Charles Henderson High made a solid second-half comeback but a first-half deficit was too much to overcome as Class 6A Baldwin County took a 28-22 win over CHHS Friday night in Troy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium in the regular season finale for both teams.

The Trojans were down 21-0 at the half before chipping away in the third and fourth quarters.

“In the first half we could not get out of our own way, and we were shooting ourselves in the foot,” said CHHS Head Coach Brad McCoy, “Like so many times, the potential of this football team is limitless. We typically show it late in the game and in the second half. Hats off to Baldwin County coach (Nathan) McDaniel and his staff. They have a great football program. Like I told our team at halftime, we have to play to a standard, we can’t play to the scoreboard. I think they believed us in that and put the score out of their mind and started playing to our standard of play which has got to be at a very high level.”

CHHS now turns its focus to the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs, when they take to the road Friday at Ramsay, just north of Birmingham.

Baldwin County, improving to 6-4 on the season, got off to a 7-0 start when quarterback A.J. Mix scored from two yards out, and Lbano Taro added the extra point. The Tigers took a 14-0 lead on a 13-yard carry by James Stanley, and were ahead 21-0 with 6:54 to go in the first half when Mix found Tai Williams open for a 25-yard TD pass play.

Tyrelle Jones of CHHS broke an 86-yard touchdown sprint with 9:57 to play in the third quarter, the extra point was not successful, and Baldwin County led the Trojans 21-6.

Malcolm Hall cut the lead to 21-14 when he recovered a Baldwin County fumble and raced 14 yards for a touchdown, and on a two-point conversion Pooka Jones connected with Jackson Giles with 3:00 to play in the third quarter.

The Tigers went up 28-14 midway of the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run by Joshua Crook, but CHHS scored two points on a safety minutes later when a Baldwin County snap sailed wide of the quarterback and into the end zone where Mix recovered before the Trojans count get to the ball, and the score was 28-16.

In the final minutes of the game Jones found Chance Pollard in the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass play, the extra point was blocked, and the score was 28-22 with 0:55 remaining, which held up to be the final score.

CHHS, now 3-6 on the season, will travel to Ramsay next Friday night in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs.

“Ramsay is two years removed from winning the 6A state championship, and they’ve been bumped down to 5A,” said Coach McCoy. “Ramsay has a lot of great players and a lot of confidence. They finished 9-1, and we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us and our kids know that. We’ve got to have a great week of practice and get some kids healthy. We were out three starters tonight. My coaches have worked extremely hard but we have got to have our best week next week.”