Football: American Leadership hangs on to edge NWC, 24-21

September 16, 2016 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365



American Leadership Academy appeared shell-shocked Friday night when Northwest Christiain's Caleb Egherman returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. 

How does one respond to that? Well, ALA's Bujon Boyd reciprocated by racing 97 yards to paydirt with the next kick to tie the game with only 30 seconds gone. The return was the first of 24 consecutive points by ALA in the first half and guided the Patriots to a 24-21 victory over the previously unbeaten Crusaders in a 3A Conference game at American Leadership in Queen Creek.

ALA, now 4-1 on the season, has played some of the toughest teams 3A has to offer -- Pusch Ridge and Sabino and NWC after Friday's action. NWC lost for the first time and fell to 3-1. The big night offensively was produced another Boyd, ALA running back Jermiah Boyd.

"As it turned out Bujon's kickoff return was huge," ALA coach Rich Edwards said. "To answer like that pumped us up. Jermiah was really good tonight. He was a little banged up, but he made some big runs for us.

"In the second half they played better than we did. We came out flat and it seemed like we ran out of energy."

Bujon Boyd's older brother Jermiah, rushed 20 times for 171 yards unofficially, 109 of those in the first half. Jermiah Boyd and junior Tarrik Workman keyed three scoring drives the rest of the half for ALA after the dueling kickoff returns.

Workman rushed for 41 yards on an 80-yard drive late in the first period that put ALA ahead for the first time and to stay, 14-7. The drive finished with a 13-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matt Nevill to Donovan Hanna.

Jermiah Boyd did nearly all the work on the next possession. His 63-yard run brought ALA into the red zone and two plays later he scored from the 1 to make it 21-7 with 8:57 to go before halftime. Jermiah Boyd's 30-yard run keyed a march that ended with a 27-yard field goal by Talen Rider to make it 24-7 at intermission.

Northwest Christian rebunded on defense from midway in the second period to the end. They held ALA scoreless in he second half and didn't allow the Patroits inside its 30. The Crusaders limited ALA to 76 yards of offense in the second half.

NWC got back into the game in the final period using a blocked punt with seven minutes left. Just more than a minute later, quarterback Tyler Worrell led a four-play, 46-yard march culminating in a 3-yard TD run by Ryan Scheider. 

NWC got the ball back again with 3 /12 minutes left and drove 67 yards for a TD to pull withing 24-21. Worrell passed for 70 yards on the drive, finishing it with a 23-yard TD pass to Caleb Johnson with 1:48 left. Worrell completed 16 of 31 passes for 219 yards.

NWC attempted an onside kick, but Hanna snared it and fell on it and ALA ran out the clock.

Even with the  first loss of the season, NWC coach Dave Inness was not discouraged.

"We played with a lot of heart, and I'll take this team any day," Inness said. "They got the jump on us with some good runs. They were beating us across our face, and we missed some tackles. Their back is quick and you have to get him down...

"I'm not worried about a loss in the third or fourth game of the season. We have 12 new starters. and it takes time. We played a great second half. Now we have to get ready for Yuma Catholic."