For senior defensive end Dillan Johnson, the equation for success in football tends to be pretty simple. Control the line of scrimmage, control the game for Joliet Catholic.
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For that to work, however, he has to apply skills he has developed as a heavyweight wrestler. From the sidelines, coach Jake Jaworski has a front-row seat to the havoc Johnson creates.
What’s his viewpoint?
“Just playing with leverage, hand fighting, getting off blocks,” Jaworski said of Johnson. “He’s not the tallest guy, but sometimes those bigger guys have a harder time playing tall.
“Being in wrestling, being in that stance, he’s used to changing levels. And he’s strong as an ox, too.”
The 6-foot-2, 280-pound Johnson used his entire tool kit Saturday to lift the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers to a 56-7 victory over 13th-seeded Troy Triad in a Class 5A second-round playoff game at Joliet Memorial Stadium.
Triad (7-4), from outside St. Louis, never had much of a chance against a defense led by Johnson and a line that included seniors Max Hrvatin and Mitchell Ragusa and junior Nico Ronchetti. Triad gained most of its 156 yards in the second half with a running clock.
Johnson, a Wisconsin recruit for both sports who alternated between the right and left side for JCA (8-3), spoke of the defensive line’s efforts as if it had been a wrestling match.
“I feel like all across the board we kept good pad level, we focused on getting down low, and that really just sealed up the inside and our ends,” Johnson said. “Of course, they got off to good blocks.
“I think a lot of the plays had to go outside because they couldn’t go inside and we put a lot of pressure on them.”
The key play of the game came with 8:54 left in the first quarter when junior defensive back Zak Beitler scooped up a fumble by Triad quarterback Isaac Ackerman and ran it into the end zone.
That was just the beginning. The Hilltoppers went up 28-0 at halftime and never looked back. In all, five players scored touchdowns for Joliet Catholic. That included a 67-yard fumble return to close the first half by Ronchetti.
Johnson, who spent virtually the entire second half as a casual observer, also is excited about the prospect of suiting up a year from now for the Badgers at Camp Randall.
But he mused that the recruiting process wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
“I enjoyed it, but at certain points, it became a lot,” said Johnson, who originally committed to Northwestern. “It’ll be a down period, and suddenly it would just ramp up.
“At one point, it started ramping up a lot into my last wrestling season. At that point, it was stressful because I had a state tournament coming up and I was trying to get ready for that.”
High school football will continue next weekend for the Johnson-led Hilltoppers in a quarterfinal game against traditional rival Morris, (11-0), which rallied to a 39-36 victory over Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin.
Besides Jaworski, his teammates that go up against him in practice may very well have the best viewpoint of Johnson’s talents.
Senior running back HJ Grigsby, for one, doesn’t relish taking on Johnson. Grigsby rushed 14 times for 104 yards Saturday.
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“Oh, no,” Grigsby said with a smile. “He never takes a play off. He’s always energetic, a great player.”
Ditto for senior quarterback Andy Munoz, but he said there’s another side to Johnson.
“When you meet him in person, he’s a kind soul,” Munoz said. “Very humble.”
That’s all part of being a leader, where Johnson also appears to excel.
“I know I’m not the most vocal person out there, but I just try my best to lead by example,” he said. “Stay locked in, stay focused.”
Gregg Voss is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.