ALMA — Garrison Jensen scored five touchdowns to lead Alma to a 42-18 homecoming victory over Farmington at Airedale Stadium on Friday.
Jensen, an all-state linebacker last season, accounted for 230 total yards and scored on three runs and a pair of passes. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 148 yards and finished with 20 hard-charging carries for 82 yards.
“He runs like a linebacker, and sometimes takes too many hits than he needs to,” said Alma coach Doug Loughridge. “One thing about him is he is so smart and has the whole playbook in his hands and knows when to run or pass it. He can do som many different things.”
The Cardinals (2-3, 1-1 5A West) used a fullback trap play to take a 6-0 lead with Jared Oskey breaking off a 56-yard touchdown run. But the Airedales (3-2, 2-0) scored 14 points in each of the final three quarters to steadily pull away.
Farmington’s defense stopped Jensen — at including a pair of sacks by Michael Sellers — and controlled the clock with Caleb Williams rushing 30 times for 120 yards. The Cardinals scored on plays of 56, 68 and 94 yards — a kickoff return by speedster Dimariae Donovan — but couldn’t contain Jensen enough to mount a comeback.
“We couldn’t tackle No. 8,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams. “We were doing a pretty good job against him but there were several times in long yardage situations where he make a pass, or a lot of times he just pulled it down and ran.
“And we just couldn’t get him on the ground.”
Jensen scored on runs of 1, 10 and 22 yards to help build a 21-6 lead by early in the second half. Following Jensen’s first score, Farmington set up to punt from just inside Alma’s territory, but instead tried to pass for the first down.
Farmington quarterback Trey Waggle rolled right like he was going to pooch punt, but then fired back across his body to Xavier Staten. The ball was deflected into Tyler Alexander’s hands, resulting in a 59-yard interception return that set up Jensen’s 10-yard touchdown run and a 14-6 lead early in the second quarter.
“We were arguing on the sidelines whether we needed to stay in our base defense, or punt return,” Loughridge said. “We actually put our base defense out there, Tyler came out and made a big play and nearly took it to the house.”