Late first-half push leads Alma to victory

ALMA — Alma took a big step toward the 5A-West Conference championship Friday night, making the most of the final two minutes before halftime.

Alma scored twice just before the break to take the lead and went on to post a 34-15 victory against Greenbrier at Airedale Stadium, giving the Airedales sole possession of first place in the league standings with one game remaining.

“We got a piece of the conference title right now,” Alma coach Doug Loughridge said. “We need to now win it outright next week (against Maumelle). We have to have another great week and build on this for the playoffs.”

Greenbrier took an early lead with a field goal, but Alma finished the first half strong to take a 13-3 advantage heading into the break.

The Airedales scored twice in the final two minutes of the second quarter with the help of a fourth-down stop and a fumble recovered by Coltin Bowerman.

Alma needed to go just 45 yards and did so on nine plays to take a 6-3 lead with 1 minute, 21 seconds left in the second quarter after the turnover on downs. Senior quarterback Garrison Jensen found senior wide receiver Brayden Johnson for the 4-yard touchdown before the missed extra point.

Greenbrier on the next drive lost the ball on a firstplay fumble, and Alma took advantage of the short field. The Airedales went 44 yards, with Jensen ending the drive on a 23-yard touchdown pass to senior Dillion Crims to extend the lead to 13-3 with just 30 seconds left in the first half.

“The turnovers kind of got us,” Greenbrier coach Randy Tribble said. “We haven’t been turning the ball over at all the last four games. We kind of imploded after that. The score before halftime took a little more out of us than it should’ve.”

Alma turned the ball over twice with an interception

and a fumble to open the game, but Greenbrier was only able to turn those possessions into a 45-yard field goal from senior Ethan Hall.

“Our kids didn’t panic at all,” Loughridge said. “We’ve been down this year before. We let the bad things happen and we just play the next play.

The Airedales took the opening kickoff after halftime and used a seven-play, 59-yard touchdown drive to open up a 20-3 lead with a 37-yard touchdown run from senior Tyler Alexander.

“We felt good going into halftime,” Loughridge said. “We have been a second-half team all year so we felt good after that. We always preach getting the ball and scoring right after halftime and things went the way we needed them to.”

Jensen finished 14 of 24 passing for 125 yards with two touchdowns while adding 56 rushing yards on eight carries. He also had a 49-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that extended the lead to 34-9 in the fourth quarter.

Alexander finished with 13 carries for 69 yards with a touchdown. Johnson had 6 catches for 22 yards including two touchdowns for Alma.

Greenbrier was able to find some the end zone twice in the second half behind a strong performance from senior Spencer Sutterfield. He finished with 19 carries for 137 yards with two touchdowns.

Greenbrier, which snapped a four-game winning streak, was limited to a season-low 15 points on offense and finished with two fumbles and one interception.

“This was our best defensive performance of the year,” Loughridge said. “Going against these guys nobody has slowed down all year, we were a little worried. But we were able to get pressure and turnovers.”