DAPHNE – The No. 5 Fairhope Pirates put together a complete team effort to help notch a 26-7 win over the Daphne Trojans Friday night on the road in Class 7A Region 1 action.

Fairhope junior running back Preston Godfrey scored three touchdowns, two on the ground and one on the receiving end of a pass from quarterback Caden Creel who ran in one of his own scores. However, Pirate head coach Tim Carter – who earned his 150th career victory – said it was the defensive unit’s best showing of the season.

“Defensively, that’s our best effort all year long. Close to a shutout, getting off the field on third down and even when they had a short field, we were able to bow our neck and make them kick the ball or turn it over own downs,” Carter said. “We really controlled the line of scrimmage, and I thought our tackling was the best it’s been against some really good athletes.”

Pirates respond to Trojans’ touchdown

Daphne junior Nick Clark provided the Trojans’ lone touchdown of the night on a 7-yard rush but Creel said it was the team’s response to that score the coaches were inspecting the most.

“The main thing was that it’s not over,” Creel said of the halftime message with a 14-0 lead. “The game’s not decided in 24 minutes so the main thing was to come out fighting and keep battling. We know they’re going to score one we know they’re going to put something on the board but when they do it’s going to be how we bounce back.”

Fairhope came up with a turnover on downs on Daphne’s next offensive possession to quell the momentum rising from the home sideline.

Godfrey finds cutback lane on touchdown run

In the wake of an injury plaguing senior running back Qualin McCants, Godfrey took over the lead-back role in the Pirate offense and once again didn’t miss a beat, but it was his hat-trick score in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal for the visitors.

“I saw they moved two safeties down into the box, so I knew that was going to be an easy cutback lane,” Godfrey said of his 37-yard touchdown. “My quarterback was talking about looking for those cutback lanes, I just have to thank my O-Line.”

“A lot of times, they were overplaying it, so I told him to cut back and he ran one for a touchdown on one I told him to cut it back,” Creel explained. “There was a lot of things I was seeing; the run game looked really good, the O-Line blocked really well, I made decent reads for the most part and P (Godfrey) ran the ball hard. You couldn’t really ask for more.”

Fairhope earns bounce-back win in second straight rivalry matchup

After the Pirates fell in dramatic fashion to the Foley Lions last week, the squad came into its second rivalry meeting in as many weeks with last Friday’s defeat on the mind.

“We were talking about that the whole week. Especially, like when I went to sleep that night, I thought, ‘We really just lost to Foley,’” Godfrey said. “And no shade to Foley, they played their butts off, but I knew we were a better team than that and we just showed it.”

“Ultimately the leaders on this team, including myself, helped keep the morale up. We had really good practices and really good focus and it showed tonight,” Creel said. “Look at our defense and how they stepped up. Everybody’s been talking about they haven’t been able to do this or that but then they shut them down.”

“I’m just so joyed with how our kids played, we had a tough setback last week and lost a tough game to another rival so it was good to see them come back and put up a complete effort even with we had a couple guys that were out,” Carter said.

Carter hits 150-win milestone

With Friday’s victory, Carter collected his 150th career win in his 21st season as a head coach but his first thought was all those that helped him get here.

“There’s a lot of guys that helped me achieve that, thank goodness I’ve been able to hold on head coaching-wise at places,” Carter said. “I’ve always had really good players and assistants and we just try to love each other and try to find a way to get it done.”

His family was on hand to celebrate the achievement, once again holding the title of Carter’s biggest fans.

“My children and wife are my biggest fans and it was great to have them here. I’ve always had such great support in doing this because it is, it’s a family sacrifice for a man to coach and commit himself to a bunch of kids,” Carter said. “Sometimes, over these years, they’ve had to sacrifice too but they’ve always been 100% behind me.”

Money quotes

“Everything (offensively) goes through Caden, he’s such an electric guy. It’s like tackling a ghost and he’s very Lamar Jackson Kyler Murray – he’s that same-type guy and just gave them fits. They are rushing simply to try and contain and they can’t,” Carter said. “He can beat you with his arm, can beat you with his feet and he makes great decisions in not turning the football over and that all goes together in a rivalry game.”

“Hard work pays off. You hear it all the time but, for me, it’s really true,” Creel said. “Coming from last year to this year, I think hard work really paid off with all the drills and time working out –  it does pay off.”

Up next

Fairhope improved to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Region 1 with a home game against Alma-Bryant (3-4, 0-4) on the docket for next Friday. Daphne fell to 3-4 overall and 3-1 in Region 1 with an away game against MGM (4-4, 3-2) scheduled for next Friday.