An ankle sprain ended the running back duel between St. Aloysius’ DeMichael Harris and Pisgah’s T.J. McGinnis early Friday night.

So, McGinnis took it upon himself to provide all of the highlights.

McGinnis ran for 223 yards and three touchdowns in the second half, finished with 253 yards and four TDs in the game, and led Pisgah to a 52-27 win over St. Al in the Flashes’ home opener.

“I’ve just got to get my feet up under me. Running backs, you’ve got to get as many carries as you can to get into the game. I’m more of a second-half player, but they played some great defense. We just got it done in the second half,” McGinnis said.

The loss dropped St. Al, last year’s MHSAA Class 1A runner-up, to 0-2 this season. The Flashes have given up 83 points in their two games and didn’t get much offense going until garbage time of this one.

Connor Bottin ran for 119 yards and a touchdown and also returned a kickoff for a touchdown for St. Al, and quarterback Will Pierce was 12-of-20 passing for 174 yards and two touchdowns.

St. Al, though, fell behind by 34 points early in the fourth quarter before padding some of its stats against Pisgah’s backups.

“Football is full of life lessons. This is just a low valley. We’ve got to dig our way out of it and go,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “That’s why you play sports. Everybody wants to be a part of it when you’re winning. Now we’re going to see who’s ready to fix it.”

The anticipated duel between McGinnis and Harris, both 2,000-yard rushers last season, never materialized. Harris had one carry for four yards on St. Al’s opening possession, then got his ankle rolled up on while making a tackle on defense on Pisgah’s first drive.

Harris did not return, although he was walking around without any assistance by the end of the game. He planned to have his ankle examined today and his status for next week’s home game against catholic school rival Madison-St. Joseph is uncertain.

St. Al struggled without its biggest offensive weapon. It only had 93 yards of offense in the first half and went into the locker room trailing 7-6. Pierce threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Josh Brown with 5:28 left in the second quarter, but kicker Casey Griffith missed the PAT — ending a streak of 76 consecutive successful attempts.

Griffith’s lone PAT attempt last week at Cathedral was snuffed out before he kicked it, and isn’t considered a miss.

“If (Harris is) out a week or two, we’ve got to have people step up and ready to play. We’ve just gotta get after it,” Smithhart said. “He’s a pretty tough kid. You hate it for him. He’s had a rough start to his senior year.”

With Harris out of the game, McGinnis had the spotlight to himself and stole it.

The senior only had 30 yards on 11 carries in the first half, then nearly topped that number by going for 25 on the first play of the second half. Three plays later he weaved through the middle of St. Al’s defense for a 54-yard touchdown and a 14-6 lead.

St. Al got to the 1-yard line on its next possession before a holding penalty and a sack led to a missed field goal. When Pisgah got the ball back at its own 20, McGinnis again ripped through St. Al’s defense for an 80-yard TD.

McGinnis added a 21-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter to give Pisgah a 34-6 lead, then sat down for the rest of the night.

“The second half was more snaps to me,” said McGinnis, who did most of his damage while taking direct snaps at quarterback. “Their defensive line was real good and got to the ball real quick. So the quicker we do get the ball the better.”

Although McGinnis was on the bench, the offensive fireworks didn’t stop. The teams combined for seven touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including on three consecutive plays. Four of the seven touchdowns covered 50 yards or more.

After a 54-yard touchdown run by Don Ragsdale gave Pisgah a 40-6 lead, Bottin returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a score. St. Al kicked off and Ragsdale returned the favor, going 96 yards to make it 46-13.

Pierce threw a 5-yard TD pass to Brandon Teller and Bottin had a 13-yard TD run down the stretch. Pisgah’s Noah Thweatt had a 65-yard run to round out the scoring.