Hawks leading the race as Valley teams try to stay alive in the prep football playoff hunt

The Alaska prep football postseason doesn’t officially start for another two weeks. But the Valley’s five teams are already in playoff mode.

We have one team that has officially clinched, and there are a couple that are still mathematically alive, but are going to need a considerable amount of help.

Let’s start on the north side of the Valley.

The Houston Hawks have the simplest and best-case scenario in the Valley. You are in. Win, you are conference champs. Win, you have home field advantage. The Hawks host Ketchikan Friday at 7 p.m. in their homecoming game. On paper, it’s a game Houston should win by a decent margin. But with Alaska small schools football, sometimes you never know. Barrow beat Eielson 42-0 last week. If I would have placed a wager on that game, I’d probably be sleeping in the garage and applying for a second job at Target.

The Hawks are already off to their best start in school history with a 6-0 mark, and are assured at least one of the Peninsula Conference’s two spots in the Division III playoffs. They are also scoring more than Wilt Chamberlin, leading Division III teams with 211 total points. That’s just more than 35 points per game. Ketchikan is allowing 26 per game.

A Houston win over the Kings makes things easy. Houston would be the top seed, and the three teams sitting at 1-1 in the Peninsula Conference would hammer it out for the second playoff berth. A Ketch win makes it a bit more fishy.

Houston would drop to 3-1 with a loss. The Hawks hold the tiebreakers against Homer and Nikiski, but if Ketchikan found a way to win during the last two weeks of the season, the Kings would have home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Let’s stay at the DIII level.

Redington is also off to its best start in varsity history, with its 4-1 start. But after a 29-0 loss at Eielson two weeks ago, the Huskies are also in must-win mode. Redington needs to beat Barrow on the Whalers blue turf adjacent to the Arctic Ocean Saturday to stay in the race. A Redington win would create a three-way tie, with Barrow, Eielson and Redington alive in the race for the Aurora Conference’s two playoff spots. Tiebreakers would decide the top two teams.

Palmer is the lone Valley team at the Division II level. Palmer took a hit last week with a 30-7 loss at West Valley and have the dubious honor of hitting the road to the Interior for the second straight week with a game at Lathrop Saturday. The Moose need to beat the Malemutes, and get some help. Palmer (1-1) is currently trailing Lathrop (1-0) and West Valley (1-0) in conference play. The Moose need to take care of business and beat Lathrop, and hope either Lathrop or West Valley drops the final two games of the season. West Valley has North Pole and Lathrop during the final two weeks. Lathrop has Palmer and West Valley. Palmer can clinch the conference with a win over Lathrop, a West Valley loss to North Pole and Lathrop win over West Valley. Palmer can clinch a playoff spot, the second seed, with a win over Lathrop and a Lathrop win over West Valley next week.

At the Division I level, Colony took a step toward the postseason with a 14-0 win over rival Wasilla last week. Both teams entered the match 0-2 in Chugach Conference play. Neither team clinched or was eliminated by the outcome, but the Knights obviously have the advantage.

The Chugiak Mustangs (3-1) are the only team to clinch one of the Chugach’s four playoff berths. Beyond that, there are a number of possibilities. There is potential for two-way and maybe three-way ties to decide the final playoff spots.

Head spinning.

But to make a long story short, Colony needs to beat Juneau on Friday and Wasilla needs to beat Bartlett on Saturday.

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