Knights sparkle on both sides at 3-way scrimmage at Eagle River

EAGLE RIVER — In any preseason game, at any level, a coach, first-and-foremost wants to see his first-string offense move the ball efficiently. Led by junior quarterback Parker Kizer, the Colony Knights did exactly that in their pair of scrimmages Saturday afternoon at Eagle River High School.

On the third play from scrimmage, Kizer scrambled 35 yards for a touchdown, and had another long touchdown run called back, as the Knights scored on their first two series against South Anchorage, and on their third series, drove it easily inside the 10.

That was just a warmup for the Colony offense, as the Knights struck paydirt six times against the host Wolves to close out the three-way scrimmage.

“This offense is very much a hard offense to run if you don’t get repetitions, and we’ve definitely gotten a lot of reps in the last couple of weeks,” Colony head coach Rhett Magner said. “(Kizer) is a pretty even-keeled type of kid, which is what we wanted at quarterback. He doesn’t get flustered easily and physically, he can take a hit, and with the design of our offense, he’s gonna get hit.”

Kizer, a backup quarterback last season, saw limited action last season, but made the most of it.

“He only took a few snaps, but believe it or not he scored on a couple of those snaps, so that was encouraging,” Magner said. “We need a guy who’s tough mentally and physically, and, so far, he’s shown he’s that guy.”

The Knights defense was nearly as impressive, with the first and second units holding South out of the end zone for the duration of their scrimmage. The only touchdown came on a 20-yard pass on Eagle River’s final play of offense.

“That’s kind of the backbone of our team — defense, that’s what we take pride in,” Magner said. “We’ve got some returners in some really key places taking charge, and right now, it’s their defense... We’ve got some smart, physical kids.”

The Knights kick off their season Friday night at Bartlett High School in Anchorage.

“There’s definitely some stuff we need to work on, but the good thing is we had great energy and great effort,” Magner said. “Our technique wasn’t awesome, or where it’s supposed to be and we need to improve on those things, but they can be fixed. Energy and effort is what we harp on and that was there.”