FAIRHOPE – The St. Michael Cardinals’ comeback ran out of time Thursday night against the Gulf Shores Dolphins and the visitors managed to escape with a 34-27 victory from Fairhope Municipal Stadium.

With only 1:44 remaining in regulation, St. Michael’s Ezra Sexton took a screen pass from Josh Murphy 78 yards to the house to cut the Cardinals’ deficit to 7 points but St. Michael couldn’t recover one more onside kick and ended the season-opening contest on the losing side.

“We get one more stop there, we have 40 seconds and who knows what happens,” Cardinal head coach Philip Rivers said. “There’s no moral victories, we’re all sick we didn’t win the game, but we stinkin’ battled and we’re better for having played them tonight.”

Not long before Sexton’s big house call, Murphy hit Braylan Green on an 18-yard hookup where the quarterback threaded a throw in between defenders to bring St. Michael to within 14 points with 4:17 left in regulation.

Although Gulf Shores recovered the ensuing onside kick, the Cardinal defense forced a timeout with 1:24 left to play facing 3rd and 15 on its own 42-yard line but a connection to Blaize Thomas sealed the win for the visitors.

Screen pass practice

St. Michael’s screen game was among the points of emphasis in the Dolphins’ practice all week, according to defensive lineman Caidyn Clark who said Gulf Shores still didn’t do as well as they wanted to against them.

“A lot of their big plays that got them a lot of yards, we had practiced them all week,” Clark said. “Their screen was killer tonight and we thought we had enough practice but it all happened so quick.”

Dolphins head coach Mark Hudspeth also acknowledged the Cardinals’ short-pass game that hit pay dirt Thursday night.

“It was a good first game,” Hudspeth said. “They do a nice job, they’ve got a good football team. Coach Rivers does a good job and he’s really good offensively. Those screens are tough to stop, he’s does a good at those.”

Gulf Shores’ Ronnie Royal, a two-way starter who scored three touchdowns offensively and was an impact player defensively, agreed that this week’s preparation led to defensive successes.

“How their quarterback lined up and who’s going to get the ball,” Royal said of his pre-snap keys. “I knew who was going to get the ball, who was going to run the ball, what side they were going to and I was just telling my team, ‘Hey they’re going here, or they’re doing this,’ because I watched a lot of film but I thought we reacted really well.”

Momentum swing

The Dolphins turned two turnovers – a fumble recovery and interception from Kingston Lowe – directly into points while their new quarterback Brendon Byrd didn’t commit any.

“I thought he played really well, we didn’t have a turnover tonight. Not a one, on somewhat of a damp track,” Hudspeth said of Byrd. “We didn’t have a turnover, he took care of the ball and he ran the ball really well in the second half.”

Also in the run game, JR Gardner provided two rushing touchdowns (21 and 8 yards) to Gulf Shores’ winning efforts.

Not as momentous of a swing

St. Michael won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. The Cardinals came out and perfectly executed an onside kick to steal the opening possession. They turned that into points after Arrington Faiupu capped a long drive with a 4-yard rush 1:38 into the game.

However, after that, the Dolphins rattled off 28 unanswered points before St. Michael’s late rally.

“Two onside kick recoveries, the big completion on third down (to ice it); we had some guys step up and make some big plays,” Hudspeth said.

Up next

Both teams gained an extra day of preparation – and rest – heading into the second week of the year following Thursday’s season kickoff. Gulf Shores has Citronelle on the docket to open play within Region 1 while St. Michael will be back at home next week against Chickasaw for another non-region game.

“That’s good because now tomorrow we can watch our film instead of coming in on Saturday then we’d do something else on Sunday,” Clark said.

“We’ll need the rest and get back to a normal week, this was a short week coming off the Athens trip so we get a normal week to get ready for Chickasaw,” Rivers said.

Money quotes

Despite coming up on the short end of the season-opener, Rivers was ecstatic to be back out on the field again playing football.

“It’s good to be back out here. Football’s here, we’ve been talking about it,” Rivers said. “It’s a practice sport, we practice a heck of a lot more than you play but I’m excited we’re going to have a heck of a season.”

The Dolphins were similarly excited about what this win would do to set them up for success moving forward.

“This was a big win, there were a lot of mistakes we’re going to have to work on but it’s only up from here, only get better from here,” Clark said. “Love my teammates, I love them all.”

“It was just a great game, very well played and I learned some things from it. I had fun with my teammates and new players I haven’t even played with yet and they came in, they’re like brothers to me,” Royal said. “It feels like I’ve been playing with them my whole life but it was a great moment.”