MOBILE — McGill-Toolen scored the last 14 points of the night to turn a fourth-quarter deficit into a 34-24 win over St. Paul’s on Friday, closing out a game that changed hands three times on the Yellow Jackets’ home field.
The result carried more than rivalry bragging rights. It was the first Alabama High School Athletic Association Private Class AA, Region 1 game of the season for both programs, which means the outcome goes directly into the standings that decide the postseason field.
Ladarien Miller Was the Difference
McGill’s Ladarien Miller had a hand in the game almost from the opening minutes, and he finished it. He intercepted a pass early in the first quarter, then lined up on offense and scored from 6 yards out of the Wildcat quarterback position for the game’s first touchdown.
He was not done. Miller scored the Yellow Jackets’ last two touchdowns as well — the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter and the one that put the game away six minutes later. Three touchdowns and an interception from one player, in a game decided by 10 points, is close to the definition of a difference-maker.
The Wildcat look McGill used on his first score is a common wrinkle in high school football: the ball is snapped directly to a running back or athlete rather than the quarterback, adding a blocker at the point of attack and forcing the defense to account for one more runner. It is a short-yardage and goal-line tool, and McGill got a touchdown out of it.
How the First Half Unfolded
After Miller’s opening touchdown, St. Paul’s drove inside the McGill red zone but could not finish, settling for a 26-yard field goal by Turner Antoon that made it 7-3.
McGill’s next possession stalled, and the Yellow Jackets lined up to punt — but St. Paul’s was flagged for roughing the punter, an automatic first down. On the very first snap after the penalty, running back Kevin Daughtry II broke outside and outran the defense 66 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead.
That sequence is the kind of swing that decides close games. A punt would have handed St. Paul’s the ball near midfield with a four-point deficit. Instead, the penalty extended the drive and McGill needed one play to turn it into seven points.
The Saints answered with a big play of their own. Quarterback Hayden Fincher found receiver Bo Ladner, who turned the catch into a 90-yard touchdown with 1:40 left in the opening quarter, cutting the margin to 14-10. McGill led 14-10 after one period.
Neither offense reached the end zone in the second quarter. Charlie Gillman connected on a 32-yard field goal with 12 seconds left before the break, and the Yellow Jackets went to the locker room ahead 17-10.
St. Paul’s Takes Its Only Lead
The Saints came out of halftime and evened the game quickly. Fincher escaped the pocket and ran 46 yards for a touchdown at the 9:43 mark of the third quarter, tying it at 17.
McGill regained the lead late in the third on a 25-yard field goal by Ollie Poiroux, making it 20-17. But St. Paul’s responded with its best sequence of the night, capped when Fincher threw an 11-yard strike to Carson Stephens in the back of the end zone. For the first time all evening, the Saints were in front, 24-20 early in the fourth quarter.
It was also the last time.
With St. Paul’s defense on the verge of getting the ball back, McGill quarterback Davis Fisher threw a third-down screen pass to Miller, who turned it into a 53-yard touchdown at the 8:31 mark. That put the Yellow Jackets back ahead 27-24.
Roughly six minutes later on the stadium clock, Miller pushed his way into the end zone from 6 yards out for his third touchdown, and McGill had the two-score cushion that stood as the final margin.
Third Down Decided It
Both coaches came out of the game pointing at the same statistic.
McGill head coach David Faulkner said third-down conversions had been a specific point of emphasis in practice during the week.
“We have struggled on third down the first two ballgames. We’ve been abysmal, to be honest with you,” Faulkner said. “We spent a lot of time on that this week and trying to get the right calls and the right situations and get them executed. I thought the kids did a really good job with it tonight.”
Faulkner said the closing stretch reflected a team that made plays when it had to against a strong opponent.
“We were able to make some plays down the stretch against a really good football team,” he said. “St. Paul’s has got a heck of a football team. Every time we get together, it’s always quite a football game. We were fortunate tonight. We made some plays when we had to have them, and it wound up being the difference in the football game.”
St. Paul’s head coach Ham Barnett described the same problem from the other sideline — a defense that could not force punts on the down that ends drives.
“We couldn’t get off the field on third down,” Barnett said. “I think, four or five different times, we’re right there at the very end, they ran a screen — it’s third and long again — and they scored. They get the big first down and then score a couple plays later. That happened all night long.”
The Miller screen pass Barnett referenced was the clearest example: a third-down call that produced 53 yards and the lead rather than a punt.
