ORANGE BEACH — After jumping out to a 35-0 lead in the spring game against Madison County, Gulf Shores High School held off a late Mustang charge for a 35-21 victory.

The story for the Dolphins was the fleet-footed play of senior quarterback Gary Johnston. In his debut as the newest Dolphin to line up under center, Johnston put on a clinic, scoring two rushing touchdowns and connecting with Keller Davis on a 24-yard touchdown pass.

"My offensive line did a great job tonight," Johnston said. "Madison Academy is a good team and it's an important win for us."

Johnston first scored on a 12-yard run, taking off as the pocket started to collapse and found paydirt. The senior quarterback/linebacker then scored from two yards out.

A turnover by Madison Academy put the Dolphins within scoring range and halfback Hunter Harris scored on a 5-yard touchdown run, followed by junior Josh Reeves scoring from six yards out.

After a 76-yard touchdown run by Madison Academy the Dolphins committed mistakes that translated in turnovers and points for the Mustangs. After pulling to within two touchdowns at 35-21, junior Benard Nesbitt delivered the final blow, intercepting a pass to end the Mustangs comeback attempt.

Although Madison County is a class 3A football team, they boast a 18-2 regular season record over 2005 and 2006 and Dolphins head coach Duane Davis was pleased with the quality win.

"We did a great job out there tonight," he said. "Madison Academy is a quality program. They've lost two games in the past two years and we are excited about to come out here and get the win."

The team loses significant senior leadership including two Division-I prospects in Logan Hickman (Southern Miss) and Chandler Davis (Tulane), but also have several underclassmen stepping up in new roles.

Four starters were not on the depth chart for the spring game and at one point six underclassmen were in the game on offense and five on defense.

"We were able to get a lot of young guys some experience tonight," Davis said. "We will continue to work with these guys and get stronger and work on mindset. The mistakes are a lot more mental than physical and we'll work on that as we progress as a team."

The two biggest standouts in the spring game were Johnston and Reeves who generated much of the teams early offense.

Johnston remains the team leader as the general of the offense and cornerstone of the defense, but sophomore quarterback Logan Paul saw action for much of the second quarter and established himself as a worthy youthful backup.

Davis said the team is taking shape and this offseason's weight program will prove a major factor in establishing the young program.