Senior quarterback Kyler Johnson passed for five touchdowns and ran for a sixth Friday night to help the East Thunderbirds remain unbeaten by overpowering the previously undefeated Lathrop Malemutes 50-26 at East High.
“I just try to do whatever I can to help my team,” Johnson said. “Shout-out to the offensive line and receivers for getting open and blocking and making everything possible.”
Lathrop (2-1) was coming off a shocking upset of powerhouse Soldotna. They keyed on the Thunderbird ground game that steamrolled South a week ago, and even managed to hold senior running back Elijah Reed, who rushed for 227 yards and five touchdowns last week, to 47 yards and one score.
With their top back neutralized, the Thunderbirds went to the air and used a passing game that was both explosive and opportunistic to jump out to a 36-6 lead in the first half.
“I think the hard part is when you start fast like that is keeping the momentum going, because I think there’s always a bit of a lull,” said East coach Jeff Trotter. “We didn’t come out good after halftime and we’ve got to do better than that.”
East led by 37 points in the second half before the Malemutes scored some consolation touchdowns against the Thunderbirds’ backups. There was a scoring frenzy late in the third quarter where the two teams combined for 21 points in less than three minutes.
Johnson was the star of the night, completing 13 of 16 passes for 226 yards and five touchdowns.
He also rushed for 70 yards, including a sensational 34-yard touchdown scramble. The play was originally a pass but after Johnson eluded the pass rush by stepping up in the pocket, he decided to take off toward the right front pylon.
“Ever since I was young I’ve always been like that, keeping my head on a swivel and just make the right move because you never know what could happen when you cut back,” said Johnson.
His top target was fellow senior Deuce Zimmerman, who hauled in three touchdown passes and finished with six catches for 102 yards. Damarion Delaney, Zimmerman’s cousin and fellow senior, was on the receiving end of two touchdowns and finished with five receptions for 83 yards.
“We got that connection,” said Zimmerman about his chemistry with Johnson. “We’ve been playing basketball and football since we were younger. We’re both football guys and want to play football in college.”
Zimmerman’s third touchdown reception was a highlight-reel play worthy of Monday Night Football’s “You got Mossed,” because that’s exactly what he did. Johnson rolled to his right and planted his feet firmly before lofting a 35-yard bomb to the end zone, where Zimmerman elevated over two Lathrop defenders in tight coverage and came down with the ball.
“Earlier in the game I had one batted down and that time I just went up to go get it and grabbed it,” said Zimmerman.
The Thunderbirds finished with 367 total yards of offense on the night and even though they flipped the script on how they won, Trotter said they are striving for more balance on offense moving forward.
“It’s hard to defend if you can’t key on anything,” he said. “If we have run versus pass or pass versus run, it’s tough to defend, so we’ll just keep doing that.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Deuce Zimmerman and Damarion Delaney are cousins.