MOBILE, Alabama -- The Pirates' defense held St. Paul's to one touchdown from scrimmage, and yet Fairhope trailed from the opening kickoff until nine minutes remained in the season opener at E.E. Delaney Stadium Friday night. FHS then took the lead the rest of the way for a 29-21 road win over the Saints.

With 9:09 left in regulation and down by seven, Fairhope capped a 67-yard drive with a J.P. Sherling dive off left tackle for a 1-yard score to make it 21-20. But the extra-point kick attempt turned into an emergency two-point conversion as holder Rushing Watson rolled out and found tight-end Kyle Hughes for the extra-extra point and the

first FHS lead (22-21) of the game. David Kirksey scored his third TD of the night for the Pirates about six minutes later to seal the 29-21 victory for Fairhope and new head coach Adam Winegarden.

"I think tonight was typical of a very inexperienced team," Winegarden said. "We have five returning starters. We made a lot of rookie errors, even though we have some guys who are older we made some critical errors that really kept them in the game. Because, if you look at the total (game) — except for our mistakes early on — your

looking at a 29-7 win for us. So that just shows you how costly mistakes can be. But overall I was proud of the guys. The biggest thing I was proud of was they played with heart and they played with courage and that's all you can ask."

Even though Winegarden was concerned with a lack of consistency during parts of the game, especially the first half, he said missing three days of practice didn't help.

"We really didn't practice much, had only a day and a half to get ready. So on the one hand I'm happy with the effort, but we definitely need to be more consistent out there and I'm hoping with a full week of practice we can make some progress."

He said he was pleased with the Pirate defense against a St. Paul's offense that is expected to score a lot of points this year with  Division I prospect Jordan Huff.

"I'm really proud of our defense. Huff's a fine back, for sure. Our defense held them to seven points, but then we gave them the other 14 on mistakes."

Huff rushed 23 times for 98 yards and a touchdown to cap a 52-yard drive with a 5-yard TD run. But the Pirates shut out the Saints in the second half.

Winegarden also said the offense was experimenting, looking for ways to "spark" momentum and finish drives and pointed out the success of the impromptu two-point conversion.

"That was just a great heads-up play by Rushing and Kyle did a good job of getting open and everybody out there kept their head in the game. That, and the whole unit all stayed together on their assignments, and that made it work with maybe a little bit of luck. But Rushing had a great night, He's a great kid with great hands. Caught some big passes for us. But more than that, he's a real leader for us at our school, too; not just on the field or in the gym and I'm so glad we have him in our program."

Watson, a senior with three basketball letters and a couple in soccer so far, had not played football since the ninth grade. His pass to Hughes appeared to be a perfect three-point arc over a defender and into his teammate's hands.

"We practice that play all the time," Watson — who was hit hard from behind just as he released the pass — said. "On a bobbled snap we just call (it) and he (Hughes) runs a set route and you know, Kyle's a big guy, easy to find. But my hand was sopping wet so I kind of just shot-putted it to him. It was exciting, but the main thing is we won. It was a team effort. Quarterbacks played well. Coaches made good calls all night. Defense played great, only allowed seven points, the rest was on the offense and special teams. We hung in. We came through."

St. Paul's Ostin McPherson ran back the opening kickoff about 67 yards and Yannick Wildraut added the first of his three PATs to put the Saint up 7-0 with 11:48 left in the first period.

Fairhope evened the score on Kirksey's first TD, an 8-yard run to finish an impressive nine-play, 80-yard drive with sophomore quarterback Ray Jackson and multi-purpose back/receiver Nate Andrews calling the signals as well as Bryan Bell picking up key yards and three-first-downs. Fairhope kicker Brandt Miller had three PATs as well.

The Saints went up 14-7 with 3:38 left in the first period on a loose-ball in the FHS backfield that St. Paul's Hunter Quinnelly turned into a scoop and score from the Pirate six.

In the second quarter, Huff's TD made it 21-7 for the home team. Fairhope senior Gabe Phillips came in at quarterback and led a Pirate  drive from their own 28 to the Saint's endzone with a first-down bomb to Watson to the Saints' 37. FHS then used the option to Bell and Kirksey to finish the drive with a delay to Kirksey up the middle from the five to make it 21-14 with Miller's PAT. The third quarter was a scoreless battle, but both offenses moved the ball.

Kirksey ran for 83 yards on 15 tries, Andrews picked up 74 on six runs, including keepers and draws, and Bell (who had an interception to stop one Saints drive) also rushed for 63 on eight carries for the the Pirates. Phillips was 4-of-10 for 98 yards with one interception.

Andrews was 2-for-2 for 56 yards. Watson caught five passes for 81 yards. St. Paul's Bradley Padgett was 7-of-14 for 48 yards at quarterback for the Saints with the Bell INT. FHS had 225 yards rushing and 186 passing for 411 yards total offense.

Both teams start region play next Friday at 7 p.m. as Fairhope (1-0) will host Enterprise and St. Paul’s (0-1) will host Williamson.