Posted Saturday, September 05, 2009 by Marietta Daily Journal

CHATSWORTH - Jerimi Johnson ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns as the Osborne Cardinals won their first game of the year 17-0 over host Murray County.

The Cardinals overcame 72 yards of penalties in a game that could only be described as sloppy. The Indians, meanwhile, played gracious hosts as they fumbled four times, losing two.

The story of the game for Osborne, however, was its defense. After giving up 27 points last week in a loss to Pebblebrook, the Cardinals came through with a shutout performance.

"I was impressed with our defense," said Osborne head coach Troy Jones. "We knew Murray County was going to have a lot more experienced team than they had last year. And we knew coming in this was going to be a tough football game."

In a scary scene during the third quarter, Osborne senior Rodney Lofton lay motionless on his stomach on the OHS 40-yard line.

Team trainers and coaches surrounded Lofton for several minutes before finally carrying him off the field. Moments later, the game had to be stopped again as medics rolled a cart onto the field in order to transport Lofton into an ambulance. In a stirring scene at Murray Field, both teams knelt and bowed their heads in prayer as the injured young man was attended to.

The Cardinals seemed to gain motivation from seeing their comrade carried off the field. Osborne would go onto score twice within the following three minutes of game action to take a commanding 17-0 lead that they would not relinquish.

With 43.3 seconds left in the third quarter, Johnson hit paydirt on a seven-yard touchdown run. Then, with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals struck again on a 40-yard Muhmmad Dumbuya field goal after recovering a Murray County fumble on the Indian 26.

"Motivation. When somebody gets hurt, the teams going to get motivated," explained Johnson when asked about his teams' 10-point outburst. "We did it for our brother (Lofton)."

Thankfully, Lofton was found to not be seriously injured. "He took a helmet to the back, around the kidney area," explained Jones. "They saw some swelling, but it was from the hip. So he's okay."

Osborne controlled the ball for much of the game, rolling up 262 rushing yards. The Cardinal defense held Murray to just 71 yards rushing on 30 carries while also limiting the Indians to 49 passing yards.

The 1-0 start in region play is a step in the right direction for a program that has not made the playoffs nor had a winning record since 1994.