FAIRHOPE — The Fairhope Fantom, Jamal Woodyard, was hard to find, hard to hold and impossible to catch if he got half a step on the UMS-Wright defenders Friday night.

And most of the time, the senior scat-back got that half step and more as the Pirates went to 5-0 overall with a 41-21 home win over the Bulldogs at Majors Field.

Fairhope coach David Faulkner said Woodyard needed to be at his best and definitely was against a top-notch, No. 3 ranked, twice-defending state-championship 4A team in UMS-Wright. "Jamal is tough to tackle," Faulkner said. "He's got the reputation for that and he lived up to it tonight. All the guys played real hard. Defensively we got after them. They made some key plays for us all around against a quality ball team. We knew this was going to be a test for us tonight. UMS has a great team, a great program and they have the championship rings to prove it. We just wanted our kids to get after it and battle hard every play and I think we got that tonight."

Woodyard rushed 18 times for 275 net yards with two touchdowns, caught a pass from Daryl Norris for a 95-yard TD reception and returned for 10 yards for 370 total net yards. He had a 59-yard TD called back for holding and had 15 yards negated on an unusual "unnecessary roughness behind the runner" penalty.

Teammates Clifton Johnson scored on a 30 yard TD run and picked up 86 yards on 14 carries. Norris tossed two more TD throws, one for 19 yards to Nate Andrews and one to D.J. Ash from eight yards out. Kicker Ian Dingwald was 5-of-9 on extra points. Norris was 11-for-16 with one interception for 196 total passing yards. Harvey Mitchell ran it six times for 34 yards. Counting 59 total return yardage added by Ben Reynolds and an interception runback by Patrick McCloud of 43 yards, the Pirates amassed 594 total yards.

UMS-Wright did not go down with out a fight. Workhorse running back Chris Dukes scored all three TDs rushing for 147 yards on 34 carries. Bulldog quarterback Bragg Foshee was 11-for-18 with one INT for 102 yards. Bee Hall kicked three PATs for UMS-Wright, now 3-2 overall, 2-1 in region play.

Fairhope travels to play 5A powerhouse Benjamin - Russell Oct. 2, then will resume region play hosting Robertsdale Oct. 9.

"As far as down the road goes," Faulkner said. "We're looking right now at Benjamin-Russell and we're going to take it one day at a time and get ready for them."