Pittsburg QB making most of his chance
He didn’t start on the freshman team, had a nice junior varsity season as a sophomore and got lost in a crowded quarterback carousel on varsity last season.
This season, Jerry Johnson is thriving after the Pittsburg coaching staff discovered they had a diamond in the rough all along.
After winning a close competition with Santino Chavez, Johnson has been excellent in leading the fifthranked Pirates (61) to five straight victories heading into Friday’s East Bay Athletic League showdown at No. 2 LibertyBrentwood in The Chronicle’s Game of the Week.
Johnson, blending some added strength and size with a strong right arm and poise, has completed 102 of 179 passes for 1,603 yards and a schoolrecord 23 touchdowns. He’s thrown just one interception.
All of that has Pittsburg coach Vic Galli thinking that the answer to any quarterback question the previous few seasons might have been Johnson. At least the current Johnson.
“You could see on scout team he was getting better and better,” Galli said. “He was also getting bigger and stronger.”
The Pirates seemed set at quarterback the previous two seasons with Trey Turner, a superb dual threat ready to take the reins. But during a 2017 scrimmage with De La SalleConcord, Turner, then a junior, tore his ACL and missed the season.
Galli turned to Justin Boyd — then a receiver, but also the team’s best athlete — to call signals. Boyd led the Pirates to a Northern California Division 1A championship.
Last season, with the return of Turner and perhaps the most talented team he’s had in 17 years at Pittsburg, Galli used Johnson sparingly. Johnson completed 32 of 45 passes (71 percent) for 451 yards and five touchdowns. He was 12for12 in a 6614 win over HeritageBrentwood and threw for 196 yards and two scores in a 4210 Big Little Game win over Antioch.
“Watching on film, I thought Johnson was their best quarterback,” Liberty coach Ryan Partridge said. “He’s a great player. He gets the ball out, he can run, he’s accurate.”
Johnson showed that right away this year, completing 21 of 31 passes for 368 yards and six touchdowns in a seasonopening 4235 win over St. Mary’sStockton. Since a rough outing in a 5821 loss to Serra in Week 2, Johnson has thrown for at least three touchdowns in each of the past five games.
Johnson has spread the ball. Four receivers have between 20 and 24 catches, led by Johnny Blackmon III (24 catches, 431 yards, seven touchdowns) and Brian Andre Pierce (23, 385, nine).
Johnson “has a real nice and cool and calm demeanor,” Galli said. “Especially under pressure. The others feed off of that.”
It’s helped to have new quarterback coach Juan Corral join the Pirates’ staff. It’s also been beneficial to have Chavez (25 of 36, 380 yards, six touchdowns) pushing him.
“We definitely have a nice luxury to have two good ones at that position,” Galli said.
Johnson, though, is the unquestioned starter.
“He’s not loud or boisterous,” Galli said. “He’s just a real good leader, he’s super coachable and he gets the guys to rally. They know he has a very strong arm and that he’s always looking downfield.”
College coaches have noticed.
“Everyone is coming out to watch him play,” Galli said of college suitors. “He’s fun to watch.”