BAY MINETTE — The Spanish Fort Toros withstood a second-half comeback from the Baldwin County Tigers and walked away with a 14-13 win Friday night to remain unbeaten in the all-time series.

Baldwin County stormed ahead with an 84-yard touchdown hookup from Hayden Coley to Damorien Andrews 55 seconds into the third quarter of the Class 6A Region 1 contest. Two minutes later, Koby Johnson’s 50-yard pick-6 gave the host Tigers a 13-7 lead following a blocked extra point.

The teams traded punts before Drew Williamson broke off a 56-yard touchdown run that gave Spanish Fort its 14-13 lead with 3:54 left in the third quarter and neither team found the end zone again.

The Toro defense came up with two turnovers on downs in the final five minutes of regulation to preserve its lead. The first fourth-down stop was produced from Louisville commit Cole McConathy’s third sack of the evening.

While Spanish Fort head coach Chase Smith knew the team didn’t quite play to its potential, the bottom line was that a victory was earned.

“We found a way to win the game. We dug deep and overcame some mistakes and overcame some stalls and that’s something we’re going to build off,” Smith said after the game. “At the end of the day, I told them I was proud to come away with a region win and our defense bowed up unbelievably.”

Dixon and defensive “dogs” get unleashed

Baldwin County gained a couple of extra possessions down stretch thanks to a second interception from Johnson and a fumble recovery from Deante White. However, Toro inside linebacker and Alabama commit Sterling Dixon had faith in his defensive counterparts.

“We’re all dogs so we all knew we have to go back out and we’re going to correct that mistake and we’re going to go back and stop them,” Dixon said.

Smith agreed that Dixon and the Spanish Fort defense stepped up when needed the most.

“I thought they played extremely well, they laid it all on the line,” Smith said. “They flew to the ball and were very physical; they played the defense that we want to play here.”

At the halftime break, Dixon said not only the defense rally together, but they also brought some of their good vibes to the offense.

“It’s still 0-0. We have to go fight like we haven’t scored, and we just have to continue to hold these guys,” Dixon said of the halftime message. “Then we talked to the offense and uplifted those guys, Drew Williamson did a great job out there being a leader; that’s what we need in all of our players.”

Williamson breaks free for go-ahead score

It was Williamson, another new weapon for the Toros, who also found himself at the right place at the right time where his touchdown rush came on just the second play after he took over at quarterback. Spanish Fort’s starting quarterback, Aaden Shamburger, opened the scoring with a touchdown run 17.1 seconds before halftime after his scramble led the offense to the doorstep.

“The mentality was to just win the game,” Williamson said of the change at quarterback. “Put some points on the board offensively as a whole.”

He said the Toro offense went back to its bread-and-butter plays which led to a heavy dose of run plays from Williamson and junior Sawyer Wilson.

“He’s a good player for us and he’s going to continue to work,” Smith said of Williamson. “He’s going to show up when the time’s right.”

When he found the open field, Williamson knew he wasn’t going to be caught.

“It was just a left inside run and it parted exactly the way the offensive line was supposed to and that’s what happened,” Williamson said. “I thought I was gone I didn’t see anyone else around me. … I was real excited but it was more that our team was back in it.”

Toros have work cut out for them

Both athletes from Spanish Fort talked about quickly learning from Friday’s mistakes to be ready for the rest of the region slate.

“We were happy, it was smiles but we know we can’t do this again next week,” Dixon said of the reaction to the final fourth-down stop. “Next week is really going to be a big game on the biggest stage so everybody’s going to come ready to play.”

“We know what we need to clean up, and what we should do and what we should not do. What we should do, we’ll elevate off that,” Williamson said.

Up next

Baldwin County falls to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in Class 6A Region 1 with a home game against No. 8 Theodore on tap for next Friday, Sept. 15. The Bobcats won 39-7 over Murphy Friday night to move to 2-1 and 2-0.

The Toros move to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in region play and will also be at home next Friday with the top-ranked Saraland Spartans coming to town. Friday’s 47-2 win over St. Paul’s improved Saraland to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in region play.

Money quotes

“It’s a region win. It wasn’t pretty, we didn’t play to our potential, but it’s definitely big for our region,” Williamson said. “Gotta get back to work.”

“I just thank God and thank all the players for giving their all,” Dixon said. “We’re going to fix it next week and we’re going to come out ready to play.”

“Just proud of our guys for finding a way,” Smith said. “It was a really hard-fought close region game, that’s how these region games are going to be. We found a way to take home the win.”

Other Baldwin County scores

Bayside Academy 27, St. Michael 21 (OT, Sept. 7)
Blount 28, Robertsdale 7
No. 8 Clarke Prep 71, Snook Christian 46