Kelly Spivey, the coach, became Kelly Spivey, the prophet, for South Fulton’s homecoming game with Greenfield Friday night.
The Red Devil coach guaranteed a victory in an interview beforehand, then watched as his prediction came true in SF’s resounding 48-6 thumping of Greenfield.
Both the win and the performance were reversals of recent trends that had seen the Redmen drop four of their previous five games and turn in largely lethargic performances in doing so.
South Fulton looked like the team Spivey had envisioned before the year against G’field, though.
J.P. Fowler scored five touchdowns — rushing for three, catching a JaQuay Garmon pass for another and capping his spectacular individual effort with an 89-yard kickoff return — and the Devils dominated the contest in all phases.
SF nearly doubled the Yellowjackets in total yards (356-183) and did not commit a turnover while forcing G’field into a pair of giveaways.
Spivey believed his team was capable of such a performance and said so in the week leading up to the victory.
“We came out and whipped them,” the Big Red skipper said. “I don’t know if our kids took anything from the confidence I had, maybe so.
“I just know we did things right ... a lot of things. It was a good night.”
With their playoff hopes fading and facing a Yellowjacket team that was riding high after it broke a 15-game losing skid that had stretched over the parts of three seasons last week, SF left nothing to chance in its most complete performance of the season.
Fowler, who rushed for 200 yards on just 11 carries, had scoring runs of 10, 71 and 5 yards in the first half when the Devils exploded to a 35-0 intermission advantage. He also caught a 12-yard TD pass from Garmon to cap a 21-point first quarter and was a perfect 6-for-6 in PAT kicks.
He also tacked on a 48-yard interception return for good measure.
“J.P. was just fantastic. He wasn’t going to be brought down on first contact, and he just ran wild,” Spivey said of Fowler, who did not take an offensive snap in the second half.
Garmon capped South Fulton’s first-half barrage with an eight-yard scoring keeper on the final play of the second quarter.
Ryan Moore’s seven-yard run in the third quarter accounted for the Devils’ other points and stretched the difference to 42-0 with Fowler’s point-after.
SF’s offensive line — much maligned recently for its lack of physical play — drew rave reviews too, from its head coach.
“Zack Vaughn, he never takes a week off and he had a great night,” Spivey said. “J.T. McIntyre at center had a good night, and so did Dominic White. Our two guards, Alex Kopriva and Landon Nevil, did excellent jobs too.
“We put pads on people and were physical with them.”
Linebacker Willie Kneuppel had a team-high seven tackles and also received praise from Spivey.
Austin Pence was Greenfield’s lone semblance of offense, rushing for 111 yards and the ’Jackets’ lone TD on 15 carries.
G’field played without the services of starting quarterback Jeffrey Johnson, who was ejected from last week’s 25-21 victory over Bruceton and forced to sit out the following game as mandated by TSSAA rules.
Likely needing at least one more victory in its last three games to assure itself of a postseason berth, South Fulton begins a tough stretch of games against Trenton, Lake County and Union City with a trip to Peabody this week.

Published in The Messenger 10.1.12