Week 5 of the high school football season brings region play to a boil across Coastal Alabama, and the marquee game is a road trip nobody circled in August: Spanish Fort at Blount, two teams that have spent the first month of the season outperforming their preseason billing.
Here are five things to know heading into Thursday and Friday night.
1. Game of the Week: Spanish Fort at Blount
Spanish Fort head coach Chase Smith is expecting what he called a “physical war” when the Toros travel to their Class 5A, Region 1 rival on Friday.
Both teams qualify as pleasant surprises. Spanish Fort carries just five seniors on its roster and has still won three of its first four games, the only loss coming in the final seconds at Class 6A Foley in Week 2.
“I don’t want to say I’m surprised,” Smith said of the start. “I do think, offensively, we’ve gotten to a point a little faster than maybe I anticipated, especially up front. I think the one thing that has stuck out to me is we’ve had a couple of times where we’ve been down and could have hung our head and showed our youth. But our kids showed their maturity and resiliency and fought back each time.”
Since the Foley loss on Aug. 28, the Toros have put away Elberta 35-6 and shut out Baldwin County 28-0. Senior quarterback JJ Thibodeaux has completed 63 percent of his passes for 407 yards and six touchdowns while adding 279 rushing yards and four scores on the ground — a dual-threat profile that has let a young offensive line grow into the season rather than carry it.
“I’ve been very pleased with our progress,” Smith said. “I feel like every position has improved week by week. We’ve still got some things to fix obviously, but we are continuing to grow.”
Blount arrives in a very different mood. The Leopards led Gulf Shores 17-0 before the Dolphins rallied, tied it on a late touchdown and a contested two-point conversion inside the final minute, and won 30-29 in overtime.
“I think our players can see our hard work paying off,” first-year Blount coach Gus Smith said. “They are aggravated for sure. They were sad, mad — all those things — after the game. We are close. We just don’t know how to finish yet. Everything we want to accomplish is still out in front of us.”
Blount opened with a loss to Vigor, then edged B.C. Rain in three overtimes and shut out Murphy before the Gulf Shores heartbreaker. The schedule does not ease up: Spanish Fort on Friday, Theodore at home Oct. 2, at Saraland Oct. 16.
The Leopards’ engine is junior running back Keevaughn Johnson, who has been among the most productive players in Coastal Alabama through four weeks — 611 yards and six touchdowns on 71 carries.
“The running back is the best we’ve seen,” Chase Smith said. “He’s a load, and he runs hard. We have to find a way to match their physicality.”
Both coaches framed the night in terms of maturity rather than schemes.
“I want to see us play clean football,” Chase Smith said. “We can’t start slow. We have to protect the football. We can’t beat ourselves. They will make plays and have some momentum. We have to weather the storm and, when we get on their side of the field, we have to come away with points.”
“I’ve told our kids there is no such thing as a moral victory, but I hope they see how close we are,” Gus Smith said. “What can we do this week and the next week and so on to close the gap? That’s our challenge. When you compare our scores to last year, it obviously looks a lot better. I think it feels a lot better. We still have a long way to go, but we can look at a 1-point loss at Gulf Shores and know that is going to be a third round or semifinal type team we just played. Was our performance real or was it a fluke? That is the test we face this week against a good Spanish Fort team.”
2. Five More Games Worth Watching
All kickoffs are 7 p.m. Friday unless noted.
Cottage Hill (2-1, 1-1) at Providence Christian (2-1, 2-0)
Single-A Private School Region 1 contenders meet for the first time in either school’s history. Cottage Hill bounced back from a loss to Mobile Christian with a 42-0 win over Snook. Junior quarterback Shamar Toodle has thrown for 390 yards and five touchdowns and run for 116 yards and a score. Providence Christian has won two straight, over Northside Methodist and Bayshore Christian, after opening with a 42-7 loss to Cottonwood. Senior quarterback Logan Hagler threw for 222 yards and three touchdowns and added a rushing score against Bayshore.
LeFlore at Citronelle
A Class 4A, Region 1 game between two playoff hopefuls, both coming off losses. The Rattlers fell at home to Orange Beach 27-7; Citronelle lost at Vigor 42-8. With Williamson (No. 1), Vigor (No. 3) and Orange Beach (No. 6) all in the ASWA Class 4A top 10, the fourth playoff spot in the region may well come down to these two programs — which makes a September game function like a bracket play-in.
LeFlore senior quarterback John Carter has passed for 318 yards and five touchdowns but left last week’s loss with an injury. Fellow senior Joseph Robinson has a touchdown pass and 215 rushing yards with three scores. Ryion Austin has 341 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Citronelle’s biggest threat has been sophomore Javorious Coleman, with 257 yards and four touchdowns on 45 carries. The Wildcats won last year’s meeting 24-14.
Luverne at Thomasville
A top-10 matchup in Class 2A, Region 1, and a rare one. Luverne has outscored opponents 211-50 and won 16 of its last 17 games; its only loss in two seasons came to Lanett in last year’s 2A quarterfinals. Sophomore quarterback Jadaveon McCreary has thrown for 510 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 589 yards and 10 more. Thomasville has scored 126 points while allowing 64.
The two programs have met only three times. The last meeting was a 24-17 Luverne overtime win in the second round of the 1989 playoffs — 37 years ago.
