Russellville pulls away from Alma

ALMA — Russellville football coach Jeff Weaver admitted his team felt a little frustrated after four possessions inside the Alma 10 in the first half and no touchdowns to show for it.

Quarterback Rhett Adkins took care of that in the second half as he threw for a touchdown and ran for another as the Cyclones rolled to a 31-0 nonconference victory over Alma at Airedale Stadium.

“We’ve struggled offensively early, especially in the red zone,” Weaver said. “It’s very frustrating, but we knew if we kept running the football good things would happen. We’re frustrated after the first half, but very excited we came out in the second half and finished the way we should.”

Alma, off to its first 0-3 start since 2007, can share some of those frustrations. The Airedales made a fourthand-goal stand at the 3, only to have a false start and give up a safety for a 5-0 Russellville lead.

Alma then had the ball inside the Russellville 40 on two occasions in the first half, only to have drives end with a fumble and an interception on a fourth-down play.

“There was just a mixture of a lot of things,” Alma coach Doug Loughridge said. “I thought we came out strong defensively and had some good series. We made them drive down the field and did some of the things we needed to do.

“We just couldn’t get it done offensively. I think Russellville had a lot to do with that. Going into the game, I thought Russellville had a stout defense, but I thought we could do some of the things we needed to do. We just wore down late, and with playing up against 6A

and 7A schools, you see the difference in the number of players.”

Connor Cooper had three first-half field goals for Russellville (2-1), beginning with a 24-yard kick on the Cyclones’ opening drive. He later added a 20-yard field goal with 3 minutes, 31 seconds before halftime, then kick a 34-yarder as time expired in the first half.

Adkins, who threw for 202 yards in the first half, engineered a fast eight-play, 54-yard drive and capped it with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jaidon Palmer with 10 minutes left in the third quarter. Russellville caught a break when Alma’s Peyton Canfield fumbled after intercepting a pass by backup quarterback Brayden Whitford, then Adkins ran 15 yards for the score on the next play.

Russellville then capped its scoring when Whitford hit Landon LeFevre with an 18-yard touchdown pass with 3:58 remaining.

“We talked at halftime about some things we should have seen,” Weaver said. “It came right to it in the end zone and got the confidence going there. The defense was playing so well that once we got our confidence on offense, we felt pretty good.”

Both teams now head to conference play next week, with Alma hosting Vilonia in 5A-West action while Russellville hosts 6A-West foe Benton.