FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WKRG) — This week’s Zaxby’s Player of the Week is St. Michael quarterback Josh Murphy!
Murphy threw for 272 yards and 2 touchdowns last Thursday while leading the Cardinals to it’s first ever region win against 8th ranked Jackson.
“We just played hard. We talked about it for all week, and we just said play harder than they played, and I thought we did,” Head Coach Philip Rivers said. “And we certainly caught some breaks but Josh played really well along with a lot of the other guys. But I thought his boys throughout the whole game made some huge plays, but also just managed the whole thing. We had one turnover but other than that we didn’t have many penalties and he managed everything well a lot of guys played well it was a great team win.”
“It was a great win, the first region win. I was really excited to say the least,” Murphy said. “I jumped into my coaches’ arms and stuff like that. But it was just fun. We had a big crowd there, and it was great to run to the student section, and everyone was really excited.”
Following the win, St. Michael has earned a spot in the state rankings for the first time in school history. The Cardinals are ranked 10th in Class 4A.
“Even though I haven’t been there the previous four years, the excitement and seeing the kids last week like that, winning their first region game, some of the first for them,” Rivers said. “We have players of the week some of the coaches were like ‘we’re not used to this, because we haven’t won.’ So we have a long way to go but there’s a different belief and confidence that these kids have and you only get it from winning.”