RABBITTOWN, Ga. — For about three minutes in the wee hours of Saturday morning, East Hall appeared to have pulled off the biggest upset of the night in the state and ended its long nightmare against North Hall all in one fell stroke.
Then, Ty Kemp snatched a bouncing ball out of the air as time expired on a desperation Hail Mary to rip out the Vikings' heart for a wild 51-49 victory at East Hall Stadium.
The win for the Class 3A eighth-ranked Trojans (3-0) extended their winning streak to 16 over East Hall (2-2), which managed its closest loss in that span since 2005 (17-14). The last Vikings victory in the series came in 2001.
However, it was a fitting end to a game that lasted over six hours, had two separate lightning delays, produced over 1,000 yards of offense, and was the second-highest scoring game in the series’ long history.
Also fitting, Kemp wasn’t really sure how it happened.
“I kinda blacked out for a second, but then it just seemed to fall into my hands,” he said. “Just crazy.”
The Trojans led most of the way, eventually extending their lead to 45-35 early in the fourth quarter on a Smith McGarvey 1-yard TD run. But East Hall, who also never trailed by more than 10 points, finally ran down North Hall.
The Vikings scored with just 32.3 seconds left when Lukas Pruitt bullied his way into the end zone on a 1-yard run to cap a 7-play drive in just over a minute for a 49-45 lead. The key play was a 50-yard strike from Jamarcus Harrison to Chasen Jones to the Trojans' 19.
Kemp returned the kickoff 35 yards to the East Hall 44, but it looked like the Vikings were ready to put a bow on the huge win when Pruitt sacked Alex Schlieman at the Vikings 45. But Schlieman recovered and connected on passes to Dawson Gray and Cole Cable to get to the East Hall 27 with 2.1 seconds remaining.
Kemp admitted it looked bad after the East Hall score to take the lead and then the sack.
“Oh, it did,” he said, “But we kept the belief that someone's going to make a play. We've done it before. But that’s the first time I’ve ever caught a Hail Mary.”
It was expected to be a shootout, and neither team disappointed, especially early on. The two teams combined for three touchdowns on the first four plays from scrimmage in the first 2:02 of the game.
On the opening play of the game, Schlieman found Cable on a simple slant at the 40, and Cable outraced the entire East Hall defense the rest of the way for a 75-yard touchdown just 19 seconds in.
East Hall answered right back. Elijah Buffington returned the ensuing kickoff 55 yards, and then a 15-yard penalty on North Hall gave the Vikings a first down on the Trojans' 29. Two plays later, Harrison scrambled out of trouble and connected with Koen Bryant on a 19-yard TD pass to tie the game 46 seconds later.
Two plays after that, Schlieman connected on another slant pass, this time to Gray for 67 yards and a 14-7 lead. East Hall then staged its longest drive of the half, with Harrison running in from 8 yards to cap a 12-play drive to tie it at 14 less than six minutes into the game.
The offenses continued their barrage as the Trojans made it 22-14 on a 3-yard Justin Allen TD run, with Smith McGarvey hitting Dalton Hulsey on a 2-point pass. East Hall pulled within 22-21 on a 9-yard pass from Harrison to Kani Williams on the first play of the second quarter.
From there, the defenses took over the rest of the first half..
The Trojans stuffed the Vikings on a 4th-and-6 from their 29 when Wade Haynes knocked down a Harrison pass in the end zone. Both teams traded turnovers when each stopped the other again on fourth down, the Vikings again being denied deep inside North Hall territory while the Trojans got stopped at the Vikings 14.
But before those two defensive stops, North Hall extended its lead to 28-21 on a 3-yard touchdown run by Smith McGarvey, and it went that way to the half.
Schlieman broke the school’s passing record in the first half with 293 yards and finished with 416 yards on 23-of-32 passing. Cole had 8 catches for 159 yards, Gray had 4 catches for 108 yards, and Kemp had 9 receptions for 114 yards. McGarvey had 108 yards rushing as North Hall piled up 586 total yards.
Harrison was 16-of-27 for 257 yards and 4 TDs passing and added another 97 yards on the ground. Pruitt finished with 119 yards rushing on 26 carries. The Vikings had 473 yards of offense.
Kahlil Goss had 7 catches for 93 yards and a touchdown to pace East Hall. Jones had 2 catches for 69 yards, and Bryant had 3 catches for 47 yards and 2 TDs for the Vikings.
East Hall is off next week while North Hall opens its Region 6-3A schedule against arch-rival Chestatee at The Brickyard.