St. Michael (0-3, 0-2) at St. Paul’s (2-2, 1-1)
The first meeting ever between these Class 2A Region 1 schools. Philip Rivers’ Cardinals are off to a surprising 0-3 start, though North Carolina State commit Gunner Rivers has not played since the first quarter of the opener because of a knee injury and is expected back at some point in the regular season. In his absence, junior running back Nygel Mitchell has carried the offense with 476 yards and four touchdowns on 73 carries.
St. Paul’s snapped consecutive road losses at Gulf Shores and McGill-Toolen with a 38-33 win at Glenwood, running for 422 yards behind sophomore Ty Sellers (28 carries, 210 yards, two touchdowns) and senior Roberts Law (18 carries, 186 yards, one touchdown).
Williamson at Satsuma
The Gators have won three of four under new coach Jason Phillips and secured their first Class 4A, Region 1 win last week over B.C. Rain, 21-20. Junior Evan Bell has rushed for 428 yards and six touchdowns.
Top-ranked Williamson comes in off a 19-18 escape at Pine Forest, Fla., after outscoring Baker and B.C. Rain by a combined 89-0 to open the year. Sophomore Nathaniel Mitchell has 357 rushing yards and five touchdowns, and Antonio Coleman’s defense is led by junior Demarcus Dale-Brown (28 tackles) and Florida commit Ellis McGaskin (23). The two schools have not played since 2011.
3. Player to Watch: Kendrick Able, Theodore
The senior running back has rushed for 653 yards and seven touchdowns on 100 carries — and, notably, has gone over 100 yards in every game this season. That consistency is harder than a single big night; it means he has produced against every front he has faced, in every game script.
He draws a struggling Elberta defense on Thursday night at C.A. Douglas Field, a day ahead of the Friday slate.
4. Did You Know: Bayside’s Quarterback Has Not Thrown a Pick
Through three games, Bayside Academy junior quarterback Davis Barnett is completing 82 percent of his passes — 54 of 66 — for 816 yards and 13 touchdowns, with zero interceptions.
An 82 percent completion rate would be remarkable at any level. Pairing it with 13 touchdowns and no turnovers through the air is the kind of line that usually comes with an asterisk about strength of schedule, and the Admirals are about to remove it.
The Single-A No. 1 Admirals (3-0) host Northside Methodist on Friday, and then the calendar turns: St. Michael at home Sept. 25, at Cottage Hill Oct. 2, at Providence Christian Oct. 9, and Mobile Christian at home Oct. 16. Four of the region’s most credentialed opponents in a five-week span.
5. Under the Radar: Fairhope at Robertsdale
The Pirates have won three straight for first-year coach Caleb Ross after opening with a loss at Pace, Fla. Last week they sat through a 90-minute lightning delay before edging Mary G. Montgomery 24-14, with Tulane commit Gus Faulkner leading the defense with 16 tackles and a forced fumble and sophomore linebacker Jack Myrick adding 10 tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
Robertsdale is coming off its first win, 28-14 over Davidson, after three straight losses to open the season. Senior Malachi Landrum has three rushing touchdowns for the Golden Bears. According to a report, Landrum was one of three players Robertsdale held out earlier this season over AHSAA eligibility questions; those three — Landrum, Jo’Navan Bryant and Trentan Robinson — were cleared to play Friday afternoon, per the same report.
That clearance is the variable here. A team that just won its first game while missing contributors, and now has them back, is a harder read than its 1-3 record suggests.
Coastal Alabama Week 5 Schedule
Thursday
- Elberta at Theodore
- Millry at Washington County
Friday
- Baker at Foley
- Bayshore Christian at St. Luke’s
- B.C. Rain at Orange Beach
- Choctaw County at Leroy
- Clarke County at Chickasaw
- Cottage Hill at Providence Christian
- Davidson at Daphne
- Escambia County at W.S. Neal
- Evangel Christian at Escambia Academy (8-man)
- Fairhope at Robertsdale
- Flomaton at Excel
- Gulf Shores at Murphy
- Houston Academy at UMS-Wright
- Jackson Academy at Clarke Prep
- J.U. Blacksher at Hillcrest-Evergreen
- LeFlore at Citronelle
- Luverne at Thomasville
- Mary G. Montgomery at Alma Bryant
- McGill-Toolen at Faith Academy
- McIntosh at Marengo
- Monroe Academy at Wilcox Academy
- Northside at Bayside Academy
- Northview, Fla. at Monroe County
- Opp at T.R. Miller
- Saraland at Baldwin County
- Snook Christian at Mobile Christian
- South Choctaw Academy at Patrician Academy
- Southern Choctaw at Fruitdale
- Spanish Fort at Blount
- St. Michael at St. Paul’s
- Sweet Water at Keith
- Wilcox Central at Jackson
- Williamson at Satsuma
The Bigger Picture
Week 5 is where region standings stop being provisional. Most Coastal Alabama programs are now four or five games into schedules that determine playoff seeding, and the margin between a team that controls its own path and one that needs help is often decided in the next fortnight.
That is why Friday’s slate reads heavier than the records suggest. Spanish Fort at Blount will shape the 5A Region 1 order. LeFlore at Citronelle is effectively a fight for the last 4A Region 1 playoff berth in a region with three ranked teams. Luverne at Thomasville puts two 2A top-10 programs on the same field for the first time since the Reagan administration. And Fairhope at Robertsdale features a Golden Bears roster that looks meaningfully different this week than it did last.
Four of those five games are on the road for the favorite. In September, in region play, that tends to be where the season’s surprises come from.