BAY MINETTE – The Fairhope Pirates hijacked Simmons Field Friday night as they defeated the Baldwin County High School Tigers 45-6.

"We received a break at the beginning of the game and it snowballed from there,” Fairhope head coach David Faulkner said.

The break Faulkner was referring to was a fumble by BCHS special teams on the opening kick-off that set the Pirates up for their first touchdown of the night. The Tigers were unable to shake lose the fumble in the second drive of the game ended up with a bad punt giving Fairhope another good start on Baldwin County's 31 yard line. Senior Daryl Norris threw three for four in the second drive for 24 yard to set up the seven yard rushing touchdown by senior running back Jamal Woodyard to give the Pirates the 14-0 lead just under six minutes of the game. Fairhope's third possession of the game was much like the first two as they made a few short yard rushing plays then called in the air force as Norris launched a 19 and 26 yard passes to Harvey Mitchell and Lewis Hunter to set up an 18 yard touchdown pass to Hunter. Hunter's touchdown gave the Pirates the 21-0 lead. With 7:32 left in the first half, Woodyard scored an eight yard rushing touchdown for Fairhope. Before the extra point was made the Pirates were assessed a 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike. The penalty did not phase the Pirates as the extra point was good giving them 28-0 in the first half. Five possessions equaled five touchdowns for the Pirates as Woodyard ran in a small 2 yard touchdown with 4:43 left in the first half giving the Pirates the 35-0 lead.

The sixth drive for Norris and the rest of the Pirates did not yield a touchdown but Fairhope did manage to score a 36 yard field goal with 18 seconds left in the first half to give them the 38-0 half time lead.

Coming back from the half time break Faulkner decided to keep the starting lineup in the game for one more possession and it paid off as Norris connected with Clifton Johnson for a two yard touchdown pass giving the Pirates a 45-0 go ahead early in the third quarter.

Baldwin County was unable to move the ball much their first possession of the second half as they turned the ball over on downs giving the Pirates the ball on the 44 yard line.

Alabama legend Bob Baumhower's son Spencer came in to relief Norris of the quarterback duties for the remainder of the second half. In Baumhower's first drive of the game, sophomore wide receiver Alex Sealy fumbled the ball giving the Tiger's a much needed break.

Namon Scott and Andrew King both had double digit rushing yards after the Fairhope fumble to bring the tigers down to the 18 yard line. Sophomore quarterback Jordan Ebert hit senior wide receiver Chris Bush for a 12 yard pass to give BCHS first down and goal on the six yard line. Scott carried the ball for another two yards before Ebert passes quick to the right to Bush who makes the jumping grab for the Tigers’ only touchdown of the night with 2:18 left in the game. The Pirates special teams were able to block the Tigers extra point attempt to set the final 45-6.

"Last week (Foley) we placed Woodyard between the tackles 32 times and tonight we figured we needed to spread the ball out more and open up our passing game," Faulkner added after the game.

On the other side of the field Coach David Wofford said, "It is hard to pull anything positive out of a game like this but I have to give it to the players they never gave up. I feel like we as coaches didn't prepare our players well for this game, Fairhope is an outstanding team and we helped them out early in the game even though they didn't need it."

The Tigers travel to Atmore next Friday where they will renew an old rivalry with the Escambia County Blue Devils.

Fairhope will play host to UMS-Wright next Friday night as they induct more members into the school's hall of fame.