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St. Michael quarterback Gunner Rivers had two passing touchdowns in the second half as the Cardinals pulled away from Escambia County in a 41-26 region victory tonight in Atmore.

A back and forth effort in the first half, the Blue Devils trailed the visiting Fairhope team 21-12 at the break.

Escambia County got the ball to start the second half, but fumbled in the red zone with 8:59 left in the third quarter.

Some time later, Rivers then connected with receiver Brody Jones on a 24-yarder to go up 27-12.

From then onward, St. Michael was trying to pull away from the strong Escambia County team, however.

Rivers threw an interception, which was caught by senior Markavion Dixon, who ran it back 86 yards with 1:30 left before the fourth.

ECHS trailed 27-20 going into the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals then utilized its ground game to start the final 12 minutes of play, and hit pay dirt on a 6-yard scoring rush by Noah Moss to put the game away.

A short time later, Rivers hit Jones from more than 40 yards out to put the Cardinals up three touchdowns.

ECHS, which never quit for the remainder of the game, managed to get a score in with more than 2 minutes left. James Whatley found a gap at the 1-yard line for the final score of the night.

On their final offensive drive of the night, the Blue Devils hit some long passes to get within scoring distance.

Head football coach Vincent Harris said the boys played hard.

“They’re getting better,” Harris said. “We’ve got some ways to go. The effort was good.”

With the loss, the Blue Devils fall to 3-1 overall, and 1-1 in Class 4A, Region 1. ECHS visits Wilcox Central in region action next Fri., Sept. 22.