Blount’s Keevaughn Johnson carries the ball against Murphy Thursday night at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Johnson ran for 175 yards and three touchdowns in the Leopards’ 43-0 win. (Mike Kittrell/Call News)
By ARTHUR L. MACK
MOBILE— Keevaughn Johnson rushed for 175 yards on 26 carries and three touchdowns as Blount survived 18 penalties to blast Murphy 43-0 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium Thursday night.
Johnson’s touchdowns covered 18, 2 and 17 yards for the Leopards (2-1, 1-0 5A Region 1). Kaydyn Jones-Mills completed only 4 of 10 passes for 65 yards but one was a 53-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Bush. Blount’s other scores came via a safety on a high punt snap, Ibrahim Faye’s 32-yard field goal and Jaad Brooks’ 20-yard TD run.
It was the Leopards’ biggest margin of victory over the Panthers and their fifth straight win over Murphy. But first-year Blount coach Gus Smith was concerned about 175 yards in penalties, which either slowed promising offensive drives or enabled the Panthers’ struggling offense to find some life.
“It’s killing us each week,” Smith said of the flags. “We talk about it at practice every day and we try to clean it up but it’s one thing after the other. But we’ll get better.”
Murphy (0-2, 0-1), which is on a school-record 24-game losing streak, had just as much trouble with flags, being penalized 16 times for 115 yards. The Panthers’ running game was almost non-existent, accumulating a net 28 yards.
“It’s hard to overcome first and 15 and first and 20,” Murphy coach Sherman Williams said. “We just got pushed around on the field and had too many penalties.”
