FAIRMONT — In a game that nearly the entire first half went by before either team illuminated the scoreboard, someone was bound to earn an ugly win.

But it was a win nonetheless.

St. Pauls used a key sequence just before halftime to take the lead, then expanded it in the second half, earning a 35-6 win over Fairmont Friday at Hal S. Floyd Stadium.

“Fairmont always plays us tough, and we respect Fairmont,” St. Pauls coach Mike Setzer said. “Some teams have different types of rivalries, but Fairmont’s a rivalry with us in the fact that they’re a pretty doggone tough football team. We expect it — I didn’t expect it to be 0-0 (just before halftime), but I expected them to have a valiant effort this game.”

St. Pauls (4-3, 2-0 Southeastern Athletic Conference) intercepted four Fairmont passes in the game; two late in the first half each led to a score that gave the Bulldogs a 13-0 halftime lead after a defensive struggle over the first 24 minutes.

Jamarcus Smith returned the first Bulldogs interception to the Fairmont 20-yard line with 2:35 left in the half; that led to seven points when Theophilus Setzer scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper giving St. Pauls a 7-0 lead with 10 seconds on the clock.

Fairmont (1-6, 0-2 Southeastern) tried a long pass on the final play of the first half, but Jayden Barnhill picked off the pass — his second of the game — and returned it 80 yards for a score as time expired. The extra-point failed, but St. Pauls led 13-0 at intermission.

“Football has about an eight-minute window, the last four minutes (of the first half) and the first four (of the second),” Mike Setzer said. “That momentum swing, I felt like, really broke their backs.”

“Our DB coach, Coach (Dominique) Bridges, told us to play palms and I played it perfectly in the middle,” Barnhill said. “I’m glad all my teammates went out there to block, because he was so important about that this week.”

St. Pauls totaled 51 yards of offense in the first half and Fairmont had 40. The teams combined for eight punts, two turnovers on downs and five turnovers — including fumble recoveries by Fairmont’s Jalil Brown and Nehemiah Baker.

“The first half, defensively, we played well together,” Fairmont coach Jeremy Carthen said. “We just couldn’t find our rhythm offensively. However, we stayed together and we kept fighting, and I guess hindsight is 20/20 and we probably should have kneeled that ball and went into the half 7-0.”

The first good scoring opportunity for either side came after Fairmont recovered a botched snap of a St. Pauls punt at the Bulldogs’ 5-yard line. St. Pauls, though, stopped the Golden Tornadoes, with Barnhill recording the pass breakup on fourth down, and Smith’s interception to start the end-half sequence came on the next Fairmont drive.

Fairmont began the second half with a punt and St. Pauls drove 68 yards downfield to find the end zone, scoring with an 8-yard Yoshua McBryde run. McBryde also ran in the two-point try to take a 21-0 lead with 4:34 left in the third.

Fairmont’s Baker returned the kickoff to the St. Pauls’ 21-yard line, and four plays later Gabriel Washington found Tyrek Thompson in the back of the end zone for the Golden Tornadoes’ first points of the game. The two-point try failed, and St. Pauls led 21-6 with 1:50 remaining in the period.

“We just kept fighting, we never quit, and that’s what we can hang our hat on — and basically giving people our best shot and letting the chips fall where they may,” Carthen said. “But for the most part they played their heart out and I’m still proud of them, to be their coach.”

Quintell McNeill scored on a 26-yard touchdown run for St. Pauls, and the extra-point made it a 28-6 game with 10:04 to play.

Chris Bryant intercepted Fairmont on the next play from scrimmage, with a completely open field ahead of him for a 40-yard touchdown return, making it 35-6 at the 9:52 mark.

“All I’ve got to say is, God is good, and my coaches put me in the right spot; he told me it was coming, and it came, and I just did the rest,” Bryant said.

“The turnovers have been huge; we do have to continue to work offensively to get our offense caught up with our defense,” Mike Setzer said. “Our defense is playing lights out.”

Fairmont was held to 79 yards of offense, and 33 rushing yards, for the game.

“Our defense is our core to the team,” Bryant said. “Defense wins championships, and we’ve just got to cut out mistakes. It’s not even big mistakes; it’s the little things is what’s keeping us from being a next-level defense.”

McBryde ran for 80 yards to lead St. Pauls, with McNeill netting 57 yards on just nine carries. Theophilus Setzer completed eight of 16 passes for 58 yards, including three catches for 28 yards by Tykeem Oxendine.

Gabriel Washington, who was named Fairmont’s Homecoming King, rushed for 40 yards and threw for 37 yards for Fairmont.

The game marked the first meeting between first-year Fairmont coach Jeremy Carthen and St. Pauls after Carthen spent the last five seasons as an assistant on Mike Setzer’s staff.

“For the years that I’ve coached, Fairmont, I really see Coach Carthen’s vision and he’s doing a good job,” Mike Setzer said.

With a major showdown against Clinton looming in two weeks, St. Pauls travels to West Bladen next Friday. Fairmont will play its fourth in-county opponent this season when the Golden Tornadoes travel to Red Springs.