Aaden Shamburger threw three touchdown passes Friday night, and Spanish Fort erased a 20-point Daphne lead to ruin the Trojans homecoming with a 35-27 come-from-behind win at Jubilee Stadium.

Shamburger threw a pair of touchdowns — including the game-tying one — to Justin Bonner and another to Nemo Hixon. The 6A Toros improved to 4-2 and outscored their 7A Eastern Shore rivals in the final two periods, 28-0.

Daphne dropped to 3-3.

“We just came out in the second half and trusted our quarterback more, and knew he was going to get us the ball,” said Hixon amidst a wild Spanish Fort celebration on the field.

Was he feeling it?

“I’m always feeling it when I’m touching the ball,” he said with a sly smile. “They tried to play me one-on-one, and everybody in the state knows you can’t do that on me.”

Shamburger was feeling it himself in the final two periods and finished 15-of-21 for 173 yards and an interception.

What did Spanish Fort Coach Chase Smith say to his kids at halftime that got them so fired up?

“We just told them we’ve played about as bad as we can play, and we’re a lot better than that,” said a jubilant Smith, between hoisting the trophy given to the winner of this game. We challenged them, and they accepted the challenge. I couldn’t be prouder of them.

“We called the same plays and the same game plan with a minor adjustment here and there, but they just dug in and showed the heart that I knew they had and I’m just so proud of them.”

Ironically, Spanish Fort also wiped out a 15-0 Daphne halftime lead in last year’s game on The Hill to walk away with an 18-15 victory.

Daphne’s 3-star junior quarterback Jamar Malone was lights out in the first half, completing 12-of-16 passes that included a pair of TD tosses. He also ran one in from 29 yards out.

But the second half was a different story altogether, and he finished the game 16-of-24 for 169 yards.

CJ Gardner hauled in a 4-yard TD pass from Malone, Nick Clark ran in from 22 yards out and Malone hit Hayden McLaurin with a 5-yard scoring pass for Daphne’s other scores.

A.J. Sampson was good on three of four PAT’s.

Drew Williamson added a 1-yard run for the Toros, while Sawyer Wilson scored from 8 yards out.

Play of the Game: Actually, there were two … a pair of shanked punts for 9 and 16 yards in the second half by Trojans punter Nathan Varela that the Toros turned into 14 points and touched off their wild comeback.

By The Numbers: 80 — Number of penalty yards amassed by Spanish Fort; 10 — Number of wins by the Toros in their 12 meetings with Daphne.

Game ball: Spanish Fort defense, with linebacker Bishop Burkhalter snuffing out any chance the Trojans might’ve had when his fumble recovery with 1:05 left at the Daphne 48 closed the door.

They Said It: “At the end of the day, we had opportunities and we didn’t finish. We came out in the second half, and we didn’t do anything we needed to do. We’ve just got to be better.” — Daphne coach Kenny King.

Next week: Spanish Fort swings back into 6A, Region 1 action next week when it hosts St. Paul’s. After a week off, Daphne resumes 7A, Region 1 play against Fairhope.