J's World: Ultimately Alaska’s heavyweights will prevail

For the last several years, Alaska’s prep football teams have been split into three different divisions. With only 28 total teams, eight squads in two classes and 10 in the other, scheduling Alaska football is an absolute nightmare.

It’s inevitable. The schedule, especially early in the season, will be dominated by interdivision matchups that produce lopsided results. Interestingly enough, Week 1 featured six games with teams from separate divisions. Teams from the higher division finished 3-3 that week.

That’s not a trend. It’s an anomaly.

Week 2 brought things back down to earth. Again, six games with non-division opponents. This time the teams from the higher division finished 5-1.

That’s a lot closer to reality.

Let’s take a closer look.

In three of the five games won by the team from the higher division, the squad from the lower division led early. Division III Eielson built an early lead against Division II West Valley. Division II Palmer led Division I Colony 7-0 early in the fourth quarter. Division II Kodiak jumped to a 22-7 advantage over Division I Wasilla.

West Valley, Colony and Wasilla ultimately won. But the smaller schools threw the first punch.

I’ll use Palmer as an example. It’s been four years since the Moose were dropped from the large-schools level to what is now known as Division II in Alaska. To this day, I still have Palmer faithful ask me, visibly upset, why the Moose are not a Division I team in the same conference as Valley rivals Palmer and Colony. As much as it pains me to classify Palmer-Colony as a nonconference game, it’s more realistic. Just look at the numbers. Colony draws about 100 kids a year for football. Palmer is lucky to get 60. Since 2015, Colony is 4-0 against Palmer outscoring the Moose 134-15 in those games. I realize after throwing out that stat there could be a few Palmer fans (some who may even be friends) plotting to leave flaming bags of moose poop on my doorstep, it’s the reality.

Palmer played terrific for about 38 minutes during the 21-7 loss to the Knights last week. Colony made a couple of huge plays to tie the score and take the lead. But Colony’s depth helped the Knights maintain the lead.

The two teams that battled for a Division III title last year were both on the bad end of horrible scores. Defending small-schools champion Barrow suffered a 50-3 loss to Eagle River. Kenai Central drilled Homer, the 2018 Division III runner-up, 58-6.

It’s not just the difference of the Division I programs in Alaska. The disparity between the Division II and DIII teams is amazing. Eagle River, not exactly an Alaska power, has looked like an absolute juggernaut during the first two weeks of the season, outscoring opponents 92-20. But the wins are over Barrow and Houston, which could be the youngest team overall in the state.

Lathrop and West Valley are among the most intriguing teams in the state. Both Fairbanks programs dropped from Division I to Division II in the ever-evolving prep football reclassification effort in Alaska. And both are 2-0. West Valley has wins over Division I Service and Eielson. Lathrop beat Division II Kenai and Division I Dimond.

The hot start for the Interior teams have me very interested in the Railbelt Conference, which also includes Palmer and North Pole.

Soldotna didn’t need much time to bounce back after West Anchorage snapped the Stars’ state-record winning streak in Week 1. The Stars blasted North Pole 66-19. West’s 18-13 win ended the streak, which was second in the nation at 59. Oddly, the nation’s longest streak ended the week after Soldotna’s. Kimberly, Wisconsin’s streak of 70 straight ended with a 31-28 loss to Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) on Aug. 17. The nation’s longest winning streak is now 49 games, held by Lamar, Missouri.

Alaska has a new king of the streak. After SoHi’s loss to West, Barrow had a state-best seven straight wins. After Barrow’s loss to Eagle River, Bartlett is now on the top of the ladder with seven straight wins.

Speaking of the Golden Bears, Bartlett is part of the state’s top matchup in Week 3. The Golden Bears, who have scored 135 combined points in their first two games, travel to West Anchorage for a rematch of the 2017 Division I state title game.