FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Foley beats St. Michael 53-32 in a regular-season finale that turned into a showcase for the Lions’ playmakers on Friday night, Oct. 30. Quarterback Judah Spencer threw five touchdown passes, and Makai Holmes threw, caught and ran for a touchdown as Class 6A Foley snapped the Cardinals’ six-game winning streak heading into the playoffs.
Spencer completed 10 of 16 passes for 276 yards. Three Foley receivers topped 100 yards, and the Lions built a 39-13 halftime lead before St. Michael made the second half more interesting.
The win gave Foley a 6-4 record in Bryan Moore’s first season as head coach. Moore came to Foley from Opelika before this season.
Big plays define Foley’s night
Foley did most of its damage on short throws that turned into long gains. Several of Spencer’s touchdown passes came on quick passes near the line of scrimmage, with receivers slipping out of containment and running away from the defense.
Spencer’s five touchdown passes covered 24 yards to Bryson Garcia, 70 yards to Brayden Garcia, 35 yards to Holmes, and 41 and 55 yards to Jaxson Dixon.
Holmes added two more scores in other roles. He threw a 93-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Garcia and ran 29 yards for another touchdown. Holmes finished 5-of-9 passing for 158 yards.
The receiving numbers reflected how often Foley’s skill players found open space:
- Brayden Garcia: 5 catches, 157 yards, including a 70-yard TD
- Jaxson Dixon: 4 catches, 136 yards, 2 TDs
- Bryson Garcia: 4 catches, 128 yards, 2 TDs
Moore singled out his playmakers after the game, including the Garcia twins and Dixon.
“Our skill kids are really good,” Moore said. “The Garcia twins are really good players. Obviously, Jaxson Dixon should be highly recruited in my opinion. He’s electric with the football. Makai Holmes threw a touchdown, ran for a touchdown and caught a touchdown. That is pretty special. We are doing a good job getting it to our guys in space.”
A 17-0 second quarter breaks it open
The game started as a shootout. Foley led 22-13 after the first quarter, then took control in the second, scoring 17 unanswered points to go into halftime ahead 39-13.
St. Michael did not go away. The Cardinals cut the deficit to 39-26 on the first play of the fourth quarter and later pulled within 45-32 with less than four minutes to play, but they could not get any closer.
St. Michael coach Philip Rivers said the Cardinals missed chances to keep pace early.
“It was tough early,” Rivers said. “We had a chance a couple of times offensively to help the defense out. We got inside the 10 twice and didn’t get anything. You can’t give up the big plays. I think they had 12 completions for over 300 yards so big plays killed us, and a couple of those TD passes weren’t thrown past the line of scrimmage.”
Nygel Mitchell scores four times for St. Michael
Junior running back Nygel Mitchell gave the Cardinals another big night. He scored four touchdowns on runs of 2, 1, 3 and 23 yards and finished with 122 yards on 21 carries. Mitchell has been one of St. Michael’s most reliable players all fall; earlier this month, he ran for 276 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown in a 34-28 win over Houston Academy.
Junior quarterback Marshall Pitre completed 15 of 26 passes for 244 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown pass to Braedyn Walton. He was intercepted once. Pitre has filled in for most of the season while starting quarterback Gunner Rivers has been sidelined.
Gunner Rivers’ status for the playoffs
Gunner Rivers, a senior and a North Carolina State commitment, missed his second straight game as he works to get fully healthy after a knee injury suffered in the season opener against Battle Ground Academy of Franklin, Tenn. He returned for two games earlier in October, including a four-touchdown performance in a 48-27 win at Glenwood, before his father announced Oct. 23 that he would sit out the rest of the regular season.
Philip Rivers said he hopes his son will be ready when St. Michael hosts Glenwood in the first round of the Private Class AA playoffs next week. All 16 teams in Private Class AA qualify for the postseason, and St. Michael enters as the No. 3 seed from Region 1.
“We won’t let this deflate us,” Rivers said. “We got the postseason in front of us, and we have a chance. Looking forward to next week.”
St. Michael finished the regular season 6-4. The Cardinals started 0-3 before winning six straight, including a rally from 24 points down to beat Montgomery Catholic 38-31 a week ago.
The N.C. State question
The game came during a week of intense attention on the St. Michael coach. N.C. State fired head coach Dave Doeren last week, and Rivers’ name has circulated as a possible candidate for the Wolfpack job.
Rivers’ ties to N.C. State are deep. He started 51 straight games for the Wolfpack from 2000 to 2003 and was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2003 before a long NFL career. His son is committed to play for N.C. State. Rivers has never coached in college, but he took over a St. Michael program that had struggled before his arrival and has led the Cardinals to state semifinal appearances in 2024 and 2025. This season is his sixth at the Fairhope school, and St. Michael is headed to the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
Earlier in the week, Rivers said his focus was on Foley and the postseason. With the regular season complete, the Cardinals turn to Glenwood, a team they beat on the road earlier this month.
Moore: ‘Everything is a learning experience in Year 1’
For Foley, the win was a measuring stick. The Lions opened the season with a 52-35 loss to McGill-Toolen, and Moore said St. Michael reminded him of that opponent.
“Up and down,” Moore said when asked to describe the win. “To step back and look from Week 1 to Week 10. McGill (a 52-35 Foley loss in the opener) and this team (St. Michael) are very similar. For us to really be dominated, especially late in the game, by McGill and then get all the way to Week 10 and really dominate the first half of this game was big for us. Everything is a learning experience in Year 1.”
The victory also helped Foley bounce back from a 24-13 loss to Mary G. Montgomery a week earlier, in the Lions’ final region game.
Playoff schedule
Foley will host JAG next week in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs. This season, the Alabama High School Athletic Association expanded the Class 6A bracket so that six teams from each region qualify, with the top two seeds in each region receiving first-round byes.
St. Michael hosts Glenwood of Phenix City in the first round of the Private Class AA playoffs. Both brackets lead to Mobile, where all of the AHSAA’s football state championship games will be played Dec. 2-5 at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus.
- Final: Foley 53, St. Michael 32 (Friday, Oct. 30)
- Halftime: Foley 39, St. Michael 13
- Records: Foley 6-4; St. Michael 6-4
- Judah Spencer, Foley: 10 of 16, 276 yards, 5 TDs
- Makai Holmes, Foley: 5 of 9, 158 yards, 1 TD pass; 35-yard TD catch; 29-yard TD run
- Nygel Mitchell, St. Michael: 21 carries, 122 yards, 4 TDs
- Marshall Pitre, St. Michael: 15 of 26, 244 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
- Next: JAG at Foley (Class 6A); Glenwood at St. Michael (Private Class AA)
