Knights, Warriors to renew rivalry tonight

WASILLA — Tonight, a pair of bitter rivals will hit Wasilla High’s Veterans Memorial Field, and both squads have plenty to prove.

After a pair of big wins, the Colony Knights are out to prove they’re for real. And Wasilla, which hosts Colony tonight at 7 p.m., is eager to show its lopsided defeat at Juneau-Douglas was a fluke.

“We’re excited to get a chance to play Colony and be on the field with them. And after last week’s game, we definitely have to get on the field and have something better happen to us,” Wasilla head coach Kent Rilatos said after his team’s practice Thursday.

Rilatos’ Warriors are hoping a better night against the Knights will push away painful recollections of a 69-30 loss to Juneau-Douglas in Juneau. Wasilla moved the ball, amassing about 300 yards in offense while scoring 30 points. The Warriors led 15-14 at one point in the first quarter and trailed just 34-22 at the half.

But Juneau used a near-perfect second half to drub the Warriors. The Bears outscored Wasilla 35-8 during the final two quarters. Dorien Isaak, Juneau’s junior varsity quarterback who was filling in for injured all-conference starter Phillip Fenumiai, set school records with 398 yards passing and seven passing touchdowns during the win.

At one point, Rilatos said, Isaak was 15-for-15 passing in the second half. Isaak threw touchdown passes of 63, 40 and 27 yards during a 2 minute and 26 second span in the third quarter.

“It was sort of a perfect storm (for Juneau),” Rilatos said.

Rilatos said after the game, Juneau-Douglas head coach Rich Sjoroos told Rilatos the second half was the best half of football he’s seen from the Crimson-Bears in his long tenure with the program.

Wasilla did hand Juneau some chances, Rilatos said. Two turnovers on special teams and another on offense gave the Bears great field position. They were able to capitalize each time.

As far as the offense, Rilatos said he’ll take the 300 yards of total offense and 30 points every week. Junior Mitchell Rilatos led Wasilla with a team-high 115 yards on the ground, and scored a 3-yard touchdown midway through the second to give the Warriors the 15-14 lead. Cash McGregor led the Warriors with seven catches for 56 yards, and grabbed a touchdown pass for the second straight week. McGregor also returned a kickoff 80 yards for a score late in the first half.

Fullback Quace Wright added a 2-yard plunge into the end zone in the second half.

While the Warriors suffered the tough loss in Week 2, Colony scored its second straight big win of the season, beating defending medium-schools state champion Kenai 44-20. Colony has now outscored opponents 100-27 during the first two weeks.

Despite those numbers, Colony head coach Brian McIntosh said his players have not relaxed.

“The kids have not lost focus,” McIntosh said. “It’s been a pretty intense week of practice. We always have stuff to work on. We’re excited, but hopefully we’re getting better every day.”

Senior quarterback Rob Lorentz threw for a career-high 298 yards in the win, and tossed three touchdown passes. Lorentz connected with junior Antonio Bush seven times for 179 yards in the win. Bush also caught two of those touchdown scores.

Jacob Hall added 58 yards and a touchdown pass.

The Knights also had success on the ground. Senior Wyatt Peltier found the end zone twice for the second straight game and added 51 yards to junior Bryce Niver’s team-high 89. Niver also scored.

McIntosh is stoked to see the big numbers, but was quick to point out the players in the trenches.

“Our (offensive) line and (defensive) line are playing pretty good,” McIntosh said.

Junior lineman Justin Booth has stood out on both sides of the ball, he said.

McIntosh said, with no disrespect to Skyview or Kenai, Wasilla presents the Knights with the first big test of the season.

“Wasilla has a high-powered offense,” McIntosh said. “Nothing against (Skyview and Kenai), but those are nonconference games. We talked as a team. Those are our preseason games. The regular season is the conference games, and every conference game means a lot.”

Nikiski at Houston

HOUSTON — The Houston Hawks will look to rebound from a tough loss to Kodiak as they host the Nikiski Bulldogs tonight at 7 p.m. at Houston High School.

Houston, which beat Valdez 26-0 at Houston earlier this month in its season opener, suffered as 32-12 loss to Kodiak in Kodiak last week. The Hawks trailed just 7-6 late in the first half, but Kodiak’s Melvin Javier scored on touchdown runs of 80 and 19 yards during the final 90 seconds of the second quarter to break the game open.

Nikiski improved to 1-1 with a 34-7 win over Skyview last week.

The Bulldogs, who sport the Wing-T running attack, rushed for 397 yards in the win. Nikiski opened the season with a 44-41 loss to large-schools Lathrop.

Waylon Soptick currently leads the Hawks with 244 yards rushing and two touchdowns. River Ross has three touchdown catches during the first two games of the season.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com, follow him @matsu_sports and find him by searaching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.