The Northwest Christian Crusaders were driving down the field with less than a minute left before half.

With the ball around midfield and down by three, Crusaders coach David Inness thought the worst-case scenario for his team was to still be down by a field goal at the half.

That was until senior defensive back Bujon Boyd perfectly read a pass from senior quarterback Jarin Davis’ pass and flipped on Inness and gave the American leadership Academy Patriots a chance to expand on their slim lead.

The Patriots did not pass up on their chance, scoring a touchdown before the half and rode that momentum to a 48-21 Class 3A non-region game victory.

To start the game, both teams came out and tried to establish the running game, and Inness didn’t mince words how his team failed to do so.

“They were great, and we struggled,” Inness said. “Their run worked, and ours didn’t. It’s pretty simple.”

Senior Jaden Hoyt, who starts on both the offensive and defensive line for the Crusaders (3-1), said the reason Northwest’s run game stalled was lack of execution on blocks.

“They’re a physical team, we’re a physical team,” Hoyt said. “It was a good battle. It was a fun physical game the whole time.”

Despite being down 24-14 and giving up 212 rushing yards by the end of the first half, Davis said the Crusaders felt they were still had a chance to come back and win.

“We got to keep our composure and keep our composure and keep the energy,” Davis said. “We just got to keep battling because we’ve come back from games that before with scores like that.”

But the Patriots (4-1) could smell blood at halftime and went in for the kill in the third and fourth quarters, scoring 17 unanswered points to close out any chance of a Crusaders comeback.

Inness said that just from watching film he knew his team was a little bit behind the Patriots, and he knew that starting 15 underclassmen wouldn’t help that fact.

All of these factors resulted in a performance to remember for the Patriots, who racked up 291 yards on the ground and 272 in the air.

This gave the defending 3A champions 563 yards of total offense while only allowing 204 yards throughout the game.

However, Northwest Christian was ready to turn the page on this game shortly after it ended Inness said, as the team was scheduled to start watching film at noon on Saturday for its next game against Yuma Catholic High School.

“There’s mad respect, and the boys compete like nobody’s business,” Inness said. “Nothing has to be said about who we’re playing next week.”

Hoyt echoed Inness’ statements and said the Crusaders need to start working on a game plan for Yuma Catholic.

Inness said the Crusaders are planning to make their presence felt when they travel to Yuma next week, bringing two fans buses to fill up the visitors’ bleachers.

“Yuma and Northwest Christian have two of the better programs over the last 10 years in the state,” Inness said. “It’s amazing. It’s nuts when we play Yuma. We love it.”