MOBILE — UMS-Wright senior running back Troy Dixon rushed for 258 yards on 18 carries and scored five touchdowns to help lead his team to a 47-17 victory over Andalusia on Friday night.

Two-hundred-and-twenty-two of the Samford baseball commit’s yards came in the first half, where UMS led Andy 26-3 at halftime. He scored three touchdowns in the first 24 of the game.

Andalusia found itself trailing 7-0 after the first 16 seconds of the game when Jawon McDowell returned the opening kick off 65 yards for a score.

After that, AHS couldn’t get back in the fold.

“It’s still disappointing,” AHS head football coach Brian Seymore said about the start of the game. “We’re still facing a lot of adversity. We’re still making fundamental mistakes, especially on defense. We missed a lot of tackles and had break downs.”

Seymore credited Dixon for a good night.

“The Dixon kid is a phenomenal back and (UMS-Wright) coach (Terry) Curtis — they do an outstanding job,” he said. “That’s what our kids have got to see. We want to get to the next level. Those are the teams you’ve got to play.”

With this loss, Andalusia falls to 0-2 on the season heading into week three against Trinity Presbyterian to start Class 4A, Region 2 play.

Seymore said the Bulldogs have to start over.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board,” he said. “We’ve got to find guys we can really count on who want to play for us on Friday nights, and start doing the little things right — fundamentals, not turning the ball over and staying locked on blocks. I’m proud of Taylor (Griffin, who came in for an injured Brayden Burkhardt at quarterback). I’m proud of the second half. They came out there and showed some grit there.”

Seymore was referring to the entire second half, where AHS tacked on 14 points, thanks to second-string quarterback Griffin’s spark of energy.

Griffin rushed for a 3-yard touchdown with 1:45 left in the third quarter to cut it to 40-11 with the 2-point conversion.

Andalusia’s Derrick Dorsey tacked on the other touchdown for his team with 7:09 left in the fourth on a 9-yard rush.

Seymore said everything can’t be laid on one player’s shoulders.

“It’s got to be a team effort, from the coaches all the way down to the players,” he said. “We hope this community stays rallied behind these players because we’re going to fight. We’ve got a huge game next week against Trinity. I just hope our kids come out there and compete at a high level because you’re talking about the playoffs.

“We expect to be there and the expectations aught to be there,” he said. “I believe in these kids and football team.”

Burkhardt suffered a rib injury late in the first half after UMS got him on a roughing-the-passer penalty on a 1st-and-10 play.

Chase Hopkins then took over and kicked a 40-yard field goal with 0.0 left in the first half to make it at 23-point ball game.

Griffin finished 8-of-10 for 109 yards in the air and 35 yards rushing. Burkhardt finished 4-of-8 in the air, and had 95 yards rushing.

AHS coughed up three balls for turnovers last night.

For UMS, Dixon punched in his first of two long TD runs with 2:25 left in the first quarter with a 54-harder to cut the lead to 13-0.

After a 6-yard scoring rush with 7:45 left in the second, Dixon added a 96-yard scoring run with 2:43 left in the first half.

On the long scoring run, Dixon said he was thankful he got another chance to run it after Hopkins punted the ball close to 60 yards to the UMS-Wright 2.

“We were on the goal line, but before that, I saw the punt go over my head,” Dixon said. “I was saying alright I’ll get a chance to break a long touchdown. We ran lead right the first play and it got busted up. We ran it again the second play, and I bounced it and came down the (right) sideline.”

At this point, Dixon — who said he gets his trademark diamond cutting moves from his father, Tyrone — cut sharply to the left and found pay dirt.

“I saw a guy had an angle on me,” he said. “I started to think to myself, ‘maybe I should cut back on him and see what happens.’ So I cut back and I saw nothing but green on the left side, so I took that.”

Dixon scored two times in the third quarter from 10 and 6 yards.