Bonner-Prendie’s Mick Johnson, ‘a stone-cold football player,’ emerges with a huge game

In sports parlance these days, players who exude toughness are often said to have “that dog in them.”

Who knows, there might just be some canine within Mick Johnson’s 5-foot-9, 175-pound frame.

Last week, the Bonner-Prendergast senior running back mauled Roman Catholic for 148 yards and four touchdowns in a program-validating 38-30 win.

“Mick is huge,” said Friars coach Jack Muldoon at practice Wednesday. “I call him a stone-cold football player.”

“When he hits the hole,” Muldoon added, “he’s like Wile E. Coyote.”

Perhaps Johnson’s fateful encounter with a pit bull at 4 years old yields further evidence. It also steered him toward the game that was nearly the first thing to cross his lips.

“I’m very proud of him,” said Johnson’s uncle, David Bell, in a telephone interview. “He’s got a lot of people looking up to him, and I just want to do what’s best for him so he can be a good influence on his family and friends.”

Years ago, Bell had a pit bull named Faithfulness, whose muscular body, bark, and demeanor, he says, often terrified children.

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One day when Johnson was about 4, Bell said, he came upon the barking dog outside Bell’s home in Darby.

“It was so big and dominant,” Bell said of Faithfulness. “I knew the boy had heart because he just walked up and he said, ‘Sit.’ My dog stopped barking. He sat and bowed down to a king. All dogs know a king.”

The king’s mother, however, wasn’t thrilled about him playing football.

Johnson said his mother, Quianna Johnson, didn’t want him to play as a child. Bell said he was aware of his sister’s apprehension, but he took Johnson to a familiar local coach before his fifth birthday anyway.

“He wasn’t even supposed to be on the field at that age,” Bell said. “He was playing against older kids. I knew he was already tough when he came out of the womb. Once they gave him a chance, coaches saw he could hang with the big dogs.”

The Friars, who previously played in the Catholic League Blue Division, did something similar last week.

Johnson said his team had something to prove after it was promoted and opened Red Division play against Roman, which boasts Semaj Beals, the ultra-talented junior quarterback sought by nearly every major college football program.

“A lot of people expected us not to compete with the bigger names, and we showed that we could,” Johnson said. “All the prediction sites had them beating us by a lot, so I just wanted to come out there and show them we’re not what y’all think we are.”

It likely won’t be the last time that the 4-0 Friars are seen as underdogs. They will visit Father Judge on Friday and then host La Salle next week. The regular season concludes against St. Joseph’s Prep.

Johnson has rushed for 417 yards on 53 carries (7.8 yards per carry) this season. He also has added 10 touchdowns. Defensively, he stars at safety for the Friars.

Johnson prefers hitting but says many have told him he’s just as good at running back. Muldoon said Johnson has Division I talent at either position.

For now, Johnson says he’s focused on doing whatever his team needs.

It’s a mentality he seems to have learned from his mother.

“She’s so strong to me,” Johnson said. “She actually keeps me going every day. Seeing her keep going even before it was a two-parent household, she still got up, worked every day, never complained, and always did everything in her power to make us happy.”

“There are a lot of people in my family that I want to help,” he added, “so I just stay focused and want to make them proud.”