What St. Paul’s Liked, and What It Didn’t
Barnett was more encouraged by his offense, which produced three scoring drives and two explosive plays — the 90-yard connection to Ladner and Fincher’s 46-yard scramble.
“Offense really did a good job, a lot of explosive plays, which we’re not really known for explosive plays,” Barnett said. “Some young guys are playing too right now, and they really stepped up tonight. Quarterback played really well. I think our offensive line did a really good job. I was really pleased with the offense, but we’ve gotta fix some things on the defensive side of the ball.”
He returned again to the third-down issue as the central fix.
“We’ve gotta get off the field on third down. That’s the biggest thing I see,” Barnett said. “I liked our effort tonight, it was a lot better than last week. Attitude was really good. They played really hard. We’ve just gotta do a better job putting in position to win football games.”
Why the Region Standing Matters
Under the AHSAA format, schools are grouped into classifications and then into regions, and it is the region schedule — not the full slate — that determines who plays in November. Teams finishing at the top of their region earn playoff berths, and the order of finish sets the seeding, which in turn decides who hosts and who travels once the bracket begins.
That is why a September game between two schools that have played each other for decades registers differently this year. A rivalry loss in a non-region week is a bad night. A rivalry loss in the region opener is a game the loser has to make up somewhere on the region schedule.
Faulkner said as much afterward, and he was careful not to let the win stand in for a finished product.
“We didn’t play perfect. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to get better if we want to be playing in late November, early December, but I thought we took a step forward tonight,” he said. “You always want to win the rivalry, but the biggest thing is it puts you 1-0 in the region, and that’s going to be important as far as region seeding and how that goes.”
How the Points Were Scored
The scoring sequence tells the story of a game that never settled. McGill opened with Miller’s 6-yard Wildcat run. St. Paul’s answered with Antoon’s 26-yard field goal. Daughtry’s 66-yard run made it 14-3, and Ladner’s 90-yard catch-and-run cut it to 14-10 inside the final two minutes of the first quarter. Gillman’s 32-yard field goal in the closing seconds of the half made it 17-10.
In the second half, Fincher’s 46-yard scramble tied it, Poiroux’s 25-yard field goal nudged McGill back in front, and Fincher’s 11-yard throw to Stephens gave the Saints their only lead. Fisher’s screen to Miller went 53 yards to reclaim it, and Miller’s second 6-yard touchdown run closed the scoring at 34-24.
The Takeaway
McGill won a game in which it never trailed by more than four points, never led by more than 11, and had to answer a lead change in the fourth quarter. It did so with a running back-turned-receiver making plays on both sides of the ball, a special-teams penalty that flipped field position into a 66-yard touchdown, and a third-down conversion rate that the coaching staff had spent the week rebuilding.
St. Paul’s leaves with an offense that generated more explosive plays than it is accustomed to and a defense that will spend the week working on the same down that cost it the game. Both teams now have the rest of the region schedule to sort out what Friday night started.
Ladarien Miller Named Player of the Week After a Three-Touchdown, One-Interception Night
The senior at the center of McGill-Toolen’s comeback has been recognized for it. Running back Ladarien Miller, who found the end zone three times against St. Paul’s and also came up with an interception on defense, was named Player of the Week, an award sponsored by Rich’s Car Wash.
Miller’s line that night captured why the Yellow Jackets were able to erase a fourth-quarter deficit: he was on the field for most of the night’s decisive snaps, on both sides of the ball. Asked about the performance afterward, he pushed the credit outward.
“I feel like my performance was really good, but I can’t do nothing without my teammates,” Miller said. “My teammates helped play a big part in it. Whatever makes my teammates and coaches happy, then I’m going to do it.”
McGill-Toolen head coach David Faulkner described the night as consistent with what Miller has given the program since he arrived.
“Ladarien has been a huge asset for us over the last four years, and he just continues to play a major role in our success,” Faulkner said. “Friday night was no different.”
Faulkner said the more meaningful change has been in how Miller carries himself rather than in what he can do athletically.
“When we got him as a freshman, he just played on ability,” Faulkner said. “But over the past four years, he’s really matured and developed and really became one of our strongest leaders and one of our guys that really holds everyone accountable and holds himself accountable to the standards.”
Elizabeth Henderson, a representative of Rich’s Car Wash, said the weekly award is meant to put a spotlight on local players and the people who turn out to watch them.
“Being a part of the communities that we serve is really important to us,” Henderson said. “Player of the Week just gives us a chance to celebrate local students and the schools and the families and all the fans that come out and support them each week.”
Next Up
McGill-Toolen returns home this week to “The Lip” to face St. Michael Catholic.
