WEST BLOOMFIELD >> For a little over a quarter to start Thursday night’s game, West Bloomfield played well enough and clean enough to hang with Oxford.

Eventually, some combination of Luke Johnson and penalties proved to be too much for the Lakers.

The Oxford senior running back rushed for over 200 yards, found the end zone three times and the Wildcats defeated West Bloomfield 38-14 to secure themselves at least a share of an OAA Red championship.

“I said (after last week’s win) that West Bloomfield isn’t going to know what’s going to hit ’em, and that’s what happened today,” Johnson said.

It was an evening of contrasting milestones for the two programs. For Oxford, it marks the program’s first league title since joining the conference from the Flint Metro League in 2010.

“Yeah, it means a lot because this team hasn’t done it ever, so to be the first team, to have this squad do it together, I knew from the beginning that we were special and that we could get it done,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s loss to the Wildcats marked the Lakers’ most lopsided defeat to a league opponent since a 41-6 playoff defeat to Southfield A&T on Nov. 4, 2016, and their largest margin of defeat in the regular season since losing 28-0 to Farmington Hills Harrison earlier that same season.

That’s a drastically different picture than the one West Bloomfield could have painted with a win, which would have provided the Lakers a shot at the league title depending on the outcome between Clarkston and Lake Orion Friday night.

“Through the ups and downs, we were really hoping that we’d come out with a win today and had a chance if Lake Orion beat Clarkston and everybody in the league would be 2-2, that would have been kind of cool,” West Bloomfield head coach Zach Hilbers said. “But we didn’t do our part, and that’s on us.”

Both teams delivered upon the promise of an evenly matched game early on. Johnson capped off Oxford’s opening drive with a touchdown from one yard out, then Beau Jackson moved West Bloomfield downfield on its corresponding drive, which finished when Jamal Shakespeare took a five-yard designed keeper out of an empty backfield in to make it 7-7.

West Bloomfield’s defense also managed to halt the WIldcats when a direct snap to Johnson on fourth down near midfield came up short, forcing a turnover on downs, but that’s when mistakes began to chip away at the Lakers’ opportunities. A 29-yard TD pass from Jackson to Jaiden Allos was wiped out for illegal block in the back. Later, on the same set of downs, Jackson’s 25-yard pass to Elisha Durham beat the secondary for a score, but it was also called back, this time for a holding call.“Killer for sure,” Hilbers said. “We had two touchdowns (taken) off the board, which, you never know. We didn’t do a good job of stopping their runs, so I’m not gonna sit here and say I know we would have won, but we definitely had momentum. We felt like we were trading drives with them for a period, got a big stop on fourth down wit ha chance to take control of the game, and we really shot ourselves in the foot with that.”

Aided by several penalties against West Bloomfield, who never made up those points on their own drive, Oxford (5-2, 3-1 OAA Red) mostly ran the ball before a five-yard TD pass from Jack Hendrix to Andrew Barrett made it 14-7 with just under five minutes to go in the half.

Hunter Ganey recorded a sack on West Bloomfield’s next drive, and when an attempt while trying to evade another sack resulted in a penalty for a throw to an ineligible receiver, the Lakers were forced to punt from deep in their own territory. Rather than create some breathing room, the punt got off just barely before Drew Cady arrived to block it, but it only went to the Lakers’ 11-yard line.

Johnson, who rushed for almost 150 yards before intermission, needed just two carries to hit pay dirt, making it 21-7 with 1:57 left before halftime.

He wasn’t done.

West Bloomfield (3-4, 1-3) committed multiple penalties on the opening drive of the second half, and after the Lakers’ punt, Oxford’s bell-cow back went 33 yards on the first play of the drive, a handful more the next play, then stiff-armed a defender on a 23-yard rushing score, his third of the evening, making it 28-7 with 8:54 remaining in the third.

Oxford tacked on a field goal by Drew Cady, then got the ball back when a fumble following a Lakers’ reception was recovered by Eli Carpenter at Oxford’s 44-yard line to end the third quarter. The Wildcats later added their final TD with 6:40 to go when Hendrix evaded pressure and hit Jake Champagne for an 18-yard score.

The Lakers avoided costly flags and got a consolation score with Josh Tate’s four-yard run with 3:32 left in the game.

That marked the end to a dominating night for Johnson and his blockers.

“We challenged our offensive line this week in practice, and they responded,” Oxford head coach Zach Line said. “You watch our first drive, and we can pound the ball down the field. Without our run game, nothing else works, so I was proud of the way they showed up today.”

“The O-line, bless their souls, I’m gonna have to get them a little treat after this — maybe some donuts, Kit-Kats — they did their job to perfection. They work very hard every day in practice, I’m very close with all them, and I’m super blessed they can do their job and I can do mine … It’s not just me at the end of the day. I’m just a product of my O-line.”

West Bloomfield closes out the regular season at Birmingham Seaholm, then Roseville.

“We’ve got to pick up a win the next couple weeks to make sure we’re playing in the playoffs,” Hilbers said. “If we get there, figure things out, I think we’ve got some talent and a chance to do pretty well, but we’ve got to make sure we’re getting there first.”

With Clarkston at 2-1 as the only other one-loss team in the OAA Red, a Wolves’ win Friday means a split with the Wildcats for the league title. If Lake Orion defeats Clarkston, Oxford captures the league outright.