Malik Johnson leads emotional Boys’ Latin victory

It's possible that even the scoreboard succumbed to Thursday morning's frigid temperatures.

Shortly after the emotional Thanksgiving game between Boys' Latin and host Frankford began, the clock ticked its last tock. 

So, it was a referee's whistle that alerted players of intermission and sent several Warriors gleefully and speedily to the warmth of the locker room.

Their descriptions of the 25-degree weather, with a wind-chill factor of 15 degrees, weren't fit for print. 

But a woman wearing a red Frankford sweatshirt might have said it best: "It's 'Chill-adelphia' out here!" she told a friend as they laughed and scurried past the players.

Boys' Latin led, 22-0, at halftime, and won the game, 46-20, but the action on the field was designed to give the players a reprieve from grief and to further a cause.

Last year on Thanksgiving weekend, Jashun Patton, a senior defensive back for the Warriors, was shot and killed in Harrisburg while he spent the holiday with his sister.

A month earlier, one of Frankford's players, Messiah Chiverton, was murdered. 

"We're  bringing unity together to show that despite being rivals, we can work together," Frankford coach Bill Sytsma told both teams in the Pioneers' locker room before the game.

"Happy Thanksgiving to all of you guys and your families," he continued. "Have fun out there, especially you seniors. This is your last go-round of high school football."

Players on both teams exited the Frankford locker room side by side to take the field.

Patton's framed No. 18 jersey was held at midfield by his mother, Maxayn Gooden, and father, Quinn Patton, and was retired by the school.

"It was important to finish the year on a positive," Boys' Latin coach Anthony Pastore said after the win. "It was a big day for us, because we retired No. 18. … It was an emotional day."

Senior quarterback Malik Johnson led the Warriors from start to finish. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound senior finished with 156 rushing yards and a touchdown on 14 carries. He added 135 yards and three more scores on 7-of-12 passing.

Frankford senior quarterback Roberto Falu led the Pioneers (2-9) with 235 passing yards and two touchdowns, both to senior Christ Adechokan. 

On the fifth play from scrimmage, Johnson gave Boys' Latin (10-1) the lead for good on a 49-yard run.

"Everything we did this year, we just did for Jashun," Johnson said.

"It was hard for everybody, because it was just so unexpected," he said of Patton's death. "It messed the whole community up at the school mentally."

With his high school football career at an end, Johnson was  nostalgic.

"I'm gonna miss 'em," he said of his teammates. "I told them before the game, and I told them during the game, that I'm gonna miss 'em. There won't be another group of guys like them."

Boys' Latin 8  14 16  8 — 46

Frankford    0  0   14  6 — 20

BL: Malik Johnson 49 run. Johnson run

BL: Damir Smith-Lockett 4 run. Za'Quir Jones run

BL: Jones 12 pass from Johnson. Run failed

BL: Smith-Lockett 34 pass from Johnson. Mohamed Diawara run

F: Christ Adechokan 3 pass from Roberto Falu. Adechokan from Falu pass

F: Adechokan 52 pass from Falu. Run failed

BL: Diawara 18 pass from Johnson. Smith-Lockett run

F: Falu 3 run. Pass failed

BL: Smith-Lockett 2 run. Smith-Lockett run