J's World: Lopsided games rule first weekend of postseason

There’s a great disparity in Alaska football. We’ve established that.

Thirty teams spread across three classes. But if we learned anything from the opening weekend of the postseason, there is still a fair amount of disproportion within the divisions.

There were eight games scheduled — four Division I quarterfinal games and a pair of semifinals contests at both the Division II and III levels — and of those eight games, just one was decided by single digits.

One.

West Anchorage 14, Colony 10.

And West and Palmer were the only lower seeds to win over the weekend.

Third-seeded West of the Cook Inlet Conference slipped by Colony, the second seed out of the Railbelt. Palmer, the No. 2 out of the Northern Lights Conference, beat Southeast Conference champion Thunder Mountain 28-7 in the Division II quarterfinals.

Set the West win aside, the other seven games were decided by 12 points or more. The other three Division I games had at least a 30-point margin of victory.

The greatest imbalance last weekend was seen at the Division I level. With eight of the 11 Division I teams advancing to the postseason, lopsided games in the postseason are inevitable. But the next two rounds should be more interesting.

In the quarterfinals, Railbelt champ Chugiak ran all over Service (No. 4, CIC) 63-27. CIC champ East Anchorage blanked Wasilla 40-0. Bartlett, the CIC’s No. 2, drilled Lathrop (No. 3, RC) 55-35.

That sets up Chugiak-Bartlett Friday at 7 p.m. and East-West Saturday at 2 p.m. at Anchorage Football Stadium.

The top tier of the Division I level is five teams deep this year, with Colony as the other team that realistically could be still playing this weekend. Going into the weekend, at least on paper, Colony-West was the most interesting game, maybe in any class. It’s one of those coin-toss games. You play it 10 times, and each team probably wins five. This time around, the football bounced West’s way.

Literally.

Colony had the ball inside the red zone twice during the fourth quarter, but each time a miscue led to a loss in double-digit yardage. The Knights were only able to come away with three points.

The Palmer-Thunder Mountain game may have been the only other game during the weekend that remained interesting in the fourth quarter. Palmer left the field with a 21-point victory. But Thunder Mountain had an opportunity to cut the Moose lead to just one score in the final frame. Thunder Mountain had the ball, 4th-and-goal, trailing 21-7. Palmer was able to come up with the stop, and then controlled the clock before adding a late score to ice the win.

Soldotna pushed its state-record winning streak to 58 with a 35-12 victory over North Pole in the other Division II semifinal.

The five-time defending state champion Stars meet Palmer Saturday at 3 p.m. at Palmer High in the state final for the second straight year.

Both top seeds at the Division III level won by double-digits in the semifinals. Barrow beat Nikiski 21-6 and Homer got by defending state champion Eielson 33-21.

Barrow and Homer will meet in the Division III title game Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at PHS.

Division III is the only class currently guaranteed a new state champion, with defending state champ Eielson now out of contention.

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