We Speak High School Football
Jayden Johnson’s Record 421-Yard Night Powers Stephenson’s Dream Season
School records at Stephenson do not fall easily. The Jaguars have produced generations of great running backs, which is why what Jayden Johnson did against Greater Atlanta Christian will be talked about in Stone Mountain for a long time.
Johnson carried the ball 38 times for a school-record 421 rushing yards and four touchdowns as Stephenson held off GAC 38-35. Two of his scores came in the fourth quarter, when the Jaguars needed their senior the most. The performance earned him a spot on High School On SI’s Georgia Player of the Week ballot.
And it was no fluke. According to MaxPreps, Johnson is averaging 191.9 rushing yards per game with 18 rushing touchdowns this season. Recruit Georgia counts 4,363 career rushing yards and 42 career touchdowns for the senior, who ran for 2,091 yards and 23 scores as a junior on his way to All-State honors.
Johnson has already made his college decision, committing to Middle Tennessee over the summer, and he has been open about his one remaining goal: bringing Stephenson its first state championship.
Stephenson’s supporting cast makes sure Johnson is not a one-man show. Senior quarterback Zabrian Boler has thrown 12 touchdown passes, junior receiver Noah E. Mahoney averages 46.1 receiving yards per game, and the Jaguars have won every kind of game there is: a 65-0 rout of Salem, the 38-35 shootout against GAC, and a 7-6 defensive slugfest against Douglass on October 16 that proved this team can win ugly, too.
Stephenson is a program built to last. The Jaguars have had only two head coaches since the school opened in 1996, with Marcus Jelks leading the program since 2021, and the school counts 254 wins in its first 350 games. Johnson is the latest star in a long line of Jaguars greats, and he is making sure his senior season is one the whole community remembers.
At 7-1, with a defense led by senior end Kwame Green Jr.’s nine sacks and a running back having a season for the ages, the Jaguars have every reason to dream. DeKalb County is watching something special.
We Speak High School Football
Miller Grove Wolverines Hunting a Strong Finish After a Season of Fights
The Miller Grove Wolverines opened their season with a statement, and they have been fighting ever since. A 31-0 shutout of Chamblee in the opener showed what this Lithonia team can be, and the Wolverines have spent the fall proving that night was no fluke.
Miller Grove owns a 35-6 road win at McNair and a 20-8 win at Carver in Atlanta, victories built on defense and toughness. Look at those three wins together and a pattern emerges: Chamblee scored zero, McNair scored six and Carver scored eight. When the Wolverines win, they win with a defense that gives up almost nothing, and that identity travels anywhere. At 3-4, with 131 points scored and 135 allowed, nearly every Wolverines game this season has been a genuine fight, decided by which team made the plays late.
That includes the tough nights. The Wolverines fell 42-10 to a strong Columbia team on October 16 and dropped a 28-21 heartbreaker at M.L. King in an all-DeKalb battle earlier this season. Those are the kinds of games a program learns from.
That defensive identity is worth repeating, because it is rare: across their three wins, the Wolverines have allowed a total of 14 points. Fourteen. In an era of spread offenses and video-game scores, Miller Grove wins the old-fashioned way, with tackling, discipline and a defense that takes points personally. That travels in November, and it gives the Wolverines a real chance in every game left on the schedule.
The closing stretch gives Miller Grove every chance to finish the right way. South Atlanta visits on Friday, October 23, then the Wolverines travel to Cedar Grove on October 30 before closing at home against Redan.
Three games, three chances to turn a season of fights into a winning finish. In Lithonia, the Wolverines and their families have every reason to believe that is exactly what happens next.
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