By Robert Wilson
Jackson Prep was shutout by Hartfield Academy in last year’s MAIS Class 6A state championship game, the first time since 2004 that the Patriots had been held scoreless.
Prep senior quarterback Billy Puckett and the rest of his offensive teammates made sure that didn’t happen again in the regular season rematch Friday night at Hartfield.
Puckett passed for 201 yards and one touchdown and ran for two TDs as Prep outscored Hartfield 51-45 in a wild 6A conference game between two of the best teams in Mississippi before an estimated 5,000 at Hartfield’s Community Bank Field in Flowood.
Prep – ranked No. 3 in Mississippi behind MHSAA Class 7A teams Brandon and Tupelo by MaxPreps – improved to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in league play and hasn’t lost since being shutout 21-0 by Hartfield in last year’s state title game.
Hartfield – ranked No. 22 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – lost its second straight conference game and dropped to 7-2 overall and 1-2 in league play. Madison-Ridgeland Academy ended Hartfield’s then Mississippi best 21-game winning streak with a 44-35 victory a week ago at MRA.
Hartfield rebounded from a 14-3 deficit in the first quarter to go on a 28-7 run for a 31-21 lead late in the second quarter on the strength of three TDs by senior wide receiver Kenzy West.
West scored his fourth and fifth TDs as Hartfield took a 45-31 lead with 6 minutes to play in the third quarter and appeared to take control of the game and gain a lot of momentum.
But Prep wasn’t done. Puckett scored on a 1-yard run and senior wide receiver and Air Force Academy commitment Major Quin scored on a 25-yard catch and run – set up by Prep junior defensive back Peter Primos’ interception at midfield – to tie the game at 45-45 with 2:54 to play.
After Hartfield couldn’t move the ball, Prep started its go ahead drive at the Hartfield 48 with 1:58 to play. Puckett completed a 42-yard pass to senior wide receiver Gardner Young on the Prep sidelines to the Hartfield 6 to set up the winning score. Senior running back and Arizona State baseball commitment Tre Bryant – the son of former NFL kicker Matt Bryant who is used on short-yardage plays on offense – scored on a 5-yard run with 36 seconds to play to take a 51-45 lead.
On its next drive, Hartfield was only to get to midfield before time ran out.
“I’ve only been in one like that before (a high scoring game by both teams),” said third-year Prep coach Doug Goodwin, who has now won 264 games in his 30-year coaching career, 234 of those in 27 years in Alabama where he is member of the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame. “We won one in triple overtime once when both teams scored over 50 points.
“We gave up some big pass plays and had way too many penalties, (10 for 110 yards) but our guys kept playing and found a way to win at the end. Our line protected well in the second half and gave Billy time to throw. (Senior wide receiver) John Ed Maddux made a great catch to set up a score as did Gardner Young on the last possession. Our defense did a great job in fourth quarter. Peter Primos and Tre Bryant had big interceptions. Major Quin caused a fumble and (senior defensive back and Brandon High transfer) Russell Robins recovered it. (Junior kicker) Eli Adams did a tremendous job of kicking off, place kicking and punting.”
Maddux had six catches for 59 yards. Young had three catches for 51 yards and also had four kickoff returns for 153 yards, including a 72-yarder.
“Hartfield increased the lead to 14 points, but we just kept sticking with what we were doing and just kept fighting,” Puckett said. “We played hard until the very end and that’s what allowed us to come back. We didn’t give up all night. Our defense had some huge stops, and our offense had some big drives late in the third quarter and fourth quarter. We maintained our composure all second half and just tried to be consistent and put together good offensive drives.”
Especially on the last winning drive, Puckett carried his team to victory.
“For the winning drive, I gathered the offense up and told them, ‘They call this a money drive, so let’s go get our freaking money,’’’ said Puckett, who had completed an amazing 74.4 percent of his passes for 1,588 yards and 20 TDs with only two interceptions this season coming into Friday’s game. “The rest is history after that. Gardner Young made a big time catch to get us inside the 10. From there, we put our big boys in and ran the ball until we got into the end zone. Our line really stepped up in that fourth quarter, which allowed us to ultimately pull out the win.”
“I think our mindset changed (in the second half),” said Bryant, who has been the leading tackler from his linebacker position this season and had 10 tackles Friday. “We knew we were capable of executing, but we just weren’t. We came out in the second half a lot more confident and able to do what we had planned to do from the beginning.”
Quin – who is the only Prep player to start both ways (wide receiver and defensive back) – had one of the biggest plays of the game. He caught a short pass from Puckett, put a move on a Hartfield defensive back, cut up the middle of the field, and outraced the rest of the Hartfield players to the end zone. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Quin has had a tremendous season. Coming into Friday, he had 762 total yards (395 receiving yards, 246 return yards, 58 rushing yards, 63 interception return yards) and seven TDs (three on receiving, and two each on rushing and interception returns). He hardly ever comes off the field.
“On my touchdown play to tie the game, I had an option route and was able to make a couple of people miss and then outrun everyone to the end zone,” Quin said. “It was a great play and an even better play call.
