First line of defense

PALMER — With a quick look down the roster of the Colony Knights, you’ll see a few guys in the 225-pound range. There’s a couple more about 230.

But that’s about as big as they’re growing them at Colony High these days.

There are no 300-pounders anchoring the line. No mammoths in the middle.

But who said only size matters?

Apparently, it doesn’t to the Knights.

And Colony has a 5-0 mark to show for it.

“We’re not the biggest guys around, but this by far, top to bottom, is the quickest team we’ve ever had,” Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said after the Knights improved to 5-0 with a 27-6 win over Palmer at Machetanz Field last Friday.

If you need proof of Colony’s speed over size style, just check out the front of its defense.

With an obvious lack of bulk, Mayo and the Knights have instead turned to a stable of smaller, quicker linemen and linebackers to create a stout front-eight which has helped Colony remain in the ranks of the undefeated and grab the No. 2 spot of the latest Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network Prep Football poll.

Knowing he’d have a group of mid-sized players to work with rather than a group of giants, Mayo, the architect of the Colony defense, opted for the 3-5 format.

With the new scheme, Colony has three down linemen at any given time. Right behind, there are a set of five linebackers. And more often than not, those linebackers are moving around somewhere.

The beauty of the 3-5?

The versatility.

“We’ve got our defensive line and linebackers, and if you look at them, they’re almost all the same size, height and weight,” Mayo said. “And they’re pretty darn quick.”

With that flexibility, Mayo has had linebackers play down on the line, he’s moved linemen back.

“With the depth we have, we can probably rotate 20 different personnel groups,” Colony senior quarterback and defensive back Matt Jaronik said. “It just keeps everyone fresh, keeps the pressure going. Those are some of the most intense guys on the field.”

Working within the 3-5, linemen such as Renn Wright (6-foot, 230 pounds), Shane Duque (5-11, 230) and Trey Farber (6-0, 228) have consistently hassled quarterbacks and put up a road block against the run.

Linebackers such as J.D. Mayo (5-9, 195), Eric Fan (6-2, 225) and Ben McGraw (5-11, 190) have filled the holes.

“Our d-line has done an outstanding job,” Mayo said. “They’ve forced other teams to double-team them, keeping my other linebackers unblocked. My linebackers better tackle somebody if nobody’s blocking them.”

All have been used in different situations.

“This team is probably more interchangeable, probably, than what I’ve had for many, many years,” Mayo said. “We knew we didn’t have the big linemen. We knew we had a bunch of quick guys who were going to just fly all over the field.”

With the help of that defensive front, the Knights earned wins over 2008 playoff teams in four of their first games of the season. Colony has beaten defending Railbelt champion North Pole and a perennial playoff team in Palmer last week.

Colony also beat both of the teams that advanced to the small-schools title game last season, 3A champion Soldotna and runner-up Kodiak.

Only one opponent, Lathrop, failed to make the postseason last year.

And in those games, Colony has allowed more than 10 points once and more than 200 total yards of offense once.

Colony’s opponents have averaged only and 86 yards rushing, 55 yards passing and seven points per game this season

“Our defense is amazing. We rely on them all the time,” Jaronik said.

In the last two weeks, Colony has beaten a pair of traditional powers — Soldotna and Palmer — and the Colony front eight stood out in each game, albeit in different ways.

During a 24-17 come-from-behind win over Soldotna, the Knights defense stood strong in the interior and helped hold the stellar Soldotna power wing-T to 170 yards and one offensive touchdown.

Last Friday, Colony used a rabid pass rush to keep the Palmer offense out of sync. Palmer was held to 74 yards passing and a season-low 74 yards on the ground.

Mayo credited that success to his team’s quickness.

“We’re not extremely fast, but when you see seven, eight, nine guys around the ball on almost every play, that says something about these guys,” Mayo said. “These guys are not going to quit on anybody.”

Colony ranked second

The Colony Knights (5-0) are ranked second according to the Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network Prep Football Poll, released Monday.

The West Anchorage Eagles (5-0), which knocked off the previously top-ranked Service Cougars, are now the No. 1 team at the 4A level according to the media.

Service (4-1) dropped to third, while Juneau-Douglas (4-1) and South Anchorage (4-1) are fourth and fifth.

The Kenai Kardinals, who recorded their fifth shutout in as many weeks with a 44-0 win over Skyview last Saturday, remains at the top of the 3A poll. Eielson (5-0), Soldotna (3-2), Monroe (4-1) and Kodiak (3-2) round out the top five.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.