American Leadership Academy continued its climb in football Saturday afternoon with another milestone in its brief history.

The Patriots jumped on top of Northwest Christian quickly and were never threatened in posting a 41-21 victory over the Crusaders in a 3A semifinal contest at Williams Field High School.

American Leadership (12-1) plays for its first championship on Saturday (Nov. 26) at 6:30 p.m. at Chaparral High School. ALA has competed in AIA play for just three years. In 2014 it made the playoffs in its first year and lost in the opening round of the Division 5 playoffs to Thatcher (47-6). Last year it reached the D-5 semfinals before bowing to Benson.

Now, after essentially moving up a conference this year, the Patriots are playing for all the marbles against Sabino, a 23-21 winner over Show Low in Saturday's late 3A semifinal. ALA's only loss this season was to Sabino by a 16-13 margin.

Northwest Christian was seeking its eighth appearance in a championship game in its history, but settles for a 10-3 season.

All the weapons ALA has at its disposal contributed in Saturday afternoon's triumph. Senior quarterback Dallin Edwards, who did not play vs. NWC in their regular season meeting (24-21 ALA win), rushed for two touchdowns and passed for two. He completed 12-of-24 passes for 162 yards. He also rushed for 84 yards.

“It makes a difference,” ALA coach Rich Edwards said of having son Dallin behind center. “He makes us a little bit more unpredictable. It’s hard for a defense to know what we’re doing.”

The Boyds, senior Jermiah and junior Bujon, tallied a TD each. Bujon Boyd turned in the longest TD of the day for ALA with a 55-yard run late in the first period to extend ALA's lead at the time to 10-0. Bujon Boyd rushed for 58 yards and caught three passes for 37 yards.

Jermiah Boyd carried 16 times for 101 yards. He also hauled in a 30-yard scoring pass from Edwards -- his only reception of the game -- with 7:38 left in the third period that gave ALA its biggest lead at 31-7.

ALA turned to big tight end Donovan Hanna for offense in the second half. Hanna, 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, Hanna had four of his six catches in the second half with the last one good fofr 23 yards and ALA's final score of the day with 9:21 left. Hanna finished with 89 yards receiving.

"Our kids,” Edwards said. “We have high character kids. The Queen Creek area we’ve got Perry around us, Queen Creek around us, Casteel around us. There’s all high expectations there so the families, they expect effort and our kids have bought in.

“They don’t come to our school for athletics, I’ll be honest with you. They come for the environment, they come for our culture and yet they are guys that want a high school experience just like any other. They want to compete and they’ve done everything we’ve asked.”

NWC, which couldn't mount a rushing attack in the first meeting between the teams, didn't fare much better in this one. Falling behind 16-0 early and 31-7 midway through the third period didn't help. Leading rusher Caleb Egherman. Egherman was limited to 12 yards on 5 carries in the first half and NWC totaled only 17 yards rushing at half. A 40-yard run in the third period by Egherman helped him net 72 yards for the afternoon.

NWC senior quarterback Tyler Worrell ran for one score and passed for another He was intercepted once and finished with 248 yards through the air.