Alma runs down an outright title

ALMA — Malachi White danced and laughed with his teammates, his mud-caked jersey making his No. 23 nearly invisible, as Alma celebrated its first outright conference title since 2004 following a 37-14 victory against Shiloh Christian on Friday in Airedale Stadium.

White scored three touchdowns and Alma (8-2, 7-0 5A-West) took advantage of three Shiloh Christian turnovers to claim the No. 1 seed for next week’s Class 5A state playoffs.

“We did the same thing we’ve done all season,” Alma Coach Doug Loughridge said. “The offensive line took over, and Malachi took over.”

Three turnovers in the first half were too much for the Saints (6-3-1, 5-2) to overcome. Shiloh Christian threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, giving Alma a short field for touchdown drives of 52, 38 and 36 yards.

The 21-0 deficit was more than enough against the injury-plagued Saints. Shiloh Christian was playing without running back Chandler Smith and lost center Austin Connolly during the game.

“You have to protect the football,” said Saints Coach Josh Floyd, who was denied in his bid to reach 100 career victories in his 10th season. “We hurt ourselves a lot with penalties and turnovers. We really killed ourselves. We had so many second-and-20s and first-and-20s. It’s hard to come back from that.”

MORRILTON 50, CLARKSVILLE 13

MORRILTON — Quarterback Toney Hawkins threw for five touchdowns and ran for one more as Morrilton (8-2, 6-1) hammered Clarksville (3-7, 2-5).

Morrilton scored 21 consecutive points in the first quarter and went to the half leading 43-6.

Rashad Criswell had three touchdown catches. Kieran Cole and Reese Heidenreich also caught a touchdown pass.