In a rough and tumble 3A Conference quarterfinal playoff game, the American Leadership Academy Patriots beat the Florence Gophers 38-21.

The Patriots scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to break open a tied game. Six of those points came on a screen pass from quarterback Dallin Edwards to Bujon Boyd, who slipped a few tackles to find the end zone, giving the Patriots the lead for good.

Midway through the fourth quarter, after three personal fouls in the span of two minutes, tempers from the American Leadership parents began to flare as they started to scream at the Florence coaches in the American Leadership press box.

At one point, a sheriff on the field went to calm down the two groups. The Gophers racked up eight personal fouls, two of which left Edwards face down for an extended period of time.

“It was just two football teams playing hard, one not wanting to lose, maybe a little desperate to change the momentum for them,” Patriots head coach Rich Edwards said.

Florence head coach Scott Howard said, “A good high school football game. Good, tough, physical.”

American Leadership’s star running back Jermiah Boyd left the game with an injury and didn’t return, but backup running back Tarrik Workman helped put the game away.

“(An assistant coach) and I talked and we decided to give (Workman) a chance to run our plays,” Edwards said. “Let’s run our offense like we normally do, and that’s when Tarrik stepped up big.”

Workman responded by making a few long runs and a scoring touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots held a halftime lead well into the third quarter until the 4:43 mark, when Gophers’ running back Nolan Susel broke loose for a 35-yard touchdown that knotted the game at 21 points apiece.

“We just didn’t execute enough,” Howard said. “When you play a good team like that, you have to execute and we just didn’t do it at times and we left too many plays out on the field.”

The game started with both teams playing great football, matching each other touchdown for touchdown. The Gophers finished the first quarter on a high note when quarterback Jared Wood completed a long pass play to Ramazees Severe to take the lead.

The 12-1 Patriots responded just two minutes into the second quarter and tied the game at 14 on a 21-yard touchdown run by Boyd. Later in the quarter, the Patriots took a seven-point lead on a 55-yard pass from Edwards to tight end Donavan Hanna.

That would be one of the few passes that Edwards completed.

“Honestly, I had a rough time passing the ball,” Edwards said. “I was getting kind of skittish in the pocket, wasn’t really trusting my o-line, which I should have because they were holding it down.”

The Patriots will head to Williams Field High School next week to play the No. 7 seed, Northwest Christian in the 3A semifinals.

The two teams met earlier this season, with the Patriots narrowly winning 24-21.