Turnover helps Pea Ridge rally past Alma

ALMA — Pea Ridge coach Jeff Williams has coached long enough to know fate has a way of sometimes touching you at just the right time.

That happened Friday during the Blackhawks’ improbable 35-28 victory at Citizens Bank Field at Airedale Stadium.

Down 28-21 and unable to tackle Airedales’ senior Logan Chronister, the Blackhawks were gifted a huge turnover with 11 minutes, 2 seconds to play in the fourth quarter when a poor exchange on first-andgoal at the 5 resulted in a Pea Ridge takeaway at the 6.

And boy, did the Blackhawks respond.

Pea Ridge used an 11-play, 94-yard scoring drive to tie the game on Joe Adams’ 4-yard run. He later scored the goahead score with two minutes left.

“We didn’t have an answer for him (Chronister),” Williams said. “We had a guy get hurt; I had a converted running back playing linebacker … we’re just trying to piece things together. The bottom line is we won the football game.”

“We had a bad exchange going in,” Alma coach Rusty Bush said. “The ball fell on the ground and it just didn’t go our way.”

Alma (1-3, 0-1) took a 28-21 lead on Chronister’s fourth touchdown, a bruising 6-yard burst late in the third quarter.

After getting the ball back, the Airedales marched to the Pea Ridge 5 where the momentum flipped.

Alma finished with 457 total yards. Stacy finished with 76 yards rushing and was 5-of-12 for 74 yards and two interceptions.

Chronister scored in the first half on runs of 20, 25 and 1 yards. He finished with a school-record 281 yards rushing on 33 carries.

Adams led the Blackhawks with 78 yards rushing and three scores. Pea Ridge finished with 377 total yards.

Converted quarterback Zak Withrow threw for 178 yards on 13-of-23 passing. He also ran for 51 yards.