9/29/22
Dakota Stallings has been on both sides of the fence. His current view has him and his teammates eyeing the first outright conference championship since 2013.
“It feels awesome,” Stallings said. “We didn’t do too good my sophomore and junior years, but this year I feel like we’re a completely different team. We have the same players, I think we just have better leadership in this team. We have people willing to go out and play.”
The Airedales (4-0, 1-0) travel to Farmington (2-2, 0-1) on Friday.
Stallings, who has quietly amassed 11 tackles, a quarterback sack, and one TFL (tackle for loss), attributes some of the credit to first-year defensive line coach Kirk Benson.
“My sophomore and junior year, we didn’t have anybody who could hype us up,” Stallings said. “Coach Benson has been awesome. As he says, he gets out here and gets our chili hot.
“The rest is up to us.”
Alma has allowed but 54 points through four weeks and 14 of that came against backups in last week’s 41-13 rout of Clarksville.
Quick, Tenacious. The Airedales don’t just click on game nights.
They have some spirited practices, too.
"We're all brothers," Stallings said. "We're out here having fun; we're out here pushing each other.
"We're like one big family."
Like the kids on either side of him, Jaden Mahar and Paul Eubanks, the 5-foot-9, 230-pound Stallings isn’t among the biggest defensive linemen in the conference. This is true of Mahar (6-2, 175) and Eubanks (5-9, 155).
The three of them, however, have accounted for 62 tackles, five quarterback sacks, and 18 TFLs.
“Size really doesn’t matter,” Stallings said. “We play with our hearts; the heart of a lion.”
Both of Stallings’ parents graduated from Alma High School. “It’s kind of like a legacy to go to school here,” he said. “It’s kind of fun to follow in his footsteps. It’s a great school to be at. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”
The Airedales are allowing just 113.5 yards rushing per game, and that number spiked last week when Clarksville running back Arthur Alvarez ripped off a 76-yard TD run in the closing seconds.
“We have great coaches that really push us to our boundaries,” Stallings said. “They might get on to you, but it’s all for the best. Our defense is really eating it up this year.”
Against Farmington, the Airedales will get a team that finds itself on the ropes. The Cardinals dropped their nonconference finale to unbeaten Rogers and opened conference play with a 21-14 loss to Harrison.
Backup quarterback Sam Wells took over at quarterback last week following standout Cameron Vanzant’s foot injury.
The Cardinals still have plenty of weapons, however, including receiver Peyton Funk. He leads the team with 12.6 yards receiving per game and four touchdowns. Possession receiver Lawson DeVault has game-changing speed, too.
He returned a punt 81 yards against Harrison last week.
Running back Russell Hodge is averaging 5.6 yards per carry.
“We knew we had to win the first one (conference game), and going into the Farmington game it is going to be a huge football game,” Alma coach Rusty Bush said. “Them and Harrison, we knew they would be the top two contenders in the conference race. It’s going to be a battle. We’re going to go to their place.
“But our kids are playing with confidence and I feel really good about what we have going.”