DAPHNE, Alabama — “I just turned to my coach and said, ‘It’s in.’ I’ve never hit a ball like that in my life,” said a thrilled but exhausted James Croissant.

 The Daphne senior captain hit what would be the 1-0 winning goal for the Trojans over McGill-Toolen Catholic at Jubilee Stadium on another ferocious Friday night in the ever-tightening 6A Region 2 boys soccer saga.

Croissant sent a missile from 39 yards to the back post that made it over the Yellow Jacket keeper, rattled the crossbar-upright corner, fell straight down and had enough energy left to bounce into the back of the net with 19 minutes,17 seconds left in regulation. The win puts Daphne, Fairhope and McGill-Toolen in a three-way tie for the region lead. The Jackets edged the Pirates 1-0 three days earlier and Fairhope upended the Trojans by the same score last week.

“To make it against McGill here, on our home field, that one’s just special,” Croissant said. “It’s for the team, it was a team effort. We have Levi injured so we had to work even more as a team and did tonight. Everybody did and I think that was the difference. Our defense was amazing.”

Daphne coach Rick Andrew also credited the defense as well as Croissant and the front for coming up with a big score against a big team.

“That’s a great, great win,” he said. “Tonight I think the guys realized they can play with anybody if they just play together with the highest intensity they can muster from start to finish. Can we do better? Absolutely. But I’m proud of these guys.

“That was one big-time free kick for James right there against a great team. And my defense, I mean, Will Carpenter (goal keeper) played a great game, defensively Jacob Olmstead, Tyler Cook were incredible. Josh (Gurvitz) and James up top and the midfield did a tremendous job for us. Everbody did what they needed to do and when we do that, we can be very good. Tonight we were great. But now it a three-way tie for the lead with Fairhope and McGill and us and each game was decided by a goal. So it’s another tight race with a lot of balanced teams in the region.”