ALMA — Alma punched its ticket to the Class 5A playoffs Friday night with a 34-10 victory against Siloam Springs at Airedale Stadium.
The Panther saw their own postseason hopes take a crushing blow.
Alma rushed for 309 yards and overpowered the Panthers with four touchdowns in the second half in a pivotal 5A-West Conference game for both teams.
The Airedales (7-2, 5-1) can win the conference championship next Friday with a victory at Greenwood and earn the West’s No. 1 seed entering the state playoffs.
“That [win] got us in, but we don’t know where we’re at yet,” Alma Coach Todd Dilbeck said. “We’ll know more next Friday night.”
Siloam Springs (5-4, 3-3) faces a must-win situation next Friday at Morrilton and needs Vilonia to win at Greenbrier on Thursday to qualify for the playoffs. A Greenbrier victory would eliminate Siloam Springs.
“We blew chances,” Siloam Springs Coach Bryan Ross said. “We had opportunities, and we didn’t take advantage of them. You just can’t do that against good football teams.”
The game changed in the second quarter. Leading 7-0 and driving for more, Siloam Springs quarterback Braden Pippin was stuffed on a fourth-and-1 play as Siloam Springs turned the ball over on downs.
Alma capitalized by driving 92 yards for a touchdown, aided by a 17-yard fake punt run by Brooks Mauldin and a 34-yard touchdown pass from Brady Bradley to Ethan Brewer. Alma’s kick failed, and the Airedales trailed 7-6 at halftime.
Alma got the ball to startthe second half and Bradley hit Corey Savage for a 75-yard pass down to the Siloam Springs 2. Isaac McCoy, who rushed for 144 yards on 21 carries, carried in from the 1 to give Alma a 12-7 lead. The Airedales converted the twopoint try to make it 14-7.
Siloam Springs answered with Pablo Castillo’s field goal to start the fourth quarter, and it looked as if the Panthers had executed an onside kick to get the ball back but officials ruled Siloam Springs illegally touched the ball before it had gone 10 yards and Alma was awarded the football.
The Airedales then ran it six consecutive times for 51 yards, capped by a 4-yard run from Kansas commitment Jason Hensley to go up 21-10.
Pippin was intercepted on Siloam Springs’ next possession and the Airedales ran it back for a score, but a penalty brought it back to the 13.
Hensley punched it in again for Alma to go up 28-10.
Ryan Saunders added an 11-yard run later in the fourth to set the final score.
“In the second half we stepped it up,” Dilbeck said. “We told our kids at halftime we started clicking in the second quarter. Our defense stepped up and had a couple of great stops, but offensively we did some great things.”
Bradley, starting in place of Austin McCourt, went 4 of 9 passing for 112 yards.
Sports, Pages 27 on 10/30/2010