass in the Bulldogs’ 28-18 road win against Andrean, the defending Class 2A state champion.
Crown Point lost 21-7 to Andrean last season in the teams’ first-ever meeting.
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“We talked about where our signature win was going to be,” Buzea said. “Last week, it’s always good to beat your rival (Lowell). But when you come over here and beat the defending state champs on their turf after they beat us pretty good last year, it’s a big win for us.
“But it’s a 2A school against a 6A school. We were not surprised this happened by any stretch of the imagination, and that’s no disrespect to Andrean. We have more bodies, bigger bodies, and that’s probably what should happen when these two teams play.”
Johnson completed 6 of 9 passes for 136 yards with a 50-yard TD to Raymond Santiago. He also threw two interceptions, both by James Finley.
Elijah Tiawhan ran for 142 yards on 22 carries for Crown Point (2-0), and Landen Delich added two catches for 73 yards.
“It’s nice to play these guys with a full team,” Buzea said. “Last year we came into the game, and we were just ravaged. We didn’t think we were going to play the game up until Wednesday because we had so many guys out. We thought this might be a possibility if we had a full team. You see the results.”
Senior quarterback Billy Henry made his first career start for Andrean (0-2) with Scott Ballentine sidelined. The standout junior suffered a broken collarbone in the season opener at Merrillville and underwent surgery Wednesday.
Henry completed 28 of 34 passes for 277 yards and three TDs. Patrick Clacks III had 14 catches for 158 yards and two scores.
“Obviously, Clacks is a good talent,” Andrean coach Chris Skinner said. “Billy, it slowed down for him, his first start. It slowed down a little bit for him in the second half, and he made some good reads.”
Crown Point led 14-0 at halftime. Johnson scored on a 3-yard TD run with 7:42 left in the second quarter after a 35-yard completion to Delich. Johnson hit Santiago for the TD pass on the first play after Paul Clark’s fumble recovery.
Johnson made it 21-0 on a 35-yard run with 1:06 left in the third quarter.
Andrean got on the scoreboard on a 37-yard pass from Henry to Clacks with 11:52 left before Johnson added a 5-yard TD run.
Henry connected with Clacks for a 13-yard TD with 3:38 left to make it 28-12. Andrean’s Drayk Bowen, a Notre Dame recruit, recovered an onside kick before teammate Angel Ramirez scored on a 42-yard catch-and-run with 2:41 left.
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“I’m extremely proud of the way we battled,” Skinner said. “We made a valiant effort to put ourselves back in the game, which I would expect nothing else. That’s Andrean pride.
“You play a 6A school like that, we sustained some injuries early, and we had to play some younger guys. It grinds on you, wears on you. But again, our guys battled. They played hard. I have no complaints about the effort we gave.”