Prophet fires final shot in Battle of Oakwood

OAKWOOD -– For the second straight season, the Battle of Oakwood wasn’t over until the final shot was fired. But in this year’s shootout, it was Johnson quarterback Anthony Prophet that happened to have one more bullet than West Hall’s Shunquez Stephens.

The Knights piled up over 450 yards in the 49-45 win but had to weather a Spartan offense that finished with well over 550 total yards Friday night at Spartan Field.

And much like last year, it came down to the last play of the game. But this time, it was the West Hall players left lying in the end zone, wishing they had just one more play.

Prophet scored six touchdowns in the game, including four in the second half, while Stephens threw for 453 yards and five touchdowns in a losing cause.

The back-and-forth affair started when Johnson scored on its first possession of the game. Prophet capped off an 80-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown keeper.

West Hall immediately answered as Ishmail Nuckles scored from eight yards out to tie the game a 7-7.

Johnson answered with a 41-yard touchdown run by Mantevius Rucker, but that run was followed up a by long play by West Hall, as Nuckles went 66 yards for the touchdown off a screen pass from Stephens.

The track meet was on for the rest of the game. Prophet added another five-yard touchdown run in the first half. He would finish the game with 166 rushing yards.

West Hall’s Santo Coronini nailed a 25-yard field goal to cut the lead to 21-17, and then the Spartans got the ball back immediately, after a fumble on the kickoff return by Chris Henry.

Stephens hit Nuckles one more time in the first half, as they connected on an eight-yard touchdown pass, to give West Hall a 24-21 lead heading into halftime.

Nuckles finished the game with 202 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

The second half was more of the same for both offenses.

After Johnson’s first possession ended with a three-and-out punt -- one of only two punts in the entire game for either team -- the Knights (2-5, 1-1 Region 7B-AAA) scored touchdowns on four of their final five possessions of the game.

All touchdowns were scored by Prophet, as he had scoring runs of 48, 20 and one yard, before giving Johnson the lead for good on a 40-yard scamper.

Meanwhile, West Hall had a similarly impressive second half. The Spartans scored on their first three possessions of the second half.

Stephens connected with Brandon Fuqua for a 17-yard touchdown pass and with William Stroup on an 86-yard strike. Then he hit Marquius Young on a five-yard touchdown, and then connected with Young on a two-point conversion to give West Hall a temporary 45-42 lead.

But it was the last two possessions for West Hall (0-7, 0-3) that killed any chance of late-game heroics for the home team.

After a penalty negated a 44-yard touchdown pass by Stephens, it came down to a fourth-and-20 play for the Spartans on their own 45-yard line. Stephens was almost sacked, actually threw a defender off his shoulders and scrambled to the middle of the field, before heaving an interception that seemingly ended the game with less than three minutes to play.

Johnson needed just one first down to ice the game, but failed to move the chains. After a punt, West Hall had the ball on its own 29-yard line with under a minute to go.

Again Stephens led the Spartans down the field, and with the help of a late-hit penalty against Johnson, the Spartans had one last gasp on the Johnson 26-yard line with five seconds to play.

Stephens once again scrambled out of trouble, and threw a lob into the end zone as time expired. Stroup got two hands on it just inside the goal line, but was not able to make the catch, as the ball fell to the ground.

It was a reversal of fortune for Johnson, who lost last year’s Battle of Oakwood by failing on a two-point conversion at the end of its 56-55 loss to West Hall.

Johnson returns home next week to face West Forsyth, while West Hall remains at Spartan Field next week to host Lumpkin County.