JACKSON — The St. Aloysius Flashes scored more points than they have in 30 years, and quarterback Antonio Thompson joined an elite fraternity of Warren County football players by scoring five rushing touchdowns.

And then, because the rules require it, they came back out for the second half.

St. Al scored nine touchdowns and 62 points in the first half Friday night as it crushed Hillcrest Christian 76-14.

It was the first time St. Al (3-6, 3-1 District 3-AAA) has scored more than 60 points in a game since beating Bentonia 62-10 in 1986. It fell just short of the school record of 84 points set in a win over Terry in 1971, mostly because MAIS rules require a running clock once a team is up by 35 or more. St. Al reached that mark midway through the second quarter.

St. Al only ran two offensive plays in the second half, one of which was an 80-yard touchdown run by Ketrez Brown. The second was a 34-yard run by Brown to the Hillcrest 13-yard line with about a minute to go. With the running clock, time expired without the Flashes having to take another snap.

Brown finished with 114 yards and a touchdown on his two carries.

“We needed a game like that before this last one,” said coach Michael Fields, whose Flashes will head into next week’s regular-season finale at Riverfield with a chance to win a share of the District 3-AAA title or a wild card berth in the MAIS Class AAA playoffs. “I think it came at the right time. You don’t want to get too overexcited about it, but it’s great for the kids’ morale for sure.”

Thompson had a historic night as well. He finished with 230 rushing yards and five touchdowns on only 12 carries, making him only the 12th Warren County player since 1923 to rush for at least five touchdowns in one game.

He also threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Connor Bottin on the game’s opening drive, and a 9-yard TD pass to Evan Fedell in the second quarter. Thompson finished the game 8-of-10 passing for 90 yards and two touchdowns.

Thompson scored on runs of 25, 73, 48, 5 and 46 yards — all in the first half.

While the offense was superb, the defense more than held its own. It allowed one quick touchdown drive in the first quarter but otherwise kept Hillcrest (0-9, 0-4) on lockdown.

Jaylen Whitaker had four sacks and the Flashes scored a pair of defensive touchdowns in the second quarter. Garrett Vincent returned an interception 52 yards and Tyler Breithaupt scooped up a fumble and took it 40 yards to the end zone. The two touchdowns were St. Al’s last of the first half, with Breithaupt’s making it 62-8 with 3:19 to go.

St. Al forced four turnovers in the first half and one more in the second. Kieran Theriot added a 35-yard interception return for a TD in the fourth quarter.