Foothill standout senior wide receiver Braxton Bonnett was held to just two catches through most of what was turning into a wild game against Desert Oasis on Friday night.

It turns out there was still plenty of time for Bonnett to make an impact on the game and help his team get a win.

Bonnett hauled in a long 68-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Ryder Dobbs with 1:24 left in the game to give Foothill the lead, and the Falcons, No. 6 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, held on in a back-and-forth second half for a 37-30 home win over No. 8 Desert Oasis.

“As the season goes, a lot of teams are going to start keying on (Bonnett),” Foothill coach Vernon Brown said. “The beauty about him is he understands that, so he’s not going to get frustrated. We put him on defense a lot today, too. He doesn’t get frustrated and that’s the key.”

Foothill (7-2, 3-1 5A Lake League) still had to sweat out the final 84 seconds. Desert Oasis (4-4, 2-2) connected on a 49-yard pass from Vincent Hales to Holden Grobl to set up first-and-goal at Foothill’s 6.

Brody Dobbs came up with the stop on defense Foothill needed, intercepting Hales near the goal line and returning it out of the endzone with 33 seconds left to ice the game for the Falcons.

“He’s been doing it all year,” Brown said of Brody Dobbs. “He’s got like (eight) picks already, he’s averaging a pick a game. So, I knew he was going to show up at some time and he did a good job reading the quarterback’s eyes and broke on the ball.”

A week after rallying to score 22 points in the final five minutes to claim a 43-42 win at Coronado, Foothill found itself in another tight battle. The Falcons led 29-16 heading into the third quarter when junior running back Anthony Taylor scored from 6 yards out on what initially appeared to be a fumble, but was ruled a touchdown after a discussion by the officials.

Desert Oasis chipped away and got within one score on Kyair Thomas’ 2-yard touchdown run and the successful 2-point try, bringing the Diamondbacks within 29-24.

Hales gave Desert Oasis the lead on a 7-yard pass to Anthony Sarracino on third-and-goal to give the Diamondbacks a 30-29 advantage after a failed 2-point try.

It appeared Desert Oasis had sealed the game when Giovanni Corso intercepted Foothill quarterback Ayden Waier with over two minutes left and returned it into Foothill territory.

But the Falcons came up with a fourth-down stop and the chance for Ryder Dobbs to hit Bonnett on a long, deep post route and a 2-point run that gave the Falcons a 37-30 lead they wouldn’t give up.

“I feel great, there’s no better feeling in the world than to score the game-winning touchdown and to put us in a good situation,” Bonnett said. “They were playing cover-two high, man. It was a double post and the slot receiver took the safety and I ran a deep skinny post and became wide open.”

Bonnett finished with 111 receiving yards on three catches.

Foothill started Waier and Ryder Dobbs played most of the second half. Waier completed 11 of 18 passes for 145 yards with an interception and a 31-yard touchdown pass to Owen Preslan-Aldridge in the first quarter. Ryder Dobbs was 2 of 4 for 113 yards.

“(I was looking for them) just to make plays,” Brown said. “They’ve been doing it all year. Those two guys set up and naturally, both of them want to play the full game, who doesn’t? But they accepted the role and what we put in front of them. They support each other and you can see it pays huge dividends.”

Taylor had a big day on the ground for Foothill, grinding out 100 yards and touchdown runs of 49 and 6 yards in the third quarter to get the Falcons’ passing game going.

“He’s a beast,” Bonnett said of Taylor. “You’re never going to see the first man make a tackle on him. It’s impressive. He’s coming a good way and I’m blessed to have him as our running back.”

Hales completed 22 of 31 passes for 306 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions for Desert Oasis, and Thomas finished with 122 rushing yards and touchdown runs of 4 and 2 yards.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.

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