Mount Dora rolls behind Dante Johnson-Turner's 238 yards, 3 touchdowns

Johnson-Turner has now eclipsed 1,300 yards this season; Matt Butler throws a TD pass and rushes for two scores

MOUNT DORA, FLORIDA – Mount Dora High’s Homecoming proved to be doubly sweet on Friday night, thanks to the Dante Johnson-Turner and Matt Butler Show.

Johnson-Turner continued his whirlwind race through Central Florida by rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns, and Butler passed for a TD and ran for two more scores to help the host Hurricanes storm past The Villages, 42-7, in a key Class 2 Suburban, District 10 game.

The duo’s efforts helped Mount Dora (5-2) win its fifth consecutive game and solidify its spot atop the district standings (2-0), with two district games to play.

“I’m excited for these boys and how well they have been executing the game plan we’ve put in these last three games,” said Mount Dora coach Luke Hutchinson. “We had to dominate the line of scrimmage, we had to stop the explosive plays on defense, and we had to be lights out on special teams. We are growing in all three categories.”

Mount Dora’s offense is certainly growing in leaps and bounds, thanks to Johnson-Turner, who has rushed for more than 1,300 yards and 20 TDs this season. He ripped off TD runs of 48, 11 and 72 yards – the last coming in a 21-point fourth quarter that helped the Hurricanes ice the win. The last 3 minutes of the game was played on a running clock.

“The defense did a phenomenal job, so did O,” said Johnson-Turner. “We all executed like we were talking about in the locker room before we came out here. We all did our thing. It’s 1-2. And we’re just going to keep getting better and win the districts.”

Mount Dora served notice quickly it will be a force to be reckoned with down the stretch when Johnson-Turner took a hand-off and raced 48 yards to pay dirt on the sixth play of the game.

The Villages (2-4, 0-1) appeared to be ready for a fight after driving to the Mount Dora 21-yard line on its first series of the game. But the Buffalo were tackled for a loss on a fourth-down play and turned the ball on downs.

After Mount Dora punted the ball, The Villages went to work again behind the play of athlete Alvon Isaac, who got the start at quarterback after Danny Bitting went down with a concussion in last week’s contest and had to sit out.

Isaac, who has been superb all season rushing and catching the ball, mixed the run and pass effectively to drive the Buffalo to the Mount Dora 27-yard line. But he fumbled the ball away on the next play to end the drive.

Mount Dora then threw an interception and The Villages punted before Butler connected with Tanner Waring, who came back for an under-thrown ball to score on a nifty 26-yard TD with 47 seconds left. Mount Dora led 14-0 at halftime.

Mount Dora's Dante Johnson Turner, who rushed for 238 yards and three touchdowns prepares to take on the defense of The Villages in the Hurricanes' 42-7 romp Friday night / Photo by Jeff Gardenour

The Hurricanes then scored on four of their five second-half possessions to blow the game open. Butler had 6- and 17-yard TD runs and Johnson-Turner had scoring runs of 11 and 72 yards.

Butler finished with 68 yards rushing and 85 yards passing in a solid performance. Waring caught four passes for 66 yards.

Isaac exploded for a 50-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to break up the shutout. He finished with 94 yards rushing, 27 yards passing and 98 yards receiving in a stellar all-around performance.

Only a junior, he split time at quarterback with Sebastain Florian, who passed for 98 yards.

“It’s a district game. I just hurt for our kids because we just came off a tough loss,” said The Villages coach Richard Pettus, whose team lost to New Port Richey-Mitchell 30-20 on Oct. 7. “Halftime was 14-0, probably should have been 7-7. We just didn’t sustain our drives. We got to sustain drives and execute offensively.

“Now, no excuse, but our quarterback got hurt last week, so we had to really rely on two other guys to come in, which I’m really proud of,” Pettus said “I thought they ran our offense efficiently. They hadn’t had a lot of reps though.

“But I’m really proud of our kids,” Pettus said. “Our kids didn’t quit. But I got to take my hat off to those (Mount Dora) guys.”

On Oct. 21, Mount Dora visits Tavares, while The Villages travels to Wildwood.