Line moves Knights forward

PALMER — Not many teams can say they won a conference championship with three different starting quarterbacks. But the Colony Knights can.

After season-ending injuries to opening day starter Mitchell Slater and his replacement, Anthony Bricker, the Knights needed Payton McCann to help Colony stay undefeated in Railbelt play and win a conference title. But even though the Knights used three quarterbacks, there has been at least once constant — the Colony offensive line.

“As a unit, it’s the best line we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Colony head coach Brian McIntosh, who has served on the Knights coaching staff in some capacity for the last seven years. “They’re the heart and soul of our team.”

Tonight, that offensive line will lead the Knights into the 2010 postseason. The Railbelt champion Knights host Dimond, the Cook Inlet Conference fourth seed, at 7 p.m. at Colony High School.

Four of Colony’s five players up front — seniors Trey Farber, Renn Wright, Rio Stewart and Josh Doan — are second-year starters. After earning all-conference honors in 2009, senior Dakota Wainwright moved from offensive guard to fullback. But junior Ty Farber quickly moved into the starting lineup.

Wright and Trey Farber have been contributing on varsity since their sophomore seasons.

“We have great chemistry together,” Trey Farber said after Colony beat Palmer in Week 7. “That chemistry helps.”

McIntosh said the success of his line has a lot to do with the offseason work of the players and the unit’s coach, Jason Ross.

“He brought a lot of knowledge to the staff,” McIntosh said of Ross, a former Whitworth College player who has served on the Knights coaching staff for the last six years.

McIntosh said the group’s knowledge of zone blocking, the scheme Colony uses, is key.

“This is the first group that really gets the zone concept,” McIntosh said of the system, which differs from the more traditional man-blocking scheme.

The scheme — which calls for lineman blocking an area of the field rather than a particular man on defense — fits Colony’s personnel, a smaller group, McIntosh said.

“They’re not very tall. Physically, they don’t look very big, but when they start getting at you, I think we’ve surprised a couple teams,” McIntosh said.

Stewart, Colony’s left tackle, is the tallest at 6-foot-1. Stewart and Trey Farber sit at 240 pounds. Wright, the left guard, is the heaviest at 255. Doan, the right guard, and Ty Farber, the center, are both at 215.

Behind that offensive line, Colony has amassed nearly 2,800 yards of total offense. Colony also had it’s first 1,000-yard rusher, senior Skye Rench, since making the move to its spread offense, McIntosh said.

Tonight the line will try to help the Knight redeem themselves against a Dimond squad that upset Colony 18-12 in overtime during the first week of the season.

“I know the kids are excited to play Dimond,” McIntosh said. “We felt like we didn’t perform well.”

The Lynx forced four Colony turnovers and posted a pair of scoring plays of 45 yards or more during the game.

“Dimond made the plays they needed to,” McIntosh said. “Give a lot of credit to Dimond. They’re in the playoffs for a reason.”

Dimond finished 4-4 overall after going winless during the 2009 campaign.

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