“We came out a little flat and allowed them to make big plays on offense in the first half. We made some crucial changes defensively at halftime. On the offensive side, our offensive line stepped up big allowing us to sling the ball around.”
Prep’s offensive production just the opposite in last season’s state title.
Hartfield’s stingy defense kept Prep out of the end zone and limited Prep to 155 total yards, only 9 rushing yards. Prep never got inside the Hartfield 20. The deepest threat to score was when Prep drove to the Hartfield 24 and on fourth down, Adams’ 41-yard field goal attempt was wide with 1 minute before halftime.
“Last year was devastating,” Quin said. “When I was talking to the guys Thursday night I was reminding them about how I would never forget walking off the field in tears after the loss in the championship. That was all the encouragement our team needed. We knew we didn’t want to walk off the field with that same feeling.”
Prep’s offensive line – led by 6-foot-8, 315-pound senior tackle and Baylor commitment Matthew Parker and 6-6, 315-pound senior tackle Duke commitment Cole Allen (rated No. 20 and No. 21 respectively in Mississippi in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports and No. 2 and 3 among offensive tackles) – did a splendid job opening holes for Prep’s running backs and protecting Puckett this year against Hartfield’s defensive front, led by Arkansas commitment Reginald Vaughn (6-3, 270) and Alabama commitment London Simmons (6-3, 290), two of the top four defensive linemen in Mississippi.
Prep was especially effective in the fourth quarter, controlling the line of scrimmage against Vaughn and Simmons, who also started on the offensive line, two of seven Hartfield players who started both ways. Prep had TD drives of 54 yards, 42 yards and 48 yards on its last three possessions of the game.
“Our coaches kept telling us the game wasn’t over and to just keep pushing (when Hartfield took the lead),” Allen said. “We do a lot of reps at practice to prepare us for a long four quarter games like that, so I think that’s why we are able to capitalize in the fourth quarter. They have an extremely talented defensive line, but we also have a very talented offensive line. We definitely didn’t forget last year’s games. They beat us in the regular season at home but also in the championship. We didn’t forget how we felt walking off that field, so I think that played a major part in it.”
For the second straight week, Hartfield got off to a slow start, came back to the lead, only to watch its opponent dominate the fourth quarter and win. MRA led 21-0 last week, but Hartfield took the lead, and Prep led 14-3 before Hartfield took the lead.
“It was disappointing,” said fifth-year Hartfield coach Craig Bowman, last year’s PriorityOne Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year after leading the Hawks to a 14-0 record and the first state football title in school history. “We have to clean up the penalties (13 for 152 yards) in order to finish these games. The margin of error in this league is so thin and we definitely didn’t help ourselves out. We put our defense in a bad position with turnovers and big kickoff returns by Prep. Prep played well all night. They created a lot of opportunities for themselves. They are a really good football team and are so well coached.”
The Prep comeback overshadowed tremendous performances by West and junior wide receiver-defensive back Bralan Womack – both Division I prospects who dazzling the crowd with their incredible moves, ability to avoid would tacklers, make outstanding catches and make solid plays on defense – and senior quarterback Cayman Tapper. West – rated No. 15 in Mississippi in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports – caught 11 passes for 162 yards and two TDs and ran for three TDs.
Womack – rated the top safety in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports – caught 10 passes for 180 yards and one TD.
Tapper completed 26 of 44 passes for a career-high 434 yards and five TDs.
There was one area where West and Womack have been spectacular this season, but they didn’t get an opportunity to showcase their talents Friday night. West and Womack had returned a combined five punts and kickoffs for TDs in only 13 attempts, but Prep’s Adams did a tremendous job keeping the ball away from them. Adams put all his kickoffs into the end zone (except for one squid kick after a penalty) and averaged 40.6 yards on punts without any returns. Adams came into the game with 49 touchbacks in 58 kickoff attempts and was averaging 40.3 yards per punt.
“Kenzy and Bralan always play well,” Bowman said. “We ask them to do more than any other player in the league. They just run out of gas at the end. They always leave everything they have on the field. I am so proud of how hard they play and the opportunities they create for our team. The same can be said for London and Reginald. We just ask so much of them. They give it their all. They do everything we ask them to do.”
Womack and West have had outstanding seasons.
Womack – who has dozens of Division I offers, including most of the teams in the AP Top 10 and all 16 SEC teams – had 20 catches for 666 yards (an eye-popping 33.3 yards per catch) and 10 TDs, two kickoff returns for a 54-yard average and one TD, three punt returns for a 34-yard average and one TD, and eight interceptions, and returned four of those for TDs coming into Friday.
West – also with several Division I offers – had caught 18 passes for 417 yards and six TDs, has four carries for 69 yards and one TD and threw a TD pass on his attempt this season going into Friday. He also has had two kickoff returns for a 71.5-yard average and one TD and six punt returns for a 37.3-yard average and two TDs. West, who also starts at defensive back, has had two interceptions.
“We played a good game overall,” West said. “We were making big plays on both sides of the ball and that allowed us to get the lead. The defense made some big stops. But during the fourth quarter we didn’t move the ball like we wanted to so things didn’t go like we expected them to. We didn’t get the big drives that we wanted in the fourth quarter.”
