SPANISH FORT, Alabama – It was a heartbreaker for sure, "and not the good kind." It might well have become known as one of those, "You had to be there," games with a dramatic momentum shift headed to overtime and a certain heart-breaker for one team or the other.

Instead, St. Paul's 31-21 region win Friday night at Spanish Fort may go down in Toro football lore as, "The game of the disappearing downs," or "The Double Downer."

And although the Toros won the second half 14-3, it was not enough to overcome the 28-7 lead established by the Saints in the first 24 minutes.

"We dug a hole for ourselves in the first half," said SFHS head coach Mark Freeman. "We came out and played better the second half, but you have to play four quarters, both halves. We felt like we were coming back and had a chance to win the game, but they made a big gain on third down and flipped the field and then made the plays they needed to. Took the clock. Took the momentum. We made some adjustments on both sides of the ball and held them to a field goal. So I know we had the heart and determination to come back and showed it, but paid a price for it.

"Now we have to go to Vigor Thursday and we may not have everybody well enough to go 100 percent on a short week, but that's part of this game. St. Paul's is a good football team and you have to give them credit tonight. Good teams don't get in holes like we did without coming back, but I believe down deep that we are a good football team and we just have to find a way to limit mistakes like we had in the first half. "

Ed Autry, Victor Dunning and Justin Murray are all unlikely to play at Vigor due to injuries and the short week leading up to the Thursday night game at Prichard Stadium.

The Toros trailed 28-7 at the half, but scored on their first drive to make it 28-14. Then forced the Saints quarterback Bradley Padgett to fumble on a strip-away by Justin Murray and Chason Milner (technically ruled an interception by Kylan Cotton) and were surging back on their second possession of the half when — after a Toro first down was signaled and the chains and down marker moved — The Toros ran another play and picked up another first down. But a flag thrown on the wide sideline earlier, away from the play (for a false start), was then recognized by the referee as having occurred on the previous first down and the chains moved back with five yards assessed against SFHS.

On that ensuing first-and-15-to-go play, a holding call went against the Toros. The Saints accepted the 10-yard penalty which put SF back to their own 1-yard line. But taking the penalty should have preserved the first-down status. Instead the down marker was flipped to read third down— a penalty of 10 yards and two downs.

After Spanish Fort coach Mark Freeman appeared to appeal the issue, the official decision stood. From his own endzone SF quarterback Joel Poe lofted a long third-down pass that was intercepted by Jalen Thompson near midfield and the Saints took possession after what was effectively a mistakenly imposed one-and-out series for the Toros.

Then, as if, to add injury to insult, Spanish Fort's Justin Murray was blindsided on the next play after the whistle and later taken on a body board by ambulance to the hospital.

The Toros then stopped that Saint Paul's drive and all but one (a field goal) without a score the rest of the game while adding another SFHS touchdown by Sammie Tolbert —his third of the game— in the fourth quarter to make it 28-21. But the Saints ate up the clock while edging into field goal range for Jannick Wildraut who hit a 46-yard field goal with 1:33 left in the game. The Toros went for broke with less than a minute left and no time outs, but the Saints took over and ran out the clock for the Region 1 victory.

The Region 1 win keeps St. Paul’s undefeated in region play (5-1, 4-0

5A Region 1) with their only loss to Fairhope. Interestly, Fairhope is the 6A Region 2 leader, but suffered their first loss of the year to the Toros last week. For the third-ranked Toros, it was their first defeat of the season.

St. Paul’s coach Steve Mask said he thought both teams were evenly matched.

“I think it was basically a two-point ball game. These were two good teams. It was very intense, then things got out of hand for a while. But I think to come over on this side of the Bay and get a big win against a very good Spanish Fort team is a positive thing for our program."

St. Paul’s built an early lead with TD runs by Jordan Huff of 3 and 23 yards. Padgett connected with Tre Williams for a 40-yard TD pass and Ostin McPherson added on a 38-yard rushing TD. Tolbert scored all three from the one yard line, but helped set up each TD with long runs of his own as well as with help from big plays by teammates Autry (who did not play in the second half), keepers by Poe and from passing by Poe to Blain Crain, Sam Harris, Devonte Patrick and Tolbert. Alexander Theodore was 3-for-3 on extra points for the Toros.

Poe was intercepted three times in the first half (two were tipped) and twice in the second (both in Hail-Mary situations) but completed 18-of-27 attempts for 179 yards. Padgett was 8-of-13 for 122 yards and had one "fumble-ception."