By| Matt McGouran

Every year the Johnson Jaguar football team plays their homecoming game with hopeful fans ready for a win to cap off a great weekend. This year the game will be against district foe Churchill with the Jags having a chance to improve their record to 5-1.

“We have been looking over film and using the JV defense as a scout team,” senior Darion McElhannon said. “Winning this game would be a good win for us against a good team.”

Last year, the Jags had an early homecoming game and it resulted in a successful 24-13 victory against the New Braunfels Unicorns. This was the school’s first victory in a homecoming game ever. This year, the team is looking to extend their homecoming win streak to two.

“It felt really good to be a part of the teams first homecoming victory,” McElhannon said. “Its always cool to make some history and try to build some new traditions.”

In the past three years, the school is 1-2 in homecoming games. In 2010, the Jags lost to the Madison Mavericks 28-6 and lost to Madison again the following year 42-17. Despite the previous shortcomings, the team is optimistic heading into this years game.

“We’ve  been really focused and have been giving it our all in practice because we really want to win this game,” sophomore Josh Theissen said. “”We’re looking forward to the possibility of a homecoming game winning streak.”

The Jags are coming off a 70-21 victory over the MacArthur Brahamas in their district opener and are looking to build off of the momentum from the win against the Chargers.

“We played a complete game against MacArthur,” Theissen said. “There were not a lot of things that we could have done better.”

The team is sticking to their usual preparations for the upcoming game and are not letting their victories from this season so far get into their heads.

“Our focus is similar to last years game,” McElhannon said. “But we put previous games behind us and focus on the games ahead so we do not get cocky.”

The game will take place on October 11, which is the day before homecoming, in Heroes stadium. They’ll be looking to come away victorious against the Churchill Chargers and extend their  homecoming win streak to two.

“With this game being our homecoming game, we would like to win it and make everyones’ homecoming experience a whole better.” McElhannon said.