Alma rallies past Rogers Heritage

ALMA — After a half of defensive struggles, Alma turned the tables on Rogers Heritage in the final two quarters.

The Airedale defense only allowed 53 yards and forced two turnovers in the second half as Alma got a pair of second-half scores to hold off Rogers Heritage 28-27 in a nonconference game Friday night.

Connor Stacy scored both second-half touchdowns for Alma (1-2), including a 44-yard touchdown reception from Joe Trusty with 11 minutes, 50 seconds left. That score, along with Devin Ramos’ extra point, was the difference in the game.

“Resiliency. That is what Alma football is all about,” Alma Coach Rusty Bush said. “I told them at halftime that we will get some stops and we will score twice. I am so proud of the performance of the kids.”

Stacy, who also scored on a 1-yard run midway in the third quarter, finished with a school record 15 catches for 216 yards.

“People are going to look at him and say he is just 6-foot tall and 160 pounds, but I am telling you he is one of the best players in the state. He said Wednesday that he was going to have 200 yards and that is what he did.”

The War Eagles (0-3) dominated the first half offensively, scoring 27 points and rolling up 340 yards in building a 2714 halftime lead. Running back Eli Craig rushed for 213 yards on 11 carries in the first half with 3 touchdowns to carry Heritage to a 27-14 halftime lead.

His lone first-half reception was a 27-yard catch and run for a first-and-goal and he scored three players later from the Alma 3 with just 16 seconds left in the half.

Craig, though, just had six carries for 26 yards in the second half as the Airedale defense stiffened. The offense also kept the ball away from the War Eagles.

“We couldn’t tackle [Craig] in the first half,” Bush said.

“We had some misalignments, but he is a stud. We got to halftime and were able to fix the alignment.”

Alma opened the second half with an 80-yard, 14-play drive, capped by Stacy’s 1-yard keeper with 5:37 left in the third period.

After stopping Heritage and forcing a punt, the Airedales went 80 yards again, scoring on the first play of the fourth quarter on the Trustyto-Stacy scoring pass.

From there, the defense held on to the lead, though Heritage did move the ball in position to score twice in the fourth quarter.

The War Eagles marched to the Airedale 30, only to have quarterback Carter Hensley stripped of the ball and Brady Noyes recover at the Alma 36 with 8:54 left.