Brothers help lead Hawks past Huskies

WASILLA — With some help from the Mulhaney family, it didn’t take long for the Houston Hawks to build a big lead during their first varsity game against new rival Redington.

Two plays.

Two Mulhaneys.

Two touchdowns.

On Houston’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Wyatt Mulhaney, hauled in a Paul Sanderlin touchdown pass. On Houston’s first play of its next possession, Mulhaney threw a touchdown pass of his own, finding his younger brother, Gavin, for the score.

The early scoring burst was part of Houston’s 40-6 victory over the Huskies at Houston High School Sept. 30.

“It was huge,” Houston head coach Glenn Nelson said of the victory by cellphone.

Houston earned a school-record sixth win in a single season with the victory.

“It was our goal to set a record or tie it, we wanted to win on homecoming, and we wanted to get out healthy,” Nelson said. “We did all three.”

Sanderlin, Malaki Barrett, Vanu Mose and Ben Pelesasa also scored rushing touchdowns to help Houston improve to 6-2 overall. Pelesasa led Houston with 60 yards rushing. Mose added 53, and Barrett chipped in 50.

Zachary Kaufman led Redington 46 yards rushing and its lone touchdown. Tommy Lonh added 24 yards rushing.

Houston now looks ahead to the playoffs. Houston, the No. 2 seed from the Aurora Conference, will travel to Seward to face the top seed from the Peninsula Conference Saturday at 2 p.m.

For more on Houston’s first appearance in the postseason since 2013, see the Friday edition of the Frontiersman.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.