Maiden's Johnson repeats as top offensive player

Maiden High senior quarterback Matt Johnson leads an All-Catawba Valley Athletic 2A football team that has 16 repeat picks.

The 50-player team -- voted on by conference coaches -- was released Sunday, and Johnson was named the Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.

South Iredell junior linebacker Scott Miller Jr., whose dad is the Vikings’ head coach, was selected as the Defensive Player of the Year.

The Specialist of the Year went to kicker Chandler Johnson of Newton-Conover.

Scott Lambert, who guided Draughn to a third place finish in its third season of varsity football, was named Coach of the Year.

Matt Johnson, who earlier in the season announced he will play college football in Charlotte’s program when it begins in 2013, paced Maiden to a second place finish in the conference behind South Iredell.

With Matt Johnson providing (unofficially) 2,894 yards of total offense, the Blue Devils (9-5) reached the third round of the state 2A playoffs before losing 34-21 at Lincolnton last Friday night.

Matt Johnson ran 215 times for 1,766 yards and had 23 rushing TDs and completed 71-of-154 passes for 1,128 yards and 10 scores. In a four-year varsity career, he had 7,826 yards of total offense – 3,704 rushing and 4,122 passing – and ran for 49 TDs and threw for another 42.

Miller is the second straight South Iredell player to be named the league’s top defender. He led the Vikings, who went 13-1, with 181 tackles (20 for lost yardage) and added three caused fumbles, two pass deflections and one interception.

Chandler Johnson handled kickoff duties for Newton-Conover and put 34 of his 48 kickoffs in the end zone this season.

Lambert won top coach after the Wildcats went 5-2 in the league and 9-4 overall, losing in the second round of the state 2A playoffs to No. 1-ranked Lincolnton.

Draughn went 1-6 in the CVAC 2A and 1-10 overall in 2009, its first season of varsity football, and then 3-4 in 2010 to tie for fourth in the conference and go 3-8 overall.

The Wildcats started this season 3-0, then lost 22-7 to Burke County rival Freedom (which won 10 games). They won their first three league games – over Bandys, East Burke and Bunker Hill – before losing 27-20 at South Iredell.

After beating Newton-Conover 34-27 at home the next week, Maiden won 31-7 at Draughn to drop the Wildcats into third place.

Draughn won the first state football playoff game in school history in the opening round, beating Madison 13-7.

South Iredell leads the all-conference teams with 10 picks, Maiden had nine and Draughn had seven.

ALL-CATAWBA VALLEY ATHLETIC 2A FOOTBALL

(*- also 2010 all-conference player)

Bandys: Keaton Allen, Travis McCorkle, Brian Morgan, Ryon Ripper, Dylan Shook*, Dominique Young*.

Bunker Hill: Reggie Davis*, Ryan Hurrman, Oliver Rietzell, Lee Wheeler, Shamo Yang.

Draughn: Hayden Beck, Christian Carswell, Neil Hudgins, Keith Loomis*, Adam Manns*, Alex McGee*, Alex Semande.

East Burke: Cody Johnson*, Robbie McGee*, Ian Ruark, Jacob Sommerville, Matt Whisnant.

Maiden: Jose Campos, Quinton Hubbard, Will Jenkins*, Matt Johnson*, Richard Kerekes, Luke Lackey, Corey Miller, Dakota Painter, Dillon Painter.

Newton-Conover: Jayme Arnold, Kevin Cline, Chandler Johnson, Jervasse Moss*, Jarren Pitts, Jake Walker*.

South Iredell: Adam Armstrong, Julius Bowe, John Bustle, Michael Fisher, Eythan Kramm, Cameron Mattox*, Scott Miller*, Lachaston Smith*, Quataye Smyre*, Adrian Whitener.

West Caldwell: Nathaniel Blankenship, Cody Pritchard*.

Offensive Player of the Year: Matt Johnson, Maiden.

Defensive Player of the Year: Scott Miller, S. Iredell.

Specialist of the Year: Chandler Johnson, Newton-Conover.

Coach of the year: Scott Lambert, Draughn.