Lights go out on Knights

When a bank of lights went out during the first half of Colony's game against Lathrop last night, nobody knew it was a sign of things to come.

While the lights came back on a time later, the lights went out on Colony's offense in the second half of a 34-7 loss to the Malemutes. After a 7-7 tie at halftime, the Knights mustered 38 yards of total offense -- including 18 yards on their final play -- following the break. Coupled with a 20-point Lathrop explosion in just more than a three-minute stretch in the third quarter, the lack of offense doomed the Knights.

"I guess they wanted it more in the second half. I don't know why. It's our homecoming game. We should have been more intense for this," said center Dominick Bellotte. "Our mental mistakes killed us."

In the first half, the Knights contained standout Lathrop quarterback Brock Graziadei. The Knights produced a goal-line stand to keep the Malemutes out o the end zone on one drive, and surrendered only seven points. Midway through the second quarter, Colony's Rhett Magner took a punt back 51 yards for the tying score, aided by a devastating block by Bellotte.

"They didn't come out with different looks in the second half," Bellotte said.

But the Malemutes came out a different team. After stopping the Knights' first drive of the second half by stuffing a fourth-and-inches at the Lathrop 30, the Malemutes put together a six-play drive, with Graziadei capping it with a 1-yard touchdown run.

Then, disaster struck the Knights. On fourth down from their own 30-yard-line, the Knights tried to punt, but the snap got by the punter and the Malemutes took over at the 8-yard-line. On the next play, Graziadei flung a touchdown pass to Nick Varner.

"We thought we had the slant [route] open a couple of times, and we wanted to score right away," Graziadei said. "Our receivers are a great bunch of guys."

Lathrop then recovered an onside kick. On the third play following the recovery, Graziadei was flushed from the pocket and sprinted to the line of scrimmage, bringing up the Colony linebackers and secondary. He stopped short of the line and lofted a perfect off-balance throw to Shawn Fletcher, who caught it in stride and scored to give the Malemutes a commanding 27-7 lead.

The Knights didn't quit, however, but their mistakes haunted them. To start the fourth quarter, Colony attempted a fake punt, and punter Tim Egger's pass was dropped by the receiver. On two different plays in the second half, the Knights set up perfect throwback screens to the halfback, but the pass from Magner was dropped.

"It was one mistake after the other in the second half," Bellotti said. "We're going to have a very intense week of practice I bet. It's going to be an all-out brawl getting ready for next weekend."

David Craig led the Knight ground attack, gaining 34 yards on seven carries. Magner gained 18 on the ground and passed for another 61 yards. The Knights' top receiver was Shawn Olivera, who pulled in two passes for 23 yards. Graziadei finished with 194 yards passing and four touchdowns.

The loss didn't dash the Knights' playoff hopes, though. They secured a berth in the state playoffs following Wasilla's loss to West Valley in Fairbanks the same evening. The Knights play North Pole in Fairbanks this weekend, but if the Knights would lose and West Valley beats Lathrop, the Knights and the Wolfpack would finish with identical 2-3 conference records, but Colony holds the tiebreaker, having already beat the Wolfpack this year.

If Colony beats North Pole, the Knights would play Lathrop again, this time in Fairbanks, in the first round of the playoffs. If the Knights lose, they'll play at Palmer in the first round.

West Valley 28, Wasilla 14

Ward Dobbs rushed for 266 yards on 39 carries to lead the West Valley Wolfpack past the Wasilla Warriors 28-14 in Fairbanks on Friday.

Dobbs scored on runs of 39, 2 and 53 yards to help the Wolfpack earn their first Northern Railbelt win.

Jed Wade scored on a 2-yard run to give the tribe the early lead in the first quarter.

Wade rushed for a team-high 103 yards in the contest.

Wade's younger brother Jake rushed for 89 yards and also scored a touchdown.

Wasilla, which was eliminated from postseason play last week, will end its season with a home date against Palmer next week in the Potato Bowl.

Nikiski 26, Houston 6

The Nikiski Bulldogs secured second place in the Greatland Conference with a 26-6 win over the visiting Houston Hawks on Saturday.

Taylor Richey led the Hawks with 120 yards on the ground. Richey scored Houston's lone touchdown, a 13-yard run in the third quarter.The Hawks (2-4 in conference and 2-5 overall) conclude the 2003 season at

Kodiak next week.