A Northeastern football season highlighted by high-scoring games decided in the final seconds ended with the same: Alexandria held off the Knights 48-40 in a Class 2A, Sectional 36 first-round matchup Oct. 23, on a clear and cool fall evening at Northeastern.
The Knights nearly rallied from a three-touchdown deficit, but a determined comeback bid came up 6 yards short in the end.
“We gave a good team too many scoring opportunities in the first half,” said Northeastern coach Wes Oler amidst the hugs and tears of the Knights’ end-of-season postgame huddle. “A weird game. By the time we got our legs underneath us and started getting some stops and scoring, it was a little too late.”
Northeastern mounted two fourth-quarter drives that could have resulted in game-winning or game-extending points, but both opportunities stalled in scoring territory.
Trailing 42-40, the Knights moved to the Alexandria 18 before losing possession on downs with 6:34 remaining. The sequence included a near-completion to a wide-open receiver that probably would have resulted in a go-ahead touchdown.
The Tigers proceeded to burn all but 1:08 of the remaining time, converting a key third-and-10 along the way, before quarterback Andru Segner scored on an 8-yard run. However, Alexandria’s kick attempt went awry for the first time all evening, giving Northeastern one last chance.
The Knights won a pair of regular-season games that came down to the final play, and it looked like they might do it again when Jarrett Leitner found Jay Burdette for a 53-yard completion to put Northeastern in business at the Alexandria 10-yard line. An incomplete pass followed by two runs set up fourth-and-the-season from the Tiger 6, but a pass attempt under heavy pressure fell incomplete.
The drama came late, but when Knight players and coaches reflect on this game, they’ll know the plays that made the difference came early.
Northeastern’s Trent Deloney set the tone for a high-scoring evening when he took a handoff on the opening kickoff and went 86 yards for a touchdown.
The good vibes were short-lived. Alexandria answered with a quick scoring drive, a fumble return for a touchdown, a long interception return that set up another touchdown and then another quick scoring drive after the Tigers recovered their own pooch kickoff.
The four scores in eight minutes put Alexandria ahead 28-6 and forced Northeastern to play uphill all evening. Bryson Eckler (two receiving touchdowns, the fumble return and the interception) or Wyatt Fuller (three rushing touchdowns) seemed to have a hand in all the big plays for the Tigers, who won their fifth game in a row.
The Knights didn’t quit. Deloney shifted the momentum with a 60-yard scoop-and-score early in the second quarter. One possession later, Deloney got his third TD on a 44-yard completion from Leitner on fourth down. Leitner later threw touchdown passes to Quanell Denton on back-to-back possessions on each side of halftime. It was 42-40 after Corbin Issacs blasted through Tiger tacklers for a 20-yard touchdown and Deloney ran in for the two-point conversion, but the Knights got no closer.
It was the final game in a Northeastern uniform for Knight seniors Gavin Platt, Gavin Harrison, Coleton Bostic, Garrett Paul, Denton, Burdette, Isaacs and Deloney.
“They’ve left their mark on Northeastern football for sure with a couple of conference titles and the first group to play in the new (Eastern Crossroads) Conference,” Oler said. “We wanted to extend the season for them and just came up a couple of plays short tonight.”
Alexandria (7-3) 28 7 7 6 48
Northeastern (4-6) 6 20 14 0 40
Alexandria stats: Rushing: Wyatt Fuller 20-127, Andru Segner 8-35, Camden Shelton 2-16. Passing: Segner 14-15-0-193. Receiving: Bryson Eckler 7-142, Carter Sovern 3-19, Kaden Beigh 1-17, Fuller 2-11, Shelton 1-4. Tackles: Abram Abshire 10.
Northeastern stats: Rushing: Corbin Isaacs 23-108, Jarrett Leitner 5-10, Trent Deloney 5-9. Passing: Leitner 19-33-1-240. Receiving: Jay Burdette 5-87, Deloney 4-70, Quanell Denton 7-59, Isaacs 2-13, Jenson Davis 1-11. Tackles: Deloney 12, Burdette 11 (3 TFL).
A version of this article appeared in the October 28 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
