Home invasion

PALMER — The series had come down to home field advantage.

Prior to this season, each of the last seven regular season meetings between the Colony Knights and Palmer Moose were won by the home team.

But on Friday, one of the visitors — Colony senior Matt Jaronik — made himself feel right at home on enemy turf.

Jaronik completed a pair of touchdown passes and returned an interception 57 yards for a score to lead Colony to a 27-6 win over Palmer at Machetanz Field.

Jaronik connected with senior Cole Hintz on a 14-yard touchdown early in the first quarter and hit a streaking Chad Lowery for a 77-yard score in the second to help the Knights build the early first-half lead.

And late in the second half, Jaronik put the exclamation point on a key Railbelt Conference win with the long interception return for a touchdown.

He also rushed for a game-high 102 yards, 78 of which came in the second half.

In all, Jaronik’s work helped the Knights improve to 5-0 over all and 3-0 in the conference.

But while Jaronik and the Colony offense accounted for nearly 50 yards of total offense, Jaronik gave all credit to the Colony defense.

“Our defense makes big plays all the time,” Jaronik said. “Our offense kind of sputtered at moments but our defense, it’s our backbone. We really rely on them.”

Even though he’s speaking as the quarterback, Jaronik certainly can claim some of the credit to the Knights defense.

With less than two minutes left in regulation and the Knights ahead by two scores, Jaronik picked off a Palmer pass for the second time during the fourth quarter, weaved through traffic and busted into end zone for the score.

“You let Matt Jaronik roam around in back, and it’s not good for the other team,” Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said.

With the rabid Colony defensive front eight, a unit that hounded Palmer senior quarterback Dustin Silva throughout the game, putting pressure on Silva, Jaronik nabbed what was essentially a jump ball, near midfield.

Just as Silva released the third-down pass, he was hit, and his intended receiver, senior Brennan Bohman, was blanketed by the Colony coverage.

“It was a jump ball, but it was a jump ball because our defensive line was in the quarterback’s face,” Mayo said. “He had no choice. He was going to get sacked or throw the ball up in the air like he did.”

Mayo said the Knights coaching staff called the right coverage at the right time. The longtime defensive coordinator said the Knights planned to cover Bohman — a player they saw as a threat — with a man underneath and another in back. And late in the game, with Palmer facing 3rd-and-long, the Knights had a hunch the Moose would look for their speedy senior.

“They told me to go over the top of Bohman. I saw (Silva) float up the ball, ran under it and I hoped I didn’t get hit when I caught it,” Jaronik said.

Colony forced four turnovers in the game, two fumbles in addition to the Jaronik interceptions.

“We can’t turn over the ball and be successful,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said.

The Knight also held the typically powerful Palmer running attack to a season-low 68 yards.

Mayo credited his defensive line and linebackers for the work against the Palmer running game.

“We’re not the biggest guys around, but this, by far, top to bottom, is the quickest team we’ve ever had,” Mayo said. “I think that’s key.

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

With limited success on the ground, Palmer had nearly as many passing attempts, 23, as it did runs, 25.

Silva finished 7-for-23 with 74 yards and two interceptions.

“(Palmer offensive coordinator Brad Hanson) actually came out with a great offensive game plan. They couldn’t run, so they threw,” Mayo said. “They had some success early, and then we made some adjustments on our defense. We put pressure on their quarterback and took away their receivers.”

Bohman led the Moose with three catches for 40 yards and Kris Merritt caught two passes for 24 yards.

Palmer’s top target, junior Jim McCall, was lost with an injury in the second quarter.

“We lost Jim and that kind of put us into a tizzy,” Christiansen said.

The Palmer defense also created turnovers in the game. Bohman picked off a pass, and senior Mike Daniels returned a fumble deep into Colony territory.

Daniels’ 69-yard fumble return early in the third quarter helped turn a Colony red zone possession, into a red zone opportunity at the other end of the field for the Moose. On first down at the Palmer 16-yard line, Daniels broke into the backfield from his defensive end position, and knocked the ball away from Jaronik and into his own hands.

Daniels rumbled down to the Colony 17-yard line.

But despite the opportunity on offense, Palmer was held to just three yards on the series and had to settle for a Zach Zegzdryn 31-yard field goal.

The score made it a 13-6 ball game.

“The defense did a great job of stopping them,” Mayo said. “A field goal. Holy cow. I’ll take that any day. I’d prefer if he missed ‘em, but I’ll take it over the touchdown.”

It was the second time in the game that Palmer got deep inside Colony territory, and left with just three points. Zegzdryn put the Moose on the scoreboard with a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Colony led 13-3 after Zegzdryn’s first kick.

“We’ve got to be able to move the ball with some consistency,” Christiansen said. “We started on the 50-yard line the whole first half and got three points out of it. It’s hard to win a football game doing that.”

Jaronik’s touchdown passes accounted for Colony’s scoring in the first half. After recovering a Palmer fumble on a Moose punt return, the Knights capped a seven-play drive with the Hintz 14-yard touchdown catch.

Midway through the second, Jaronik sent a deep ball to Lowery, who went the distance for the touchdown. Jaronik appeared to over-throw the Colony wide receiver, but Lowery sprinted past the coverage to retrieve the ball, and hustled down the left sideline for the score.

“When I released it, I prayed it wasn’t going too far,” Jaronik said. “But that guy’s got some wheels.”

Senior Tyler Jimanez also posted a 9-yard touchdown run in the fourth for CHS.

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

Colony 27, Palmer 6

Friday, Machetanz Field

First quarter

Colony — Hintz 14 pass from Jaronik (kick failed) 6:50.

Second quarter

Colony — Lowery 77 pass from Jaronik (Weihs kick) 7:48.

Palmer — Zegzdryn 27 field goal, 4:52.

Third quarter

Palmer — Zegzdryn 31 field goal, 5:25.

Fourth quarter

Colony- Jimanez 9 run (Weihs kick) 2:12.

Colony — Jaronik 57 interception return (Weighs kick) 1:41.

Individiual statistics

RUSHING — Jaronik 25-102, Jimanez 12-55, McGraw 4-32, Rench 9-30, Lowery 1-13; Palmer: Bohman 13-66, Ahrens 6-17, Scoresby 1-5, McCall 1-(-4), Silva 4-(-10).

PASSING — Colony: Jaronik 5-14-1—117; Palmer: Silva 7-23-2—74.

RECEIVNG — Colony: DePriest 3-30, Lowery 1-77, Hintz 1-14; Palmer: Bohman 3-40, Merritt 2-24, Daniels 1-15, Ahrens 1-(-4).