10/10/22
Alma coach Rusty Bush had a feeling the team might start slow against Pea Ridge.
He was right.
But Joe Trusty threw for 186 yards and three touchdowns, the defense forced three turnovers, and Alma throttled Pea Ridge for its fifth win in six games.
The Airedales (5-1, 2-1) travel to Harrison Friday.
“We struggled a little this week early trying to get out of the Farmington funk,” Alma coach Rusty Bush said. “We struggled to get through that. (But) defensively we picked it up, I was really pleased that we got to come home. Our student section was awesome; that really kind of pushed us through.”
The Airedales, 4-0 at home, will play three of their final four games on the road, beginning with Harrison.
The Goblins (2-3, 1-2) have allowed 101 points over the last two weeks - the most points they’ve given up on consecutive weekends since 2014, when Siloam Springs (47-35) and Alma (53-16) combined for 100 points on Sept. 12 and Sept. 19 of that year, respectively.
Alma, which has a critical home finale with Prairie Grove on Oct. 21, hasn’t won at Harrison since 2017.
Against Pea Ridge, whom the Airedales hung 55 on in 2021, the slow-starting Airedales poured it on with three second-quarter touchdowns.
Two turnovers helped Alma grab a 13-0 lead on TD runs from Carlos Gonzalez and Israel Towns-Robinson.
Trusty then threw the first of three second-quarter TD passes to Gonzalez to make it 21-0. Junior Demetrius Parish hauled in a 58-yarder to give the Airedales a 28-0 cushion.
After Pea Ridge got on the board, Drake Stogsdill weaved his way across the field with a 45-yard TD reception that gave the Airedales a 35-7 halftime cushion.
“Last week we were all kind of down,” Trusty said. “(But) we worked hard in practice all week and came out here and won by a lot.”
Trusty’s first three-TD game of the season gives him 26 touchdown passes for his career. He’s 18 yards shy of eclipsing the 3,000-yard mark.
Defensively, Cash Farris and Dillon Flanagan had seven tackles apiece. The Airedales forced six TFLs (tackle for loss), and sophomore Byron Standridge recorded his first quarterback sack of his career.
Kaydin Minshull, who booted a 32-yard field goal in the final half, set up the team’s second touchdown with his second interception of the season. Farris and Jaden Mahar also recovered fumbles.
Through six games, the Airedales’ defensive unit has forced 14 turnovers and collected 44 TFLs. The Airedales had but 30 in 2021.