Cards encounter monster game from Alma QB

Airedales ring up 56-35 win over Farmington

ALMA — Farmington fans wish Alma senior quarterback Jackson Daily would have picked somebody else to turn in their performance of a lifetime against.

But wishing won’t make Daily’s 320-yard, 6-touchdown personal highlight reel on 26 carries to set a school record go away as the Cardinals absorbed a 56-35 loss in 5A West play Friday.

As if that wasn’t enough, Daily also completed 12 of 16 passes for 156 yards and another touchdown, leading the Airedale offense to a school record 650 yards of total offense. Daily ran in a pair of first quarter touchdowns of 5 and 3 yards, then added a 12-yard run midway through the second quarter.

The incredible feat’s enhanced by the fact that Alma found itself minus three offensive linemen and played its third string center to finish the game. Daily wasn’t the only Airedale on a roll. Alma senior running back Carlos Gonzalez added 181 yards on 14 carries. Wide receiver Samuel Schlegel caught 7 passes for 135 yards, while Drake Stogsdill had 3 catches for 15 yards and a touchdown.

Although the defense gave up 49 points, Farmington offensive lineman Truitt Rowland refused to place the blame on them.

“It’s a team loss. It wasn’t just one facet of the game. If our offense goes down, the defense has to pick it up, and if the defense goes down, some other aspect has to pick it up,” Rowland said.

In the face of this rising tide, Farmington produced enough offense with sophomore quarterback Ayden Lester completing 17 of 30 passes for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns and running back Luke Elsik (12 carries, 76 yards, 2 touchdowns), along with receivers Akin Johnson (2 catches, 67 yards, 1 touchdown) and Hunter Reaves (4 catches, 50 yards, 1 touchdown) to stay in the game for awhile.

Elsik scored on a 31-yard run in the first quarter and Charlie Mobley added a 1-yard touchdown run to pull Farmington within 2114 at the 4:42 mark of the second quarter.

The Cardinals needed a defensive stop, but couldn’t slow down the Airedales’ offensive proficiency. Daily capped a drive by passing to Drake Stogsdill for a 5-yard touchdown. Kaydin Minshull kicked the P.A.T. and Alma took a 28-14 lead with 11 seconds to play before the half.

Daily sprang long touchdown jaunts of 76 and 90 yards in the second half and padded his total with a 1-yard scoring carry. Alma junior Ashton Chanhnouvong returned an interception 51 yards for a defensive score on a play where another Airedale defensive back laid a blindside hit on a Farmingon receiver that Cardinal fans thought should have merited a “targeting” penalty.

Lester found Reaves for a 24-yard touchdown completion in the third quarter and connected with Johnson on a 46-yard score in the fourth. In between, Elsik scored from a yard out.

The Cardinals play at home this week, hosting Dardanelle for Homecoming.

Rowland said the team doesn’t want all the distractions to get in the way of their performance Friday.

“We want to win. It’s just like any other game. We will be focused on the game,” Rowland said.

Center Hunter Marshall said the plan is to regroup.

“We’ll focus on keeping everybody together, keep the right mindset and be working together,” Marshall said.