FAIRHOPE — Jackson junior quarterback Landon Duckworth outdueled St. Michael sophomore Gunner Rivers and the Cardinals with five total touchdowns as part of a 55-16 road victory Friday night. It served as St. Michael’s first loss of the season.

Duckworth, a former South Carolina commit, threw touchdown passes of 78, 16, 31 and 36 yards and added a 24-yard rushing touchdown. Sophomore Ezavier Crowell scored the Aggies’ other touchdowns with a pair of 7-yard rushes as well as a kickoff return to pay dirt that opened the second half.

Cardinal head coach Philip Rivers knew there wasn’t going to be much room for mistakes as his sixth-ranked team hosted the No. 1 team in Class 4A.

“We had to play dang-near perfect in the first half and we didn’t,” Philip said after the game. “The margin for error was so thin.”

Red zone turnovers prove costly for Cardinals

St. Michael had some of its best chances in the second quarter as three drives reached inside Jackson’s 20-yard line. But a bad snap on the first possession led to a fumble before Gunner suffered a pair of interceptions. The Aggies cashed the first two turnovers into touchdowns to take a 35-10 lead into halftime.

“The (fumble) down here that was going to make it 20-17 was the big one. To me, that’s when the game went sideways. You make it 20-17 and then you never know,” Philip said. “The other (interception), we had 12 seconds left in the half and at that point it’s 35-10, he was just trying to make a play.”

Second half shows St. Michael’s character

Despite the 25-point halftime deficit, Philip issued a challenge to his team that the second half would say more about the team’s mentality than anything.

“I said this second half is going to be a character half. Find out about your teammate next to you, do you trust him, is he what we talk about in here or is he not,” Philip said of the halftime message. “So I hope they found out that we’ll keep fighting.”

The head coach said there are only two things that teams can do when trailing by so much, either fold up and not want to make any more mistakes or keep firing.

“When you get behind like we did — and I’m not defending him because he’s my son — but when you get behind like that, you can either play real safe and just say, ‘We’ll get beat but I don’t want to mess up,’ or you keep throwing it,” Philip said. “And we did, we threw some picks but the margin for error was so small.”

Jones, Lavoie hit pay dirt for hosts

As the St. Michael offense continued to air it out, junior Brody Jones helped lead the receiving corps with 9 catches for 148 yards according to unofficial stats. Gunner delivered a beautiful pass to find Jones on a corner route for a 45-yard touchdown in the first quarter to make it a 7-7 game.

Fellow junior Patricio Garcia connected on a 26-yard field goal as another red zone trip stalled in the first quarter. The Cardinals didn’t find the end zone again until the end of regulation as junior Kamarjay Lavoie plunged in from 3 yards out to cap the scoring.

Lavoie registered 22 rushing yards on 7 carries, junior Noah Moss racked up 118 rushing yards on 15 carries and Gunner finished 20-of-33 passing with 217 yards and the touchdown.

Up next

St. Michael dropped to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in Class 4A Region 1 with a road trip to face Mobile Christian on next week’s docket. The Leopards, defending Class 3A state champions, lost to Pensacola Catholic 48-20 Friday night and fell to 2-4 overall with a 2-1 mark in region play.

“Regardless of this outcome, next week’s game is going to be bigger than this game. Whether we won this game or not, then it’d be even bigger. If you lose it, now it’s real big,” Philip said.  “We know the challenge in the defending 3A champion Mobile Christian, but I didn’t want this game to cost us two. We can’t let this one cause a letdown that would affect the next one.”

Jackson improved to 6-1 overall and 3-0 in region play with a road trip to face the Orange Beach Makos in Week 8. Orange Beach used a 38-6 win over Escambia County Friday night to move to 5-2 overall and 3-0 in region.

Money quote

“I’d love to get another crack at them, just because that would mean that we made it really far,” Philip said. “They’re the favorites by a longshot. Ain’t nobody better than them in 4A.”