MONTGOMERY — Andalusia’s Derrick King rushed 203 yards on 23 carries and scored four touchdowns to help lead the Bulldogs to a 42-13 region road victory over St. James Friday night.

King’s scoring drives were from 69 yards, three yards twice and 14 yards.

He said he wouldn’t have ever rushed for more than 200 yards without his team’s help.

“The key to it was just the (offensive) line basically, reading the gaps,” King said. “We always work as a team, and get down like coach says. It was a team effort.”

In the first half, Andalusia couldn’t get anything going, only scoring one touchdown. St. James scored early with a field goal, and added another field goal later in that half.

The Bulldogs only managed 120 yards on offense in the first half, but that changed when in the second half they scored five touchdowns to get the win.

AHS coach Brian Seymore said the coaches “challenged” the players during the break to come out and execute on offense and defense.

“We kind of challenged our kids at half time,” Seymore said. “We told them that we want to make sure the best team on the field is going to win, and that’s something that was evident in the second half. The offense and defense, it was total team effort.”

Andalusia (3-0, 2-0 in Class 4A, Region 2) will hit the road next week to face Bullock County in region play.

On their second possession of the night, St. James put three points on the board on a 34-yard field goal from Austin Meadows.

Andalusia fumbled on its next series, but before St. James could get anything going, the clock ran out in the first quarter.

St. James held the Bulldogs to a three-and-out later in the second quarter, which set up Meadows’ second field goal of the night. He made it through the uprights barely, when the ball hit the cross bar and bounced through.

Andalusia and St. James traded unsuccessful offensive possessions on their next drives.

The Bulldogs put points on the board with 1:45 left in the first half when King carried the ball 69 yards for the touchdown. Andalusia’s Courey Hopkins made the extra point. Hopkins was 4-of-5 Friday night in extra-point attempts.

To end the slow first half on a high note, Andalusia’s Lakelyus “Fat Head” Adams intercepted a pass from St. James’ C.J. Duncan.

The defense from the Bulldogs carried the team through in the first half, where the Trojans only totaled 98 yards on offense.

A different team came out of the locker room for the second half, and the players were ready to win the game.

With 7:39 left in the third quarter, King scored his second touchdown of the night from the three-yard line, after the Bulldogs started the scoring drive from the St. James’ 27.

Hopkins made the extra point, and Andalusia took a 14-6 lead.

St. James thought it held the Bulldogs to a punt, but Andalusia faked the punt and put the ball in the hands of Jacard Townsend, who then rushed it 10 yards for the first down.

From then on out, the Bulldogs took control of the game.

Andalusia’s Joseph Flowers scored a 35-yard touchdown run three plays after the fake punt to help his team take a 22-6 lead with 1:38 left in the third quarter.

On the extra point attempt, Andalusia’s Ethan Jones went in for a two-point conversion.

Later, in Andalusia’s next offensive series, King executed a reverse pass play for 31 yards, when he threw it to Wesley Maye down the field to set up a King three-yard touchdown run with 9:13 left in the fourth.

St. James took Duncan out, and replaced him with Taylor Poe at quarterback. On Poe’s fourth snap of the game, Andalusia’s Robert Woodall was waiting for his pass in the field for an interception.

This time, King rushed from the 14-yard line for the score with 5:07 left on the clock to extend Andalusia’s lead to 35-6.

When it looked like St. James was done, the Trojans scrapped together a scoring drive with approximately 3:30 left on the clock when Poe connected with Taylor Wachs from 34 yards out.

On St. James’ kick off, a fumble was recovered by Andalusia’s Quadree Robertson, who then took it back to the house 56 yards for the score.

“Coach (Jonathan) Rasberry keeps those guys — we have some wrinkles and that’s something we work on weekly,” Seymore said. “He has new plans very week. We pulled a fake off tonight and kept our drive going and ended up scoring right there. That was kind of the one that made it the deciding factor as far as putting the game out of reach.”

Andalusia’s defense held its own causing passes to be incomplete, where St. James had to rely on its running play.

Seymore added the credit for the win goes to the coaches.

“The credit goes to our offenseive and defensive coaches,” he said. “They did an excellent job with those adjustments. They challenged our kids to come out and play with some intensity, and they did.

“They answered the challenge at halftime and I’m very proud about that,” he said.

Flowers rushed 45 yards on eight carries and scored one touchdown.

Andalusia senior quarterback Adam Zelensky was 4-of-6 for 20 yards.