With rain drizzling down earlier in the day and lightning going off in the distance, Spanish Fort shutout Baldwin County on The Hill, 28-0, in the only intra-county matchup of the week Friday, Sept. 11.

“Can’t say enough about our defense,” Spanish Fort head coach Chase Smith said. “Just smothering them all night. A great effort, a great Toro win, great grit. Our young bucks are growing up. I’m really impressed with our run game tonight; by committee, everybody’s running the ball hard. Our offensive line, hats off to them."

Having returned home after two weeks on the road, the Toros defense held the Tigers scoreless through all four quarters of football. Meanwhile, Spanish Fort quarterback Jaylyn Thibodeaux accounted for three touchdowns on the night (one passing and two rushing).

“I felt like we just lost 28-0 to a better team,” Baldwin County head coach Andrew Davis simply put it.”

TOROS LOCK DOWN TIGERS

With Spanish Fort getting possession to start off the game, the Toros got on the board at the 8:51 mark of the first quarter when Thibodeaux threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Devin McKenzie to go up 7-0.

With the Toros defense forcing a punt, Ya’Lin Lee brought Spanish Fort to Baldwin County’s 40-yard line on a big run, but Thibodeaux then threw an interception to Tigers defender Noah Bowers.

Despite the defensive momentum swing, Baldwin County once again punted with the offense being unable to get anything going. Spanish Fort increased its lead with a massive 56-yard rushing touchdown from their signal-caller, Thibodeaux.

Baldwin County fumbled the ball at the 9:09 mark of the second quarter, with Spanish Fort recovering at the Toros’ 45-yard line.

Both teams failed to achieve much else, with the score remaining 14-0 entering halftime.

In the second half, Baldwin County’s turnover struggles continued, with Toros defender Anderson Butterworth recovering a fumble at the Tigers’ 11-yard line, helping set up an eight-yard rushing touchdown by Lee to make it a 21-0 lead for the home side.

Spanish Fort scored for the final time near the start of the fourth quarter, with Thibodeaux rushing into the endzone for his third overall score of the game, making it 28-0.

Baldwin County would try its best to get on the board, but Tigers quarterback Ray Johnson threw an interception to Toros defensive back CJ Williams.

And during his last possession in the final minutes, Johnson was sacked by Toros defensive end Sam Wilder on fourth down, sealing a 28-0 shutout win for Spanish Fort.

MOVING FORWARD

With the win, the Spanish Fort improves to a 3-1 record and will next travel to face Blount on Friday, Sept. 18, with the Leopards having recently taken Gulf Shores to the wire.

“We got to continue to build off the momentum,” Coach Smith said. “We knew Blount’s going to be really, really good, well coached, playing hard. We’ve got to be prepared to go over there in a hard-fought game, region opponent. Next region game, goal is 1-0.”

With its loss, Baldwin County loses its third straight game, falling to a 1-3 record.

The Tigers will return home to take on Saraland on Friday, Sept. 18.

“We’re gonna have to flush this one,” Coach Davis said. “We have to come back and we’re gonna have to find our offensive identity that we’ve had the first three weeks, you know? We just couldn’t get anything going tonight. We got whipped in the box. It’s gonna be hard to win games if we don’t buck and not have pre-snap penalties and things of that nature, but we’ll get better."