Colony kicker lifts Knights to win with late field goal

FAIRBANKS — The West Valley football team nearly pulled it off. But Colony called upon kicker Noah Krozel to be the hero.

Krozel hit a 32-yard field goal with five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to clinch a 10-7 victory for the Knights.

"I was perfectly comfortable," Krozel said. "We (practice) that all the time and I have one job. I did it tonight."

With less than a minute remaining in a Railbelt Conference showdown against undefeated Colony, the West Valley High School football team suffered its first costly miscue of the night.

The Wolfpack fumbled a snap deep inside the visiting Knights' red zone, giving the ball back to a Colony offense that moved the chains with ease during its first four games of the season.

Colony defensive end Jarek Schultz scooped up the loose ball and headed into West Valley territory.

"We were thinking run the whole time, and we had been in shotgun the whole time," Allison said about the decision to have his offense operate from the shotgun in a high-pressure situation. "You're going to have people say what they need to say, but we were going to run the ball and kick a field goal if we needed to. The ball just bounced the other way."

Schultz looked as though he was going to return the fumble for a touchdown, though West Valley guard Isaiah Warner — a former running back turned lineman — chased him down and made a touchdown-saving tackle at the Wolfpack's 36-yard line with 36 seconds left in the game.

"(Warner) gave up everything," West Valley head coach Kyle Allison said. "He laid it all out there to make sure we even had the opportunity to fight and stop them. I give it to him, he's the most humble kid I've coached in a long time."

Although Colony's final drive was littered with penalties, Jake Hessinger ran the ball five yards to set the Knights up with 4th-and-3 at West Valley's 15-yard line.

Krozel trotted out and booted the 32-yard field goal try down the middle of he uprights to give Colony its first lead of the game with only five seconds remaining.

"I'm so proud of those guys I coach," Allison said. "To come in with all that adversity — everybody was saying how much better they were and how we're the underdogs — they played (Colony) harder than anybody else in the state."

West Valley, which dropped to 1-4 (0-3 Railbelt), was knocking on the door to pull off the upset late in the fourth quarter.

After a 36-yard pass by quarterback Maurice Maiden to Chancelor Fields Colbert, the Wolfpack advanced the ball inside Colony's red zone.

However, things went awry for West Valley when Maiden bobbled a shotgun snap and fumbled with the Wolfpack facing second and goal from the Knights' 11-yard line.

After rolling to victories in its first four games — Colony scored 33 points or more in wins against Service, Bartlett, Palmer and West Anchorage — the Knights felt lucky to escape West Valley with a perfect 5-0 (1-0 Railbelt) record.

"It seems like every time we come to Fairbanks it's a wild game," Colony head coach Rhett Magner said. "In those situations, we expect the seniors to step up and make plays. Early in the (final) drive, we didn't do that and had some mistakes. But we were able to get a few positive plays and put ourselves in field goal range."

West Valley took a 6-0 lead with 1:18 remaining in the third quarter when Maiden scored from the 1-yard line on a quarterback sneak up the middle.

Ethan Raygor made the extra point to give the Wolfpack a 7-0 advantage.

Colony running back Kaiden Jimenez put the Knights on the scoreboard with a 21-yard touchdown run before Krozel made his extra point to tie it 7-7 with 5:31 to play in the fourth quarter.

Although West Valley suffered defeat, Allison was pleased with the play of his defense, which held the high-octane Knights to 182 yards of total offense.

"Coach (Devin) Robinson ... I've got to take my hat off to him," Allison said when asked about his defensive coordinator's game plan. "What he pulled off against them tonight ... I think that's a blue print for anybody that wants to come out and challenge (Colony). We did a great job and I can't say enough about our defense."

Colony was led by Jimenez (14 carries, 72 yards) and quarterback Parker Kizer, who ran for 66 yards on 12 carries.

Although Maiden completed eight of his 11 pass attempts for 70 yards, West Valley relied on its signal-caller and running back Preston Damario to gash the Knights' defense.

Maiden finished with 88 yards and a score on 20 carries, while Damario rumbled for 96 yards on 25 rushes.

"They're just coming into their own," Allison said about Maiden and Damario. "They are building momentum together, and tonight was a great example of what they can do."

West Valley finished with 257 total yards of offense.

The result wasn't the one the Wolfpack were hoping for, but Allison said his players deserved to walk off the field with their heads held high after giving one of the state's top teams a scare it hadn't experienced before Friday.

"They came in and took all their pride and all of their emotion and brought it," he said. "I wish I could give them anything to walk out on the other side of the win column, but they walk out of here having earned a lot of respect from a lot of people in the state."

Contact News-Miner sports writer Brad Joyal at 459-7530. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMSportsGuy.