Big plays key to Colony rout at Bartlett High

ANCHORAGE — Cade Havel rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns, but the big story behind Colony’s 47-6 thrashing of Anchorage Bartlett Friday night was the Knights’ ability to strike with big plays on defense and special teams.

Junior Jon Pomrenke had touchdowns on interception and punt returns, and linebacker Nolan Martin’s 62-yard pick-six all but put the game out of reach at 27-0 with just a minute-and-a-half gone by in the second quarter.

“Our line got pressure on the quarterback, made him throw a bad throw and I took advantage and took it to the house,” said Martin, who led the team with 15 tackles. “We’ve been working hard for this. This was our first test and we performed well.”

Colony took the opening drive 54 yards on 12 plays, converting two fourth downs before Havel plunged in from the 1, but that would be the last such plodding drive of the night for the Knights, who went up 13-0 on a 33-yard rumble by Havel, 20-0 on Pomrenke’s 40-yard punt return, 27-0 on Martin’s interception return, 34-0 on Pomrenke’s 18-yard return off a pick in the flat caused by the pressure of Cooper Sant, and 40-0 on Havel’s 91-yard gallop to paydirt on a third-and-12 with just over a minute left in the first half.

“We harp on it all the time that offense should not score all of the points all of the time,” Colony head coach Rhett Magner said. “Our defense should score points just by the schemes, and our special teams — we call them special forces — they’re a whole third of the game and we take it seriously.”

Up 40-0 at the break, the Knights pumped the brakes some in the second half, scoring just one more time on a 30-yard run by quarterback Parker Kizer, whose sidestep of three would-be tacklers left three Golden Bears on the turf as he walked into the end zone with 3:12 to play in the third.

With the running clock in effect, the Bears finally got on the board with a 1-yard run by Jontay Edwards, who had the best offensive night of any Colony player, rushing for 80 yards on 15 carries.

As a team, Colony rushed for 337 yards on 46 carries and Kizer completed 1 of 4 passes for 27 yards to Pomrenke, who had 139 all-purpose yards.

Bartlett rushed 56 times for 237 yards and Golden Bear passers completed 7 of 15 for 73 yards with two interceptions.

After postgame handshakes, Martin led a swarm of Knights to an end zone, where he tossed a pylon in the air, and upon its landing, each one fell flat on his back in a bit called “grenade,” which was then followed by Kizer pretending to roll a tumbling Sant into a triangulation of Knights, who again fell backwards, in a morale-building rendition of “bowling ball.”

Magner, himself a 2005 Colony grad, then addressed his team with no relent in fun and enthusiasm.

“Those are some tricks we have up our sleeve,” Martin laughed. “We love to have a little fun.”

Colony looks to go to 2-0 next week in its home-opener against East Anchorage, a 33-0 winner over Palmer Friday night.

Colony 47, Bartlett 6

Friday, Bartlett High School

First quarter

Colony — Havel 1 run (Krozel kick) 8:10.

Colony — Havel 35 run (Kick failed) 4:27.

Colony — Pomrenke 40 punt return (Krozel kick) 2:21.

Second quarter

Colony — Martin 62 interception return (Krozel kick) 10:28

Colony — Pomrenke 18 interception return (Krozel kick) 5:47.

Colony — Havel 91 run (Kick blocked) 1:11.

Third quarter

Colony — Kizer 30 run (Krozel kick) 3:12.

Fourth quarter

Bartlett — Edwards 1 run (Kick blocked) 3:15.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Colony: Havel 11-175, Kizer 6-64, Nash 6-62, Pead 8-18, Hessinger 5-17, Jones 1-3, Bailey 1-2, Lorentz 1(-4); Bartlett: McFarland 13-82, Edwards 15-80, Sagatu 5-35, Mavaega 5-27, Kingsland 10-12, Egoak 3-3, Garrett 5-0, Ume 1(-4).

PASSING — Colony: Kizer 1-4-1—27; Bartlett: Egoak/Turner/Malia-Hughes 7-15-2—73.

RECIVING — Colony: Pomrenke 1-27; Bartlett: Kingsland 3-38, Toilolo 2-19, Afe 1-13, McFarland 1-3.