Ever since Alexandria was humiliated by Mortimer Jordan last year in a 61-21 rout on their home turf, the Valley Cubs have had the return bout circled on their calendars.

They extracted their revenge Friday night with a 39-36 victory, a come-from-behind effort that was still in doubt until the very last second.

The 10th-ranked Cubs won, as is their style, with their punishing ground game. But instead of grinding it out as they normally do, Alexandria got all of their scoring on big plays — only two of their six touchdowns were scored from within the red zone, and none inside the No. 4 Blue Devils’ 10-yard line.

All but one of the visitors’ touchdowns came when they would bust a hole in the middle of the line, and the Jordan defensive secondary simply couldn’t catch the runner.

The Cubs’ “big hoss,” Jacob Heathcock, was particularly effective — the 6-foot-2, 209-pound senior ran the ball 11 times for 160 yards, including two touchdowns. The much-smaller Jamal Tucker did a bit, gaining 163 yards on 12 carries, also with two scores.

In total, Alexandria ran for 415 yards for the night, and quarterback Luke Tucker only attempted three passes all night. Ironically, it was the last throw that was the kill shot — a 19-yard toss to Keenan Woodruff with 2:46 left in the game for their last touchdown.

Heathcock put the Cubs on the scoreboard first. After bursting through the line for gains of 11 and 19 yards earlier in the drive, he scored on a 12-yard run.

The Devils responded with an 11-play march on their opening drive, capped by a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Duncan Hodges. Josh Evans’ point-after kick gave the home team a 7-6 early lead.

Three big runs by Cubs running backs in the second quarter gave them a 12-point lead at halftime. Jamal Tucker broke open for scoring runs of 77 and 52 yards, and Woodruff dashed to the end zone from 63 yards away, on the first play from scrimmage after Spencer Brown had regained the lead for Jordan on a 10-yard second-effort touchdown midway through the quarter.

The Blue Devils had better success stopping the Alexandria rushing attack in the third period, and took back the lead on a 2-yard scoring sneak by Hodges that ended a 10-play drive, followed by a Hodges 44-yard touchdown pass to Walker McCleney on the first play of their next possession.

But the key play of the game happened at the beginning of the final quarter, as the Cubs stood at fourth down and one on their own 49-yard line. Just when it seemed the Devils had solved the riddle of how to contain the Alexandria rushing attack, Heathcock burst through the line and was off to the races for a 51-yard touchdown dash.

The Cubs followed that by stopping Jordan in the red zone on the next possession, though the Devils looked to have taken back the lead when Walker McCleney ran around the right edge for an apparent touchdown. The score was negated, though, by a holding penalty.

The visitors then went on a 10-play march that took nearly six minutes off the game clock, and finished with Tucker’s game-sealing touchdown pass to Woodruff.

The Devils were not done, though, and used a series of quick passes by Hodges — and rare offensive appearances by Colby Moon, normally a linebacker — to get down to the Cubs 1-yard line, where Hodges scored with 97 seconds left to play.

The following onside kick was caught by Alexandria, who then ran the clock down to one second before turning it over on downs. That left Hodges with one chance for a hail-Mary throw, which was tipped away by a pair of Cubs defenders to end the game.

Hodges was 16-of-28 in passing for 238 yards for Jordan. Tucker was 3-of-3 for 30 yards, with one touchdown to clinch the win for Alexandria.

Brown, stepping into the shoes of injured running back Kalin Spencer (out with a partially-torn MCL), finished with 106 yards on 15 rushes for the Devils.

Alexandria coach Mark Tucker was particular pleased with the win, especially after last year’s debacle.

“We got embarrassed last year, and I just love the way our kids handled this,” he said. “They weren’t going to walk off this field a loser tonight.”

Devils coach Dusty Goode was a bit more succinct.

“They took it to us. There at the end we didn’t stop them when we needed to…. Now we’ve got bounce back and find out if we’re for real, or just pretenders,” Goode said.

The win gives the Cubs (5-0, 4-0 region) a clear path to the Class 5A Region 6 title, though they face a stiff test next week when they host St. Clair County. Jordan (5-1, 3-1) travels to Lincoln, which got their first win of the season by edging out Hayden on Friday.