James Johnson makes big impact early as Belleville East rolls past Collinsville

By Bucky Dent, Special to the Post-Dispatch

BELLEVILLE — Talk about your fast starts.

James Johnson and Belleville East exploded from the starter’s block of the 2025 high school football season like Usain Bolt and left Collinsville in their wake.

Johnson caught a touchdown pass and intercepted a pass for another score during a 20-point first quarter that sent the Lancers on their merry way to a 40-6 victory shortened by a running clock.

“Everyone should have the feeling of catching a touchdown pass and intercepting one for a touchdown in a quarter,” smiled a quiet, humble Johnson.

Not everyone has Johnson’s physical abilities, however. The 6-foot-3, 187-pound sophomore is chock-full of quick-twitch fibers, speed and the instincts to do something with them.

After high-pointing a 4-yard scoring strike from Kayden Wood just 2:16 into the game, Johnson produced his second touchdown at the 2:20 mark of the period.

A fierce pass rush flushed Kahoks quarterback Jace Wilkinson to his right. Forced to throw or get sacked, Wilkinson’s heave across his body landed in Johnson’s large paws. Thirty-five yards later, East owned a three-touchdown lead.

“Not many people,” noted Lancers coach Michael Harrison, “have James Johnson’s ability. There’s a reason he’s a Division I prospect.”

And there’s a reason East is likely to make another postseason trip — Johnson is far from its only good player. Two-way lineman Jonathan Rulo is a 295-pound standout and University of Cincinnati commit who allows the Lancers to control the scrimmage line most of the time.

Wood provides the judgment to make deep throws to the open man and the arm to get it there. He connected on 11 of 17 throws for 147 yards and three scores, including a back-breaking 37-yard strike to Cary Willis with 4.9 seconds remaining in the half that made it 26-0 at the break.

It came after Collinsville’s best drive of the half, which reached East's 12-yard line, and ended with a missed 35-yard field goal wide right. The Kahoks turned first-and-10 at the 12 into third-and-32 after a lost-yardage running play, a sack and then a delay of game flag.

“We had the ball three times in their end of the field and didn’t score,” Collinsville coach Colton Rhodes said. “We have to get points out of that. But we have eight more games left, and we can’t let this one game dictate our season.”

The Lancers beat the Kahoks for the fourth consecutive season in the opener for both.

East didn’t mess around in the third quarter, scoring twice in 14 seconds. Josh Ware, who mixed in a 40-yard touchdown run between Johnson’s first quarter scores, ripped off a 45-yard burst to the end zone at the 6:26 mark.

After recovering a fumble on Collinsville’s first play following Ware’s second touchdown, the Lancers entered the running clock portion of the episode via Wood’s 30-yard connection with freshman Amir Brown.

Wood gave himself a B for his performance. His grade for his team’s defense, which allowed only 44 yards in the first half and 127 for the game, sounded like it would be substantially higher.

“Awesome speed,” he said. “They sure make it easy on a quarterback. They’re a bunch of great guys.”

The Kahoks avoided the shutout when Reynolds took Wilkinson’s short pass and raced 36 yards to the end zone with 5:18 remaining.

That, along with a muffed punt by Johnson early in the third quarter and 10 penalties for 87 yards, gave Harrison license to say his team has things to work on ahead of next week’s trip to Pekin.

“We strive for perfection, knowing that you’re not always going to attain it,” Harrison said. “But there’s always something you can improve on. We got the first-game jitters out of the way, so now it’s time to clean a couple of things up.”