Loughridge, Daily help Alma to a key 5A-West road victory
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
Alma quarterback Jay Lemieux threw three more touchdown passes in Alma’s 27-14 win over Morrilton Friday night.
But it wasn’t record-breaking receiver Dylan Jackson on the receiving end.
Senior Hudson Loughridge, who had just six receptions in the previous seven games, caught nine of Lemieux’s 20 completions for 112 yards and three touchdowns in the win.
“I think this puts us in a great position to make the playoffs,” Loughridge said. “Jay really hooked me up, and the offensive line played really great, and our defense came up with multiple spots. With D.J. (Jackson) getting double-covered because he's such a good receiver, that opens up space for me and Quinton (Broadway). I thought everybody played well tonight, and I couldn’t do it without the other 10 guys out there.”
Lemieux threw for 185 yards and added to the single-season touchdown record of 25 with TD throws to Loughridge of 2, 20, and 26 yards.
Broadway had a career-best nine receptions for 63 yards. Jackson, who was doubled and sometimes triple covered, caught two short passes for 10 yards.
Leading 14-7 after three quarters of play, junior running back Dallas Perkins ripped off a 58-yard touchdown run on Alma’s first play of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 21-7.
Perkins ran for 152 yards on 25 carries, helping him become Alma’s first 1,000-yard rusher since Garrison Jensen in 2017 — and the first running back to do so since Malachi White ran for 1,134 yards in 2013.
While the offense more than did enough, Alma’s upstart defense played well for the second week in a row, limiting the Devil Dogs to just two touchdowns, the second one coming in the final minute of play.
“Seeing your guys have success is fun,” Alma defensive coordinator Josh Salsbury said. “Also, for your assistant coaches, watching their guys have success is fun. As a coordinator, you want to try and stay away and let your assistant coaches coach. They did a great job with that tonight.”
Junior linebacker Barron Daily had another monster game for the Airedales, sacking both of Morrilton's quarterbacks, Ja’Kobe Chambers and Maddox Turnipseed, twice and leading the team with 11 tackles and three tackles for loss.
“Coach (Thomas) Mata’s done a great job with him,” Salsbury said. “He had a little experience coming into this season, but every game he tends to be more and more explosive.”
“Barron’s really come on,” head coach Jeremie Burns said. “He and coach Mata are always watching film together, and he’s really reading the pulling guards and getting a good angle on the running backs.”
Burns praised the team’s assistant coaches, many of whom didn’t get on campus until early June.
“To get such a late start on offense and defense, these guys have pieced it together and put the players in the right spots,” Burns said. “These guys (Dardanelle and Morrilton) have been scoring lots of points, and to come in and shut them down like we have the last two weeks, I’m super proud of coach Salsbury and coach (Josh) Driscoll, (Drake) Snyder and coach Mata have been putting in the time and breaking it down. Those guys deserve a bunch of credit. They’ve got the kids motivated and playing really well right now.”
Driscoll (safeties) and Snyder (cornerbacks) coach the defensive backs, and Mata coaches the linebackers.
Linebacker Izaac Plourde leads the defense with 97 tackles, with Andrew Bush collecting 90 stops. Daily and Tristan Nutt have combined for 25 of Alma’s 58 TFLs (tackles for loss), with Blanden Lowrence and Loughridge adding six and five TFLs, respectively.
With two games left, the Airedales are very much in the thick of the post-season hunt.
“It’s always a blessing to be in the running for the playoffs,” Salsbury said. “Playoff football is special, no matter where you are. Going into next week, you’re fighting for another day.”