Hawks have playoffs in sight

MAT-SU — With a relatively short eight-week regular season, it’s not entirely uncommon for Alaska teams to start thinking playoffs in the first few weeks of the season.

The Houston Hawks are one of those teams.

And now, the Hawks could take a giant step toward clinching a playoff spot with a win in week three.

With a victory over the Homer Mariners at Homer High School on Saturday, the Hawks would improve to 2-0 in the Northern Lights Conference, putting Houston in an ideal spot to grab one of the NLC’s four spots in the postseason.

“A win would give us the tiebreaker against Skyview and Homer, and with the new playoff format, that could put us in the playoffs,” Houston head coach Norm Bouchard said.

Houston has advanced to the postseason as a part of the Greatland Conference multiple times in the past, but is competing as a member of the NLC for the first time this year. After Houston moved from the Greatland to the NLC during the offseason, Alaska Schools Activities Association expanded the small-school playoffs from four to eight teams. Prior to this season, only team teams per small-schools conference advanced to the postseason.

Houston grabbed its NLC win last week, a 28-20 victory over Skyview at Terry Shurtleff Field, and now the Hawks are hoping to pave their way to the playoffs with their second conference win in as many weeks.

Bouchard said the opportunity the Hawks have to put themselves in a possession to earn a postseason berth is obviously central to the message the coaching staff has relayed to the players during practice this week.

“We’re talking it up, trying to get them to understand the reality of it, what we’re going down there to do,” Bouchard said. “If they play hard, hit on all cylinders, I like the chances we’re going to have down there.”

Homer is 1-1 following a pair of games with lopsided margins, but different outcomes. The Mariners followed a 52-26 win over Monroe with a 47-14 loss to Kodiak, the 2007 small-schools state runner-up.

Bouchard said its pretty tough to judge the Mariners based on their results from the first two weeks of the season. Homer did score the 26-point win over Monroe, a first-year program, but the Rams did hold a 20-8 win over the Mariners in the first-half.

But regardless of what Homer has done, Bouchard knows the reputation that the Mariner program has held in the past.

“If anything, they love to hit,” Bouchard said. “We’ve got to prepare ourselves to play a physical football game.”

Bouchard said the game could come down to which team wins the battle up front.

“We’ve got to control the line of scrimmage,” Bouchard said.

Houston has shown the ability to run the ball early in the season. Sophomore Micah Ranum leads the Hawks with 141 yards and three touchdowns. Senior Kyle Sumner also has three rushing scores.

The Hawks also possess one of the top small-schools pass-catch combinations from the 2007 season —quarterback Jordan Webb and wide receiver Brian Mason.

Mason leads the Hawks with five catches for 59 yards and a score.

West Valley at Palmer

The Palmer Moose moved north on the Railbelt Conference ladder with a 35-0 win over the Lathrop Malemutes in Fairbanks last week.

Palmer scored five rushing touchdowns and the Moose defense recorded the shutout in their first Railbelt win of the season.

The Moose now look to improve to 2-0 in conference play when they host the West Valley Wolfpack in their home opener at Machetanz Field tonight at 7 p.m.

Junior Brennan Bohman rushed for 119 yards and three carries. Bohman, a shifty running back, nearly out-gained the entire Lathrop offense by himself.

The Malemutes managed just 124 total yards — 67 rushing and 57 passing.

Junior Coleman Ahrens added 74 yards rushing for the Moose, and sophomore Jim McCall scored on both of his carries.

En route to posting the shutout, the Moose defense picked off a pair of Lathrop passes and forced six Malemutes fumbles, recovering two.

West Valley has already found itself in an 0-2 hole in Railbelt play after early-season losses to Juneau-Douglas and North Pole.

Juneau, the defending state champions, coasted past West Valley 45-7 during week No. 1, and North Pole edged the Wolfpack 21-19 last week.

West Valley’s Jacob Claypoole nearly tied the game for West Valley late in the fourth quarter, but his two-point conversion attempt was stuffed by the Patriot defense.

Claypoole led the Wolfpack with 152 yards in the loss.

The Wolfpack and Patriots experienced a bit of football oddity — a 14-hour halftime — thanks to a freak thunderstorm that forced the game to be postponed after the first two quarters last Friday. The game was resumed the next morning.

North Pole at Wasilla

Like the rival Moose, the Wasilla Warriors are also playing for the first time at home tonight, hosting the North Pole Patriots at 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Field.

Wasilla, winner of a 28-14 nonconference victory over Chugiak in week No. 1, dropped to 0-1 in Railbelt Conference play with a 35-7 loss to Juneau-Douglas in Juneau last week and will be looking for its first conference win against the Pats.

“They’re going to be just as tough,” Wasilla head coach Jim Shetter said of the Patriots on Thursday.

Like Juneau, North Pole is already 2-0 in Railbelt play. The Patriots grabbed a 20-16 win over Colony during the first week of the season, and edged the Wolfpack last week.

The Patriots, a team that is traditionally known to pack a potent running game, has found another weapon to add to a versatile group of running backs. That weapon is junior quarterback Lee Jones, a larger-than-average quarterback, who has three rushing touchdowns in the first two weeks.

“He’s a big boy. We’ve got to tackle low,” Shetter said. “I’ve seen some film. He’s hard to bring down when they’re playing the option.”

Shetter’s Warriors also have runner who has been tough to take down. Senior Chris Crane has rushed for a team-high 193 yards in two games. He scored a pair of touchdowns during Wasilla’s win over Chugiak.

Wasilla’s lone score in the loss to Juneau came courtesy of backup quarterback Cody Pfeifer.

After he replaced injured starter Adrese LaVern, Pfeifer took his first snap from center and hooked up with running back Chris Bydlon on a 30-yard touchdown pass.

“Cody did a great job, I am really proud of him,” Shetter said. “He’s a young man who’s always there, always consistent. He was calm and cool and went in there and did a great job.”

Shetter said LaVern suffered only a minor injury during the loss. The senior signal caller practiced this week and will make the start against the Patriots.

Colony at Lathrop

The Colony Knights will look for their first win of the season when they travel to Lathrop to face the Malemutes tonight at 7 p.m. at Lathrop High School.

Colony dropped to 0-2 overall with a 40-16 loss to Soldotna, the defending small-schools state champion, in Soldotna last week.

The Stars, who burn teams both from classes both big and small with it’s powerful wing-t attack, led just 13-8 at the half, but used their running attack to score 27 second-half points.

The Soldotna defense also forced four turnovers in the win.

Quarterback Collin Murphy and running back Chris Krieg accounted for Colony’s scoring. Murphy used a 3-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to put the Knights on the scoreboard. He found Matt Jaronik on the two-point conversion to give the Knights the 8-7 lead.

Gino Paoletti led the Knights with 102 yards rushing on 10 carries.

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