Richmond-Burton senior cornerback Joseph Larsen knows he could have played a better football game last week. He said he missed a couple of tackles and got beaten on a couple of deep balls.

Friday night, he didn’t need to tackle much. That’s because he was locked on in deep balls, short balls, intermediate balls, all kinds of balls.

He balled out, simply put.

Larsen had four interceptions, including a crucial pick-six, sparking R-B to a 49-14 win over host Johnsburg in a Kishwaukee River Conference opener.

“I love this team,” said Larsen, a 5-foot-8, 135-pound returning starter for the defending KRC champs. “We play as a team. We play as a family. It’s all I’m about. I like to pick people up. Last game [against Coal City] I wasn’t my best, so this game I wanted to come out and show my team that I’m there for them.”

Hunter Carley rushed for 206 yards on 21 carries, including a 59-yard touchdown late, as Richmond-Burton (3-0) avenged last season’s 21-14 loss in Richmond, while handing Johnsburg (2-1) its first loss. The Rockets also got three 1-yard TD runs from fullback Blake Livdahl.

R-B scored 28 unanswered points after the Skyhawks scored on the opening series of the game, as quarterback Carter Block delivered a perfectly thrown ball to his favorite target, wide receiver Ryan Franze, for a 36-yard TD down the left sideline.

Johnsburg defensive back Jacob Vetter, last week’s hero with a blocked field goal in the closing seconds against Addison Trail, then ended R-B’s first possession with an interception.

The Rockets’ rough start also included three pre-snap penalties.

“We weren’t ready to play,” said R-B coach Mike Noll, whose team was coming off a 24-20 win over Coal City, which reached the Class 4A state semifinals last year. “We practiced OK this week, but after last week it was just a little bit of a letdown, and it’s normal.”

After Johnsburg couldn’t capitalize on Vetter’s interception, R-B, mainly behind Carley, manufactured a 13-play, 75-yard drive. Livdahl’s first TD pulled the visitors even with 44 seconds left in the first quarter.

On the next play from scrimmage, the normally sure-handed Franze bobbled Block’s pass in the flat, and Larsen returned it 41 yards down the sideline for a TD.

“The pick-six,” Noll said, “was a momentum-changer.”

“It was unlucky,” Block said. “You just got to bounce back from things like that. Our coaches do a great job of rallying us leaders and getting the team together and getting us to have a next-play mentality.”

Larsen wasn’t thinking about getting an interception on the play.

“Usually on those type of plays, I just go for the tackle because I know I can light [the receiver] up or break up the play,” Larsen said. “But as soon as I went to tackle him, I saw the ball come down in my arms, and I just started running. I stiff-armed him, and I knew I was in.”

Livdahl’s second TD padded R-B’s lead to 21-7 with 9:01 left in the second quarter, and then the Rockets pooch-kicked the ensuing kickoff and recovered the ball at the Johnsburg 22. Carley rushed for 3 yards, and then QB Ray Hannemann hit tight end Luke Robinson for a 19-yard scoring play and a 28-7 advantage.

“We started out hot,” Johnsburg coach Sam Lesniak said. “We started out the way we wanted to start out the game, on both sides of the ball. Things were feeling great.”

Block’s 3-yard sprint to the right pylon got the Skyhawks to within 28-14 at halftime, but R-B kept coming in the second half. Livdahl and Riley Shea scored 1-yard TDs in the third quarter, and the Rockets took a 42-14 lead into the fourth.

R-B’s run game dominated with an offensive line that featured Mason Lowry, Joe Sulek, Shane Falasca, Christian Ojeda, Calvin Werkmeister, Bryce Kowall, and tight end Robinson.

Larsen had three interceptions in the second half.

“We keyed on (No.) 11 (Franze) on all of their routes,” said Larsen, who has five interceptions on the season. “We had a really good game plan, and [the coaches] put me to the better-receiver side. After halftime, I got beat once [incomplete pass], and they just, ‘Always stay over the top. You can break on the hitches.’ ”

Block left the game late in the third quarter after injuring his left ankle. He got hit out of bounds, drawing a personal foul, and said he was going to get ice on the ankle after leaving the stadium, with hopes he’ll be ready for Johnsburg’s Week 4 game at Sandwich.

“I felt like it was going to be a great game,” Lesniak said. “They got a tough team, we got a tough team, and the kids were ready for it. They were excited. I knew it was going to be a slugfest early, and things just got out of hand at the end.”