Gatorade Player of the Year Ryan Strachan flanked by his parent, Nancy & Eddie Strachan,

Assistant Principal Marty McRae (l), and Varsity Boys Soccer Coach Paul Stroud.

Pirates upend Rdale in KFTM

Shootout Shutout by Pearson

Exclusive video of the Shootout here.

Fairhope, AL - Fairhope's Gatorade Kid scored in the first four minutes of the first half to tie the Alabama High School Career Goal record at 143 in Friday night's match against Robertsdale High School at W.C. Major's Field in Fairhope. Despite out shooting the Bears, the Pirates were unable to notch another score. It's good that Ryan Strachan got that one when he did (assisted by Drew Dolan) because the Golden Bears hunkered down and did not allow another Fairhope score in regular time and two overtime periods.

The always dangerous Zack Hadley evened the score for Robertsdale when he found the back of the net with ten minutes gone in the second half. Credit Justin Boyington for the assist.

"Coach B.D. Daughtery's squad was well prepared to neutralize our attack," Pirate coach Paul Stroud said after the game. "I give a lot of credit to his boys. They played their hearts out. But our boys played hard, too."

And after eighty minutes of regulation time and two-five minute overtimes, the score stood 1-1.

Kicks from the mark (KFTM) began with Fairhope captain Jordan Sinclair who drilled the ball off the bottom edge of the top bar and over the line for the point.

The "ole mind reader" Pirate keeper Steve Pearson accurately read the Bears first kicker and blocked his shot.

The G-Kid stepped up and calmly placed the ball in the right corner of the net for a 2-0 mark.

The Amazing Pearsoni sharpened his mental telepathy again and beat the Robertsdale kicker to the spot. Still 2-0.

Junior Brian Keyser stepped forward and sent the ball to the back right corner as the keeper guessed left.

Pearson stepped forward for the third time and found his line. He did not need to move as the third Bear sent the ball through the uprights and the Pirates came away with the 2-1 victory and first place in 6A section 2.

The Pirates are back in section play and facing the very dangerous Bears again next Friday at 7:30 pm at Robertsdale.

Game photos here. All game summaries here. KFTM video here.