Knights earn tough win over Wolfpack

PALMER — Early in the fourth quarter, trailing the Railbelt Conference champion Colony Knights by just a field goal, the West Valley Wolfpack caught a break. The West Valley defense recovered a fumble on its own 33 to give the Wolfpack new life. But it took the Knights only three plays to get the ball right back.

Senior Nate Wolfe intercepted a West Valley pass and the Knights followed with a seven-play, 62-yard scoring drive to help seal a 17-13 win over the Wolfpack at Colony High School Saturday night.

“That was huge,” Colony head coach Brian McIntosh said after the win.

Senior quarterback Payton McCann, who rushed for a game-high 144 yards in the victory, capped the drive with an 8-yard scoring run that would prove to be the game-winning score.

“We made a couple small mistakes,” West Valley head coach Daniel Esparza said. “If the ball bounces one way, we catch a couple passes, don’t throw an interception, maybe we come out with the win.”

McCann’s score proved to be crucial to the Knights’ win. Will Vealy returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for a West Valley score.

“It was a good break for them,” McIntosh said. “Speed kills.”

After the McCann touchdown, the kickoff bounced through the middle of the field to Vealy, who was lined up in front of the West Valley deep backs. Vealy used his speed to cut to the right side of the field and up the sideline for the score.

“Everybody in our league seems to be kicking it to that row,” Esparza said. “The only thing we did was switch our deep backs and put them up there. Will is the third-fastest kid in Alaska. He caught the ball and did his thing, made a big play.”

Colony finished with 315 yards on the ground with the win. Senior Skye Rench finished with 130 on 29 carries.

“He fought for all his yards,” McIntosh said of Rench, who also topped the 1,000-yard mark for his senior season.

Senior Dakota Wainwright had six carries for 41 yards and three catches for 42 yards.

Senior kicker Conner Weihs gave Colony the early lead with a 23-yard field goal late in the first quarter. Wainwright muscled his way into the end zone from three yards out to give CHS the 10-point lead late in the first half.

West Valley was able to get on the scoreboard with only nine seconds left in the second quarter when Tucker Plass found tight end Chris Nuttall on a 30-yard scoring pass.

Colony (6-2 overall, 6-0 in Railbelt play) clinched the conference title and home field advantage in the first round last week with a 32-28 win over Palmer. Colony will host Dimond in the first round Friday at 7 p.m. at Colony High School.

West Valley (4-4, 3-3) is the No. 4 seed and will travel to Anchorage next week to face West, the top seed from the CIC.

Overall, Esparza said he’s happy with this team’s performance.

“We got our butts kicked by them last year, and to come back down here, hostile crowd, with the band rocking, and play the way we did, I’m proud of our kids,” Esparza said.

McIntosh said he’s happy to see his team head into the postseason on a streak.

“It’s nice to get of here with the win, and hopefully we can ride that momentum into the playoffs,” McIntosh said.

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

Colony 17, West Valley 13

Saturday, Colony High School

First quarter

Colony — Weihs 23 field goals, 3:16.

Second quarter

Colony — Wainwright 3 run (Weihs kick) 2:50.

West Valley — Nuttall 30 pass from Plass (Graham kick) 00:09.

Third quarter

no scoring

Fourth quarter

Colony — McCann 8 run (Weihs kick) 4:18.

West Valley — Vealy 65 kickoff return (run fail) 4:03.

Individual statistics

RUSHING — West Valley: Comeau 13-9, Vealy 11-57, Graham 10-51; Colony: Rench 29-130, McCann 21-144, Wainwright 6-41, Weihs 1-8.

PASSING — West Valley: Plass 3-10-1—60; Colony: McCann 6-11-0—63.

RECIEVING — West Valley: Vealy 2-30, Nuttall 1-30; Colony: Wainwright 3-42, Oleck 1-11, DePriest 1-9, Weihs 1-1.