MOBILE – Charles Henderson High has made improvements each year under head coach Brad McCoy, but he told his players following the game Friday night that the program of St. Paul is the level of excellence he hopes the Trojans can achieve one day, and he thanked his seniors for the success they achieved this season.

St. Paul, champions of Class 5A in Alabama the past two seasons, ran away with a 45-7 victory over the Trojans in the first round of the AHSAA playoffs, ending the year for CHHS at 7-4, while St. Paul advances with an 8-3 record.

“We’ve got to learn how to compete against a team like this,” McCoy said. “I think we realized tonight that the St. Paul’s are at a different level, and I think this was a pretty good picture of what it is going to take if we are to ever get past the first round or second round, and to be able to compete with guys like this, then we have got a lot of work to do. We’ve made a lot of improvement since last year, and a lot of that has to do with the character of our players.

“These seniors wanted to finish the right way, because that would be their legacy. The Kobi Griffins, Bryson Gandys and Jabronski Williams, they were not going to have it any other way. My hat is off to them, they finished the right way, not with a win, but the way they played the whole ballgame encouraging the others, and that’s going to help them down the road.”

St. Paul was dominant on the ground, using seven different running backs including Tamaurice Smith with 123 yards and two touchdowns, Reginald Bracy with 105 yards and three touchdowns, while quarterback Swift Lyle completed 8 of 17 passes for 105 yards to keep the Trojans off balance.

The Saints scored a TD on the second play of the game on an 81-yard run by Smith, and never took their foot off the gas en route to a 38-0 halftime lead.

CHHS scored its touchdown with 1:25 left in the fourth quarter on a two yard run by Jabronski Williams, and the extra point by Cameron Bush was good for what would be the 45-7 final.

The Trojans were 5-6 last year and improved to 7-4 this season. CHHS loses 11 seniors but will look to 20 juniors for leadership next year.