Hawks, Warriors host games; Knights on the road

HOUSTON — Heading into the 2014 season, Houston head coach Glenn Nelson expected his young Hawks team to face a steep learning curve. The Hawks have started the season 0-2, but Nelson is intrigued about his team’s progress.

“From Week 1 to Week 2, we’re a different team,” Nelson said. “I was pretty impressed with how far along the kids came.”

Houston opened the season with a 14-7 loss to Seward. Last week, Nikiski needed 16 unanswered points to beat Houston 16-6. The Hawks led Nikiski, the defending small schools state champions, 6-0 in the third quarter. Considering the improvement, Nelson is looking forward to his team’s Week 3 matchup with Valdez. Houston hosts the Buccaneers tonight at 7 p.m. at Houston High School.

“We’re hoping to be competitive with Valdez. They have about the same (number of players). It should be a pretty good matchup,” Nelson said.

Valdez, of the small-schools Greatland Conference, enters the game 1-1. The Bucs opened their season with a 60-6 loss at Barrow, but bounced back to beat Voznesenka 44-8 last week.

The Hawks improved statistically last week. During the loss to Seward, Houston finished with 92 total yards. Houston had 213 yards of offense against Nikiski. Vanu Mose led the Hawks on the ground for the second straight week, finishing with 84 yards. Noah Griffith added 47 yards rushing and a touchdown. Nelson also noted the work of Houston’s new starting quarterback Wyatt Cypherts, who made his first career start against the Bulldogs. Cypherts rushed for 66 yards in the game.

“He understands the game,” Nelson said of Cypherts. “He’s helped out our offense.”

Lathrop at Wasilla

Wasilla (1-1) opens Railbelt Conference play tonight, hosting Lathrop (1-1) at 7 p.m.

Wasilla scored its first win of the year in Week 2 with a 35-22 victory over Juneau-Douglas. The Warriors led 22-7 at one point, but the Bears came back to tie the game at 22.

The Warriors cemented the win with a pair of Devin Otto touchdowns in the final two minutes of the game. Otto rushed for a game-high 174 yards and three touchdowns in the win. Zachary Garnett also rushed for a touchdown, and quarterback Blake Marks connected with Mosiah Rank on a 3-yard touchdown pass.

Lathrop also won its first game of the season last week, beating Kenai 7-6 in Fairbanks.

Lathrop beat Wasilla 42-32 in Fairbanks last season.

Colony at Juneau

Colony (2-0), the lone undefeated team in the Valley, is on the road for the first time this season. The Knights travel to Juneau to face the Crimson Bears (1-1) Saturday at 8 p.m. in Juneau.

Last week, Colony ran past West Valley 42-20 at CHS. Senior Logan Conway rushed for 160 yards and three touchdowns, and also caught on of Steven Bilafer’s two touchdown passes. Bilafer had 114 yards rushing and 128 yards passing. Tucker Looney caught a touchdown pass for the second straight week.

Juneau suffered a loss to Wasilla last week. Dorian Izaak threw a pair of touchdown passes for Juneau, and rushed for another.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.