Although Johnson (2-1) and Central (0-3) each have new head coaches, their programs are in differing states, as evidenced by Johnson’s 55-6 win over the rival Minutemen on Friday.

Johnson won the conference last year and finished 6-4 after advancing to the Class 4A, Section 3 semifinals. Central was 1-7 overall and 1-3 in conference play, its lone victory against a winless Humboldt-Harding co-op team.

Samuel Pokornowski, who’s also his school’s fifth-year wrestling coach, said he was promoted from football assistant to head man in January after predecessr Richard Magembe was let go. Magembe inherited a team that went 1-8 the year before he took over in 2022.

Pokornowski said Johnson’s wrestling program included only nine competitors when he became head coach five years ago and that it now boasts more than 90 participants. Only five of them also played football last year, but that number has increased to more than 20, he added.

“We inherited a bunch of hard-working guys who’ve been committed to each other since day one,” said Pokornowski, a 2010 Dassel-Cokato graduate who wrestled and played football there before competing in the latter sport at the University of St. Thomas. “Last year it was a lot of individuals doing this and that.”

Johnson returned about two-thirds of its starters from last season and has several multi-sport athletes who have moved into starting positions this year.

The Governors edged St. Agnes in their opener before suffering a 47-14 loss to the St. Croix Lutheran co-op last week.

Marc Davies was hired at Central in April after longtime coach Scott Howell retired from the program and found only 27 players at his first team meeting. Those ranks swelled to 35 by the second week of preseason practice and are now up to more than 50, he said.

Once a standout tight end at St. Olaf, Davies was an assistant coach at Hamline and Macalester — where he served as offensive coordinator — for more than a decade.

“We’re trying to build a very, very young program,” said Davies, noting that he has only about half a dozen experienced players in each of the Minutemen’s junior and senior classes. “We’re building basic, fundamental skills like tackling, lining up correctly, going in motion.

“We’re trying to find out why football is important more than winning and losing, how it’s about finding something deeper inside of you.”

Central struggled all night and in myriad ways. Substitutions were sometimes scrambled, and Central receivers dropped half a dozen on-target passes.

Said Davies: “We had way too many mental mistakes, turnovers and personal fouls. We dug the deepest trench you possibly could in the first half.”

Johnson’s Melly Brown carried 13 times for 65 yards and four touchdowns.

“He looks for contact,” said Pokornowski, whose team outgained Central, 241 yards to 56. “We tell him to see the hole and hit the hole, but sometimes he takes the harder route.”

Sayvon Darrough, Johnson’s sophomore starting quarterback, completed 3 of 9 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown. That 51-yard strike went to Brown, who caught two passes for 88 yards.

Governors backup quarterback Elias Xiong ran once for a 13-yard score but also had his lone pass intercepted by Stieg Lahti and returned 50 yards for a touchdown on the game’s final play.

Charlie Doerr, Central’s starting signal caller, left the game with a leg injury and was replaced by Dillon Craven. The sophomore completed was intercepted twice before he also had to exit due to injury.

Central forfeited last week’s game against visiting Cretin-Derham Hall. Davies said the Minutemen had numerous players out hurt after losing their 2026 opener, 61-0, at Kasson-Mantorville.

Freshman Ty West finished the game under center for the Minutemen on Friday. Central fumbled five times, losing four of them.

“It’s a lot of work and that’s why I’ve pretty much dropped everything else in my life since taking over,” said the 46-year old Davies, a business consultant who lives near Central. “I’m a neighborhood guy, and I’m doing it for culture and community. If we can build a program and get more wins, that’s icing on the cake.”