Double-O steals the show for Airedales

Olaf Olsson had never played American football until a month ago. A few short weeks later and he’s the big man on campus this week at Alma.

Olsson, an exchange student from Sweden, kicked a 38-yard field goal with 18 seconds left in the game to give the Airedales a 29-28 win against Morrilton on Friday. The kick was significant for a number of reasons. It lifted Alma (1-5, 1-2 5A-West) to its first win of the season, and it was Olsson’s first field-goal attempt — ever.

“Olaf got here probably the first or second week of school,” Alma coach Doug Loughridge said. “The only thing he’d ever played is soccer. When he came out, we had to teach him how to put a helmet on, how to put pads on and all those things. We tried to explain to him that we’re trying to kick this ball from this tee through those uprights. We had to explain what uprights were.”

An injury to Alma’s regular kicker thrust Olsson onto the field Friday night with the Airedales trailing Morrilton 28-26. Earlier in the game, Olsson had missed an extra-point kick, and Loughridge had another player handle the kicking after that. But with the game on the line, Loughridge had no choice but to tap Olsson on the shoulder.

“We knew we had to go with him because of how strong his leg is,” Loughridge said. “It was really just a shot in the dark, and he ended up drilling it.”

Loughridge said he turned his back to the field so he would not see Olsson’s kick. But the other coaches on the sideline told Loughridge, “yeah, we’re watching it.”

When the ball sailed end-overend through the uprights, the Alma sideline exploded, Loughridge said.

“I still don’t think he knows what he did,” Loughridge said. “(Morrilton) called a time-out to ice him, and he came over to the sideline and said, ‘Why won’t they let me kick?’ He had no clue.”

After a brutal nonconference schedule and two tough conference losses, the Airedales are hopeful their clutch play from an unknown commodity might be the kick the team needs to go on a run to the playoffs.

Alma travels to Clarksville this week.