SPANISH FORT, Alabama —Spanish Fort quarterback Joel Poe connected with Sam Harris for a six-yard touchdown pass to cap a 96-yard Toro drive that put the home team ahead for good and secure a 28-17 quarterfinal win over visiting Benjamin Russell.

The Toros (12-1) advanced to the semifinals of the 5A playoffs and will host Region 1 rival St. Paul’s at 7 p.m. Friday for the chance to return to the state title game for the second time in three years. Spanish Fort head coach Mark Freeman feels his players earned the victory against a good team.

 “They don’t expect anything handed to them. They understand we have to work hard for these wins against good teams like Benjamin Russell and they do it. They show up to practice ready to get to work. They trust us and we trust them and maybe most of all, they trust each other. By no means are we perfect, though. We turned the ball over a couple of times. We still make mistakes out there. But I can’t say enough about how good a job the defense is doing, especially the last couple of weeks. And our offensive line is getting the job done. We feel like if we need to run the ball now, we can. The guys have more confidence up front and it shows. It really shows in that last drive. I'm proud of these guys.”

The final Poe-to-Harris TD came with two minutes, 31 seconds left in the game and visiting Benjamin Russell needing 11 points to tie. The 22-play, SF series ran 7:39 off the clock as the Toros picked up six first downs, five on third down and all executed without a penalty.

 “We felt good going down the field on that drive,” Poe said. “Felt confident. We felt confident before that drive. We had to have a drive like that against Muscle Shoals and got it. And then we had to put together that game-winning drive at the end to beat Daphne. So we’ve been there before. It was a challenge but we knew we could do it and went 96. But Benjamin Russell’s a great football team. We started off pretty strong, put some points up on the board early. But they didn’t quit and kept coming. They brought a lot of pressure on some key downs and got to me but we made some adjustments and my O-line did a great job and so did our receivers.”

The first third-down conversion on that drive involved Poe hitting receiver Devonte Patrick over the middle for a 15-yard gain to move the chains. Another called for back-up quarterback Tyler Johnson to run out of the Wildcat formation for back-to-back first downs followed by Poe on a draw for another to continue the series. Sammy Tolbert had 18 yards on the drive to set up three of the six first downs.

“That was a great call for Devonte (the pass to Patrick) and then for Tyler to come in and do a great job running the ball.” Poe said. “Came in and did his job and kept us going. It was a team effort. Devonte, Sammy, Tyler, the whole line and then Sam was right there for the score. It was a great drive. Our defense does the rest.”

Freeman said Johnson, who is also a starting linebacker, understands the value of every inch of real estate on the field. “We feel good with the ball in Tyler’s hands. He runs hard. At the worst, he will find a way to get two yards. We put body on body pretty well there and picked up some good yardage.”

The ‘Cats answered the first Toro TD with an 80-yard drive of their own grinding out most of it on the ground with running backs Briquez Alvies and LaBrenikin Johnson as well as quarterback Bryant Horn who went 6-for 8 passing in the first half including a 10-yard TD pass to Johnson for the first BR score. Johnson scored again from a yard out to cap a 39-yard drive in the second period.

Late in the third period Tabias Russell intercepted Poe at midfield and returned to the Toros’ 42. But the ‘Cats were forced to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Collin Sharpe down the stretch as the Toro defensive line pressured Horn and the SF secondary broke up passes. Defensive end Chris Morehouse also had a 13-yard sack for the Toros to force the final punt of the game.

BR head coach Danny Horn was happy with his team’s exceptional season which included a win over 6A powerhouse Opelika, but disappointed the game at hand got away.

“We went into the fourth quarter with a chance to win,” he said. “And that is what we wanted. It’s a 21-17 game, and they are inside their own five. If we get a stop there, we likely have good field position and who knows what happens. Four or five plays make a difference in every game.”

 Horn cited the third-and-long pass play from the SFHS five to Patrick as a game changer.

“We couldn’t get them (Spanish Fort) off the field on third down. Had them backed up, but then they threw one across the middle and go on a 95-yard drive. So give credit to them. They made plays when they had to.”

 The Toros’ first-half scores came on drives of 67, 57 and 65 yards. Poe threw a 15-yard pylon fade to Kristian Cotton who made an outstanding leap and landing just inside and behind the goal line, handed off to Tolbert for a 39-yard touchdown run and found Harris behind the Wildcat secondary for a 42-yard TD toss. Alexander Theodore made all point-after kicks for the Toros but missed a 36-yard field goal attempt. One of Theodore’s punts however covered nearly 70 yards with the roll and flipped the field for the Toros who were deep in their own territory late in the third period.

 “In my opinion that was one of the big plays for us,” Freeman said. “They were keeping the ball mostly on our side of the field in the second half, gaining momentum. But T.A. got that long punt off and eventually got us back in good field position. It was huge. We won the game and I would have taken a one-point win tonight. That was a good football team. I thought our defense played pretty well for the second week in a row. Offensively, we had a chance to put the game away in the first half and couldn’t do it. We didn’t execute as well as we have at some points in the season and we had a couple of costly turnovers. Benjamin Russell had something to do with that as well. But we made some plays when we needed to and got the win.”

 The Toros generated 436 yards of offense from scrimmage as Poe finished with 8-of-27 completions for 252 yards and three touchdowns and one INT. Harris finished with seven catches for 137 yards. Tolbert carried 13 times for 72 yards. Jonathan Cook had 33 return yards, Tolbert had 15.

SF (12-1) scored a touchdown on each of their first three possessions using a total of 15 plays from scrimmage with an average drive time of 94 seconds each. Spanish Fort’s defense held a Benjamin Russell offense averaging 34 points per game to 17 while the Toro offense totaled 28 on a Wildcat defense allowing no more than 11 p.p.g coming in. 

St. Paul’s took a 31-21 win over the Toros during the regular season. Freeman said the rematch with the Saints will be a hard-fought test. “We have a challenge ahead of us, they beat us here before. They are as good as anybody in the state and coach (Steve) Mask does a good job over there. Our job is to get ready for them this week."