AUBURN, Alabama—Like a good newspaper, the Baldwin Bulls were Black and White and "Red" all over the field at Auburn University's Jordan-Hare Stadium Thursday night. Like a good football team, the Spanish Fort Toros dominated both sides of the ball and all phases of the game to claim the state title with a 45-14 win over previously undefeated McAdory's Yellow Jackets.

PHOTO GALLERY: Spanish Fort wins 5A crown

COLLECTION: Spanish Fort's championship season archive

The Spanish Fort Toros are the undisputed Class 5A Alabama High School Athletic Association State Football Champions of 2012 with a 14-1 record. The 14-1 Yellow Jackets, who held opponents to 10 points per game could not stop the Toros scoring stampede which almost reached it's season average of 48 ppg.

Spanish Fort senior quarterback and Super 6 Most Valuable Player Joel Poe threw three touchdown passes and ran one in to lead the Toros to their second 5A state crown in three years.

Perhaps the most important aspect of championship play the Toros showed was the ability to overcome their own early mistakes and build on subsequent successes. Spanish Fort lost a fumble on their first offensive play of the game, but the Toro defense held and the offense scored 18 plays later to take the lead on a Poe-to-Devonte Patrick pass of 18 yards on the first play of the second quarter. The SF defense held the Jackets to four plays again and the Toro offense went 70 yards in eight plays to make it 14-0 with Alexander Theodore's two extra point kicks.

"This is one of the most well-rounded games, offensively and defensively, that we have played all year," said Spanish Fort head coach Mark Freeman. "We didn't play our best at times, especially early on. Made some mistakes. Fumbled on the first play. But we held our composure, executed and created more opportunities. We did make some adjustments, put a tight end (Hunter Wood) in the game in the second half, but mostly we just let Joel run this offense. With what we do, Joel has a choice to run or throw depending on what he sees the defense in. And together with the tremendous offensive line we have we were able to run or throw against a really good McAdory defense. We trust him out there to make those zone reads and he's an awesome quarterback. He proved it tonight. And I just pray that there's somebody (college coach) out there who needs a six-foot, 200-pound, mobile quarterback with a great arm who can make a zone read from a spread offense."

Speaking about the McAdory defense which had allowed only 10 points per game in the playoffs, Freeman said he felt his team had to strike a balance between the ground game and the air attack.

"We wanted to run on them. We thought we could early, but it wasn't there. So we went to the pass and Joel was on. Our line did a great job giving him time and he has a bunch of good receivers to look for. But then when they kind of took the pass away, we were able to get somewhere with the run. And with Joel being able to do both so well, it has been a big plus for us and him his whole career."

Poe said he owed a lot to his teammates. "We never really know what a defense is going to do to us," he said. "Take away the run, take away the pass. So they took away the run at first but gave us the pass and we were able to make some big plays. I just went through my reads and when they took away the pass again, I saw some things between the tackles and Ed and Sammy and our offensive line did the rest. Have a great line and great receivers, too. They all make it happen."

Autry, who was injured much of the season and early playoffs, agreed. "I have great faith and pride in my offensive line. They played really great and we had some good practices all week coming into this game."

Cook has committed to Nebraska—most likely as a defensive back. He caught two touchdown passes in the Toro's 2010 championship as a sophomore and played both ways and special teams this year. “It feels good to be back here,” he said. “The Super 6 has treated us good.”

SFHS would commit two early turnovers with one resulting in a McAdory TD run of 1-yard by MHS quarterback Kyran Moore just before the half to make it a 14-7 ball game at intermission.

But overall the Toros forced three more turnovers in the game and capitalized on each one. Theodore's punting also left the Jackets deep in their own territory while the SF defense did the rest.

The Toros went on to expand the lead 17-7 on a 20-yard Theodore field goal, 24-7 on a 29-yard Sammy Tolbert run, 31-7 on a Poe-to-Johnny Cook pass of 25 yards, 39-7 with another Poe-to-Patrick TD toss from the MHS 21-yard line and finally on Poe's 10-yard scoring draw to make it 45-7 with 8:30 left in the game.

Tolbert, who has been a work-horse runner all year, was all smiles. “It just feels so great to get back up here and get it done. This is what we worked for, man. We knew we could do it. Always did."

The Jackets' Moore played valiantly in the second half, finally escaping the sack masters of SF to keep a late drive alive and add a 47-yard scrambling TD pass to Jonathan Witherspoon. Blake Billingsley finished the point-afters and did a good, but too-frequent job punting for MHS.

But the overall dominance showed on the final stats as SF totaled 377 yards of offense and limited the Jackets to 175. Poe was 17-of-24 in the air for 177 yards with one interception while he, Autry and Tolbert combined for 200 yards on the turf. Tolbert had half the SF rushing production with 100 yards on 12 carries. Poe picked up 33 yards and Autry 63. Patrick had six receptions good for 53 yards, Blain Crain came down with five grabs for 48 yards, Sam Harris had three for 30 yards, Hunter had two for 15 yards and Cook two for 31.

The Toro defense made 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage for 53 negative yards. Defensive linemen Chris Morehouse, Marcus Walton and John Wesley Williamson led the Minus-Men with big sacks and numerous hurries on Moore. Freshman safety Tyler Johnston had six tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception (his sixth of the season) returned for 15 yards and his linebacker brother Thomas Johnston had a blitz sack for the Toros’ defense. Ronald Smith led the Jackets defense with eight tackles and Robert Cooks had the interception of Poe returned for nine yards.

"If you're going to win this time of year, you're going to have to win on defense," Freeman said. "You can do all you want on offense, but If you can't create turnovers and create field position, you can't win. We won the state championship tonight probably because of that. Alexander Theodore did a great job like he has all year flipping the field (long or coffin-corner punting)for us. We helped them the first half. Somebody broke a timed route and they made a pick and you can't do that and get away with it. But our defense had our backs the whole game and got them (MHS) off the field and we were able to execute and put some points up. I can't say enough about this defense."