Lathrop snaps long conference losing streak

PALMER — Lathrop High football is proving it’s not the size of the Malemute in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the Malemute, mauling Colony 26-19 Friday to open Railbelt Conference play.

The win on the road not only puts Lathrop up a quick 2-0 on the season after pasting Seward 45-0 the week before, it showcased the Malemutes’ speed and big-play ability, scoring on plays of 68 and 57 yards. The fireworks started in the first quarter when Kaelan Lee sprinted up the south sideline for 61 yards on his first carry, setting up his own 5-yard touchdown run and putting Lathrop up 6-0.

“That’s what it came down to, our guys are just fast,” a hoarse Lathrop head coach Jason Gazewood said about his team’s big-play ability. “They can run away from people, that’s for sure.”

Friday’s win was not only Lathrop’s first win over Colony since 2005, it also broke a 21-game conference losing streak. Although the Malemutes only dressed 19 varsity players, their athletic ability can’t be ignored, Gazewood said, adding Lathrop isn’t an easy win on everybody else’s schedule anymore.

“We do some neat things and we’re fast and athletic. We can scare you with our speed,” he said. “This team is also a lot different than the ones that have been here the last couple years. Those teams got deflated (when they fell behind) and these guys don’t get deflated at all. They just turned around and said, ‘OK, we’re just going to man up.’ It’s an amazing group of kids.”

While the Malemutes were celebrating at the end of the game, there wasn’t much to celebrate at halftime, trailing Colony 12-6. It was a close score that easily could have been the beginning of a Knight blowout.

Although Lathrop found the scoreboard first to take an early 6-0 lead, Colony came back to score a safety midway through the second quarter, then took a 9-6 lead two minutes later on a 9-yard Rob Lorentz touchdown pass to Simon Root. A 37-yard Daniel Bilafer field goal with 17 seconds left put the Malemutes in a 12-6 hole at the break.

Lorentz, the Knights’ junior signal-caller played solid in his second varsity start, connecting on 17 of 32 passing attempts for 90 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

On the ground, junior running back Wyatt Peltier had a solid game for Colony, bruising the Lathrop defense with 33 rushing attempts, gaining 115 yards.

That Colony put points on the board and had several opportunities to win Friday were big steps forward for a program that saw 21 of 22 starters come into the season without varsity playing experience, said head coach Brian McIntosh.

“It’s a loss, and it sucks, but Lathrop’s a great team,” McIntosh said. “They might make the playoffs. That being said, we’re going to have to start winning to be in contention. But we saw much improvement this week. On the offensive line, our line started to gel and make some blocks and dominate the line of scrimmage at times.”

That domination was evident throughout the first half, which saw the Knights run 47 offensive plays to Lathrop’s 17. Colony had great field position, starting three drives on the Lathrop side of the field, including starting from the Lathrop 21 and 20. But the Knights could only manage 12 first-half points. The Knights also had a first down inches from the goal line, but were stuffed in four straight attempts up the middle.

“We need to do better as coaches on the goal line and in red zone situations,” McIntosh said. “We need to put them in the position that they can score touchdowns and be successful.”

It didn’t take long for Lathrop to take momentum in the second half when Gabriel Cunningham connected with MonTae Tate for a 68-yard bomb to tie the game 12-12.

Colony answered on its next drive, capped by a 23-yard Lorentz pass to Daniel Bilafer, whose extra point gave Colony its biggest lead at 19-12.

But the Cunningham-Tate connection was in sync as the pair teamed up for a 57-yard touchdown on the next drive that almost mirrored their first. A missed 2-point conversion had the Malemutes down 19-18, but not for long. With 1:53 left in the third quarter, Cunningham threw his third TD of the quarter, a highlight-reel tip drill Lee eventually came down with.

Although the offense stole the show with its big plays in the second, it was the defense that helped set an aggressive tone for the game with its goal-line stand, Gazewood said.

“That was huge,” Gazewood said. “For our kids to respond to that, that speaks volumes.”

While the Malemutes played with the lead for much of the second half, Colony always seemed to be knocking on the door. With 7:30 left to play and Lathrop leading 26-19, the Malemutes had an opportunity to try and burn some time off the clock with its ground game. Instead, they threw three quick incomplete passes that only took 18 seconds.

In hindsight, Gazewood said he should have managed the clock better in that situation.

“That wasn’t very smart,” he said. “That was pretty dumb. We wanted to be aggressive and really put them away. Did it work out as well as we wanted? No.”

McIntosh was also surprised by the move, but said he was pleased how his team responded by driving for the end zone until the end.

“I’m proud of our kids. It was a hard-fought match and I’m proud of our kids for not giving up,” he said. “I’m proud of our kids. We played hard and just made too many mistakes. And as the coach, that’s on me.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Lathrop 26, Colony 19

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter:

Lathrop — Lee 66 run (2-point failed) 3:17.

Second quarter:

Colony — Safety 7:34.

Colony — Root 9 pass from Lorentz (Bilafer kick) 5:31.

Colony — Bilafer 37 field goal :17.

Third quarter:

Lathrop — Tate 68 pass from Cunningham (2-point failed) 9:05.

Colony — Bilafer 23 pass from Lorentz (Bilafer kick) 8:05.

Lathrop — Tate 57 pass from Cunningham (2-point failed ) 6:45.

Lathrop — Lee 5 pass from Cunningham (Tate 2-point) 1:53.

Fourth quarter:

No scoring

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

RUSHING — Lathrop: Tate 9-75, Cunningham 4-11, Seminario 2-3, Desmond 1-0; Colony: Peltier 33-115, Lorentz 1-(-11), Root 1-(-1).

PASSING — Lathrop: Cunningham 8-23-0—176; Colony: Lorentz 17-32-0—90.

RECEIVING — Lathrop: Tate 3-139, Lee 2-11, Fox 1-18, Stephenson 1-8; Colony: Root 8-53, Peltier 3-0, Bilafer 2-31, Faulk 2-2, Compton 1-6.