First-year starter providing Knights a spark

PALMER — Colony head coach Brian McIntosh calls senior Anthony Bricker the Knights’ “slash.”

It’s nickname coined by a Pittsburgh Steelers radio broadcaster and given to former Pittsburgh quarterback Kordell Stewart, who used to slash through opposing defenses from several positions on the field.

Two weeks ago, Bricker, Colony’s utility man, suddenly found himself starting at quarterback. Now the senior is doing some slashing of his own.

Since taking over for injured starter Mitchell Slater, Bricker has led Colony to a pair of wins in his first two varsity starts. In those victories the option-style quarterback has rushed for 389 yards and four touchdowns and thrown for 174 yards and three scores.

After helping lead his squad to its first win in school history against Juneau-Douglas last week, Bricker said he’s simply taking advantage of his opportunity at the new position.

“I’m just taking it week-by-week, and see how it goes,” Bricker said following the 26-7 win over the Crimson Bears. “Mitchell’s a great quarterback. Once he does come back, we’ll work something out.”

Bricker has done a little bit of everything for the Knights. He started the season with seven catches for 56 yards during the first two games. He still stands second on the team in catches, despite throwing the passes for the last two weeks. Bricker said he doesn’t care quite as much where he plays, just as long as he’s on the field helping the Knights.

“I’d say I’m more of a team player,” Bricker said.

Bricker said he wants the chance to play college football, and he hopes he’s showing college coaches that he can be a versatile player.

“They’re going to look at me and say, what position do you play? You kind of have stats all over the place,” Bricker said. “Rushing, passing, catching, everything. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I can get on a team and show them what I can do.”

Bricker and the Knights will look to push their winning streak to three games tonight at 7 p.m. at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks. Colony (2-2 overall, 2-0 in Railbelt Conference play) has posted consecutive conference wins over North Pole and Juneau.

Last week, Lathrop suffered its 19th straight loss, a 55-0 defeat to the Wasilla Warriors. Lathrop has not won since Aug. 8, 2008, an 8-6 win over Kenai Central.

In other action, Palmer (2-2, 1-1) is also in the Interior, facing North Pole (1-3, 1-2) at Patriot Pride Field in North Pole. The Moose earned a 36-32 nonconference win over Kenai Central last week, while the Patriots dropped a 33-24 loss to Fairbanks-area rival West Valley.

Senior Jim McCall led the Moose to the win over the defending small school state champions with six catches for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Wasilla (2-2, 1-1) is in Juneau tonight and will face Juneau-Douglas at 8 p.m. The Warriors used six AJ Marshall touchdowns to beat Lathrop 55-0. Marshall, a first-year starting quarterback for the Warriors, threw five touchdowns and ran for another.

On Saturday, Houston (2-2, 0-2) will try to get back into the win column when the Hawks host Delta (1-3, 1-2) at 1 p.m. at Houston High School. Houston has suffered a pair of losses since opening the season 2-0.

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