FAIRHOPE — St. Michael overcame a nine-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat W.S. Neal on Friday night to remain undefeated coming out of Week 3.

Cardinals head coach Philip Rivers said heading into the game, he knew the Eagles would be a tough opponent, saying W.S. Neal capitalized on St. Michael's mistakes in the first half and gave them credit for bringing their A-game to Fairhope.

“I knew they were gonna be a challenge,” Rivers said. “They got good players, the coaches are doing a heck of a job up there, and they’ve done nothing but improve since we played them last year this time, and I thought they brought a great crowd. It was a heck of a high school football game.”

CARDINALS SURVIVE SCARE AT HOME

It was a back-and-forth affair for the first half of football. St. Michael got things started with quarterback Gunner Rivers throwing a touchdown pass to score first, but W.S. Neal would respond with a touchdown of their own to make it 7-7 early in the game.

Cardinals running back Noah Moss would score his first touchdown of the game with roughly two minutes to go in the first quarter. The Eagles responded quickly by taking it to the house for a kick return touchdown, but their response was short lived as it was wiped by a blindside block penalty.

Early in the second quarter, St. Michael got into the redzone, but Rivers threw his first interception of the season. Things got ugly for the Cardinals when W.S. Neal drove the ball down the field while the Cardinals were also penalized for roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness. The Eagles then tied the game with a touchdown pass to make it 14-14 with 5:43 left in the first half.

St. Michael would retake the lead with a 15-yard rushing touchdown from Nygel Mitchell, but the ensuing kick for the extra point attempt was botched, making it 20-14. With 1:34 to go, W.S. Neal drove down the field again and scored, heading back into the locker room with a 21-20 edge at halftime.

Coming out of the half, W.S. Neal ran 40 yards down the field to take a nine-point lead over St. Michael, 29-20, in the third quarter. Unfortunately for the Eagles, this would be the last time they score.

St. Michael proceeded to score 23 unanswered points, which included two-rushing touchdowns from running back Noah Moss and a touchdown catch from Tucker Tomlinson. The Eagles were also picked off by senior Brody Jones on a deep pass later in the third quarter.

Despite a rocky first half, St. Michael came out with the victory on Friday night, 43-29. Offensively, Moss recorded three touchdowns while Rivers threw for three touchdowns along with one interception.

At halftime, Coach Rivers said there wasn’t any screaming or hollering in the locker room. He told his team, “Let’s tell the truth and learn from it” while also trying to “get back into the zone.”

“There’s no ‘What’s going on out there?’ It was just ‘Here’s what we did good, here’s what we didn’t do good, let’s go play.’ That’s why they play a whole game and don’t just play a half, and our guys came out and responded in the second half,” Rivers said.

MOVING FORWARD

With the win, Philip Rivers and his Cardinals squad improved to 3-0 on the season, making it the second consecutive season the team has started 3-0.

“I think this team’s going to make noise the rest of the way,” he said. “I don’t know if they quite got the respect of [all the people] that are not sure out there yet you know, but that’s a tough football team.”

Up next, the Cardinals return to their home turf to host Satsuma on Friday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m.