Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Antony Leonard (54) pressures Fairmont quarterback Joe Long (13) during a South District, Central-Red Subdistrict football game on Friday night at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — It was the Elijah Johnson Show Friday night at New Ulm High School.

The senior Fairmont running back rushed for 184 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters and returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown to lead the Cardinals to a 40-6 win over the Eagles in a South District, Central-Red Division game.

Johnson had scoring runs of 4, 1, 4 and 1 yards in his 24 carries.

New Ulm’s lone score came on a second quarter 28-yard pass from Owen Castleman to Jamison Portner.

“We knew coming into this game that he was the real deal,” New Ulm Eagles head football coach Derek Lieser said. “We emphasized all week that we had to get 11 hats to the football, but even then we could not stop him.

“I would say that he is the best high school football player that I have coached against in my almost a decade of coaching. He is just relentless — never wants to go down. He is the real deal.”

Johnson got the Cardinals on the board late in the first quarter when he capped a 12-play, 57-yard drive with a four yard spurt into the end zone. A Lucas Rosburg extra-point kick made it 7-0.

Johnson’s second trip into the end zone came on Fairmont’s first possession of the second quarter and aided by a New Ulm pass interference penalty.

Following the penalty, Johnson broke loose for a 20-yard run to the Eagles’ one yard line where one play later, the 195-pound senior broke into the end zone ending a 57-yard, five-play drive.

A Nolan Schultz interception off a Castleman pass set the stage for Johnson’s third score of the game on a 4-yard run and a 19-0 lead.

“Their big offensive line is designed for the players that they have,” Lieser said. “They do a really good job running it and executing it. You can tell that they are a high performance machine.

“They are a team that if the chips fall the way that they could, that is a team that could be playing at U.S. Bank come November.”

Fairmont head coach Matt Mahoney said his team did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage.

“Our run game was clicking and we did a nice job of executing,” Mahoney said. “We did a nice job of staying on our blocks.”

The Eagles pieced their best offensive drive together following Johnson’s score when they went 72 yards in nine plays and helped by a Fairmont personal foul penalty. The drive finished when Castleman threw his first varsity touchdown pass to junior Jamison Portner to cut the lead to 19-6.

But any momentum that the Eagles gained quickly went away when Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and a 27-6 halftime lead.

“He is a special kid,” Mahoney said about Johnson. “He is probably the best one that I have ever had.”

Johnson had 153 yards rushing in the first half and the 85 yard kickoff return. He also caught a pass for 7 yards.

Johnson’s final score of the night came in the third quarter when he ran in from a yard out. It was a drive that saw him go for runs of 27 and 12 yards.

The Fairmont special teams got its second touchdown of the night when Ivan Martin blocked a Tanner Backer punt and Caleb Chambers fell on it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Jeremiah Lebbi’s 58-yard touchdown run capped of the scoring midway through the fourth quarter.

New Ulm (3-2) is at St. Peter Friday, while Fairmont (5-0) hosts Marshall next Friday.