Detroit Cass Tech’s Donovan Johnson
Detroit Cass Tech’s Donovan Johnson is being recruited as much or more for his play as a ball-hawking defensive back, but if collage coaches were watching the regional final at Saline Friday night, they might want to simply hand him the ball on offense a few times.
Johnson, ranked the No. 8 player in Michigan who has yet to commit but who has offers from Penn State, Virginia Tech and West Virginia among others, ran the ball 13 times for 285 yards in three quarters of play to lead the Technicians’ win over Saline, 43-42. He scored four touchdowns on runs of 47, 9, 80 and 72 yards, slashing through the Saline defense often times untouched.
Saline running back Connor Hibbard put on an equally-impressive performance to score five touchdowns and gather 241 total yards. His TDs came on two separate runs from a yard out, but also a 7-yarder plus jaunts from 30 yards and 58 yards out.
“I think he’s a great high school running back,” Cass Tech coach Thomas Wilcher said of Hibbard. “He’s got the good lean forward, he’s powerful and he doesn’t fall down on first contact. He did a lot of great things today. And I really like my running back, too.”
►Related: Other scores from Friday night
The No. 1 ranked player, Cass Tech’s Donovan Peoples-Jones, made five receptions while being hounded most of the game by Saline’s Robbie Felton. While Peoples-Jones’ longest catch was 20 yards, he showed flashes of why the wide receiver is a hot commodity when he made most of his 55 total yards after each catch. Peoples-Jones also caught a slant pass for the winning two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter.
Arizona commit and Saline tight end Bryce Wolma made seven catches for 75 yards, the most impressive one coming late in the first quarter. Wolma was crossing the field as quarterback Zach Schwartzenberger led him a little too far but Wolma stuck out his big mit and snagged the ball anyway, one-handed for a first down to keep the drive alive. Saline then scored on Hibbard’s 58-yarder.
On Saline’s prior possession, Wolma took a pass 14 yards to the one-yard line to set up Hibbard’s first touchdown.