MONTGOMERY – There will be no secrets when St. Michael Catholic High School (13-0) plays host to defending Class 4A champion Jackson High School (11-2) in tonight’s AHSAA playoff semifinals.
It’s the fifth meeting between the two Class 4A, Region 1 foes in the last two seasons. The Cardinals earned the right to host Friday’s showdown in Fairhope by winning the region battle during the regular season.
“I think losing to them helped us,” said Aggies coach Cody Flournoy after last week’s 50-7 quarterfinal victory over Region 1 No. 3 seed W.S. Neal. “You never want to lose, and we wanted to host that (semifinal) game here, but we are not taking them lightly. Everybody knows what is at stake. I’ve been saying this about our team — they’re experienced, championship-built and know what it takes to win a ring.
“We have a veteran team with 22 seniors that are all making plays.”
The Jackson-St. Michael semifinal showdown headlines the fourth week of the 2025 AHSAA football playoffs and will be featured on the AHSAA TV Network and its broadcast partner Alabama Public Television as the AHSAA Playoff Game of the Week. This week’s slate features 12 semifinal games in Classes 1A through Class 6A, all of which will be live video streamed to subscribers via the NFHS Network.
“We know how great that team is,” said St. Michael coach Philip Rivers, who threw for more than 63,000 yards in his NFL career that spanned 2004-20. “We found a way in Week 6. We’ll see if we can find a way here in the semis. It’ll take a great effort.”
Jackson has won 25 of its last 27 games, including the historic 69-6 victory over Cherokee County in last year’s Class 4A championship game.
St. Michael has also won 25 of its last 27 games, with both losses to Jackson during the 2024 season.
Junior quarterback Gunner Rivers – Coach Rivers’ oldest son – triggers the Cardinals’ offense, having completed 216-of-303 passes for 2,970 yards and 46 touchdowns with five interceptions this season.
He threw five TD passes in the teams’ earlier 2025 meeting. He was 9-of-14 for 175 yards and two TDs in last week’s win and is just six yards shy of reaching 10,000 passing yards for his career. He is 712-of-1089 for 9,994 yards and 111 touchdowns. Only four quarterbacks in AHSAA history have reached that milestone.
St. Michael began playing football in 2017 and won just five games in the program’s first four seasons. Rivers arrived as head coach in 2021, fresh off his NFL retirement, and led the team to the playoffs for the first time in 2023, a first-round loss to Handley.
The Cardinals have now advanced to the semifinals in back-to-back years and can earn their first championship berth by beating Jackson this week.
“These guys were eighth-graders when I got here,” said Rivers after last week’s win, referring to his seniors. “So, pretty cool.”
Highlights from last week’s games involving area schools:
- Plainview quarterback Owen Hope rushed for 110 yards and 2 TDs on 16 carries as the Bears (13-0) defeated Good Hope 28-7 in the Class 4A quarterfinals – and clinched the 300th win in the AHSAA for head coach Dale Pruitt. The Bears veteran coach has compiled a 300-147 record in the AHSAA with stops at Pisgah, Fort Payne, and Albertville.
Pruitt is the ninth coach in AHSAA history to reach this milestone in their coaching careers. He has an overall record of 332-170 with 32 wins coming out of state. He is 239-112 in 30 seasons at Plainview. He has also had head-coaching tenures at Pisgah, Fort Payne, and Albertville. - Jaxson Penn of Mars Hill Bible ran for 181 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries in defending Class 3A state champion Mars Hill Bible’s 42-0 shutout of Geraldine (11-2) in the Class 3A playoffs. Teammate Hunter Higgins had 101 yards and two scores on 10 carries.
Combined, the two running backs for the Panthers (13-0) have been quite a one-two punch. Penn, a Troy commit, has 1,459 yards rushing for 28 touchdowns on just 83 carries and Higgins has rushed for 1,792 yards and 30 scores on 116 rush attempts this season. - Cole Raeuchle of Scottsboro had three field goals, including a fourth-quarter 32-yard kick to seal last week’s Class 5A state playoff 16-14 win over Good Hope. The kicker had field goals of 27, 35 and 32 yards, and he booted one extra-point to score 10 of his team’s 16 points.
Class 1A-6A Semifinals
(All games at 7 p.m.)
- Class 1A
Wadley (12-0) at Addison (12-1)
Leroy (13-0) at Maplesville (13-0) - Class 2A
Coosa Christian (11-2) at Pisgah (11-2)
Reeltown (10-3) at Lanett (11-2) - Class 3A
Piedmont (13-0) at Mars Hill Bible (13-0)
Southside-Selma (13-0) at Bayside Academy (12-1), Daphne - Class 4A
Anniston (13-0) at Plainview (13-0), Rainsville
Jackson (11-2) at St. Michael Catholic (13-0), Fairhope - Class 5A
Moody (11-2) Scottsboro (9-4)
Vigor (11-2) at Williamson (13-0), Mobile, Ladd-Peebles Stadium - Class 6A
Clay-Chalkville (13-0) at Muscle Shoals (12-0)
Benjamin Russell (12-1) at Saraland (12-0)
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