ROBERTSDALE — Baldwin County junior Ti Mims scored through the air, on the ground and on special teams with an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to help the visiting Tigers take down the Robertsdale Golden Bears 43-13 in Friday’s regular-season finale within Class 6A Region 1.

Mims caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Preston Kiper and ran in a 10-yard rumbling score but perhaps the biggest play came 17.1 seconds before halftime.

After Robertsdale got on the board thanks to a 10-yard rush from sophomore Micah Hardy with a 15-play, 78-yard drive which left only 34.9 seconds in the half, the ensuing kickoff bounced into Mims’ hands just in front of the Baldwin County 10-yard line. And it was at that moment he knew he was going to hit pay dirt.

“As soon as I had the ball in my hands, I knew I was going to score,” Mims said after the game. “Because I was planning on getting two touchdowns in the first half so I knew I just had to go out and score.”

While he started to his right, the gap closed but he quickly found an alternate route and outran the Robertsdale kickoff team.

“I was going to the right lane but it kind of closed off so I knew I had to wait and get over to the left lane,” he said. “I went back through the middle and it was wide open.”

Kiper: scoring to close first half “shut down their momentum”

Knowing they’d get the ball to start the second half after they won the pregame coin toss, Kiper and the Tigers knew just how important Mims’ score was.

“I was ready to go out on offense but whenever I saw him cruise through 14, I said, ‘He’s gone. He’s gone like he always is; house call,’” Kiper recounted. “I think it completely shut down their momentum. Any momentum they had, it just went back our way. Coming out of halftime, everybody was excited ready to finish out two quarters of football.”

Baldwin County head football coach Scott Rials agreed it was an important moment that dictated how the rest of the contest played out.

“Coach Reid Rials, our special teams coach, said, ‘We better come out with hands there because they ain’t going to kick it to him again,’” the head coach said. “So, we came out in the second half with our hands team and, sure enough, they did try an onside but it went out of bounds.”

Tiger defense limits Golden Bear opportunities

From there, the Tiger defense didn’t allow the Golden Bears to score again until the final 3:58 of regulation where Robertsdale constructed another 15-play drive where this one stretched 75 yards. Sophomore Quindarius Shields capped the series with a 1-yard touchdown run.

“Our defensive guys have played well all year. They compete and play hard, we feel like our front is really good,” Scott Rials said. “We’ve had a few injuries here and there but the backend plays good too so we feel like defensively we shut them down. I hate that we gave up that last score but overall, we played a good game.”

Marshall, Daniel, Andrews also register scores

On the other side of the ball, Baldwin County had six offensive possessions and scored on its first five where the final series ran out the clock at the end of the game.

Tiger junior Jamarion Marshall opened the scoring on a 4-yard touchdown rush with 6:48 left before sophomore LeJames Daniel caught a 12-yard scoring pass from classmate Hayden Coley with 1:21 remaining in the first.

Baldwin County senior Damorien Andrews opened the second-half scoring with a 14-yard touchdown rush with 8:40 to play in the third quarter. With a fumbled snap on the point-after try, sophomore kicker Lloyd Christen collected the loose ball and ran around the edge for a 2-point conversion and a 36-7 lead over the Golden Bears.

Baldwin County seniors finish on high note

With that, the visiting Tigers earned their seniors one more victory in what served as the final regular-season game of 2023. Kiper was certainly appreciative of the opportunity to sing the alma mater one last time after a victory.

“I love my teammates, my coaches, head coach Rials and the opportunity he gave me to come here and let me have the job and work with my teammates because I had a rough junior year. Nowhere near where I needed to be,” Kiper said. “I worked a lot this offseason and got a little better and I can still get better so we’ll see what the future holds.”

Rials said while it might have been an up-and-down adventure this season, he’s most excited about what’s to come.

“We’ve got 13 of those guys and they’ve hung with us. A lot of them have been with us three or four years, some only one, but it’s great for those guys. They’ve been through a lot and I like to say our year has been kind of tough; we started off strong then kind of lulled in the middle but I will say those guys competed and played hard all the way until the end,” Rials said. “I can say we’re a team on the way up. We’ve got a really good freshman class and some good sophomores and juniors so we’re looking forward to really raising the bar a whole lot more this next year.”

Up next

Robertsdale finished 0-10 overall and 0-8 within Class 6A Region 1. The Golden Bears will have a new head coach in 2024 after Kyle Stanford was relieved of his duties after Week 7.

Baldwin County finished 2-8 overall and 2-6 in region play. Rials said the win will help carry the Tigers into the offseason conditioning program.

“It's a lot easier to go in there in the offseason and lift those weights and do that conditioning when you’re going out with a win. I feel good that the guys can take this, we’ll expound on it and be proud to go out with a victory,” Rials said. “We could have folded our tent and said, ‘Oh well, we’ve got nothing left to play for,’ but the guys came out and played hard. We’ve got a really good bunch returning so we’re excited about our future.”

Money quotes

“We’ll learn from the mistakes that we made this year and we have to get better overall. We’ve just got to go back in and work and do everything all over again,” Mims said. “Just grind from here.”

“I’m graduating so those juniors have to step up as seniors and be leaders. Have to lead the team and shut down a lot of things that happened as far as not being focused or not being locked in,” Kiper said. “The immaturity and the childness has got to go in order for this team to play in 6A Region 1. Because it’s always a tough region, there’s always great teams. Probably one of the best, if not in Alabama, then probably the world. So that’s respect to everybody.”

“It was a good night for us, we’re glad to at least end the season with a good victory and it gives us something to work on moving into the so-called offseason,” Rials said.

OTHER WEEK 11 FINAL SCORES

Bayside Academy 35, Alabama Christian 7
Citronelle 35, Elberta 24
Daphne 50, Hillcrest Evergreen 18
Fairhope 24, Briarwood Christian 14
Foley 38, Jackson-Olin 26
No. 1 Gulf Shores 43, B.C. Rain 21