EAST ST. LOUIS – Edwardsville junior running back Torrance Johnson played very well in the backfield for the Tigers in their 43-21 loss to East St. Louis on Friday night in a Southwestern Conference game at Clyde C. Jordan Memorial Stadium.
Johnson and the rest of the Tigers stood toe-to-toe with the powerful Flyers throughout the game and kept going even after East Side scored twice in the fourth quarter to clinch the game.
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“The whole team worked hard,” Johnson said in a postgame interview, “we worked hard all four quarters. We’ve just got to keep working. We’ve got Belleville West next week. We’ve got to win; that’s the homecoming game. We’ve got to go out there and win. I know I ran the ball hard, but it takes everyone on the field to win the game.”
The Tigers’ mindset going into the game was very positive.
“That we were going to win,” Johnson said, “and we were going to be in a dogfight the whole game, but come out on top. That was the plan.”
The Tigers did have a 14-13 lead in the first quarter, pulled to within 27-21 early in the fourth, and had a chance to take the lead after recovering an onside kick after the touchdown that pulled them to within six. And even after the Flyers scored twice in the final quarter to put the game away, Edwardsville kept coming and playing hard, never giving up.
“Yeah, we kept fighting,” Johnson said. “Coach (Matt) Martin told us to go out there and keep working hard; there’s going to be a lot of negatives, but we’ve got a lot of positives and stuff.”
Johnson mentioned some of the positives in the game, and also gave much credit to the Tigers’ offensive line as well.
“I know I ran the ball hard,” Johnson said, “but the line was blocking. They were doing their job; we had a couple of holding (penalties), but the defense stuck in throughout the whole game. We tried, we went out there, we tried to win the game, tried to come out on top.”
And again, the Tigers never gave up and kept battling throughout the entire 48 minutes.
“We’re proud of the effort,” Johnson said. “Coach Martin just told us not to give up, all of the coaches not to give up, just keep fighting, keep fighting. Coach Martin always says execute, execute, execute, execute. So that’s all we need to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top.”
The Tigers are now 4-2 overall with three weeks to go and are still in an excellent position to gain another IHSA playoff berth. Johnson thinks the feeling among the team is positive going into the final stretch of the regular season.
“The feeling’s good,” Johnson said. “We’re hopefully going to win all the rest of the games, go to the playoffs, and win state. I feel positive, I feel like we’re going to do good things, we’re going to make it.”
And Johnson thanked his coaches and teammates for the opportunity to play and do well.
“I want to thank Coach Martin and Coach (Bryan) Young for giving me the opportunity,” Johnson said, “and I want to thank the whole team and thank the line for blocking, and the defense stuck up really good, stuck up hard and played throughout the whole game.”
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