MISSED OPPORTUNITY

PALMER — The Colony Knights walked off the field Friday night thinking “what if?”

What if the they converted on 4th-and-goal at the 2-yard line on their first offensive possesion?

What if the they were able to spike the ball on their opponent’s 5-yard line and stop the clock before time expired at the end of the first half?

What if they had not turned the ball over inside the red zone twice?

Despite spending much of the first half in West Anchorage territory and running 18 more plays than the Eagles during the first two quarters, the Knights offense could only muster six points and suffered a 7-6 loss to West Anchorage at Colony High School.

“Our defense played a real good game,” Colony head coach Brian McIntosh said. “On offense, we’ve just got to work on getting into the red zone and punching it in.”

West Anchorage used an 84-yard Dahmir Bell touchdown catch midway through the second quarter to grab the lead and the Eagles held on to score the one-point victory over the host Knights.

That long Conor Feckley touchdown pass represented nearly half of West’s total 177 yards in the first half. The Knights controlled possesion for much of the first two quarters, running 39 plays for 175 yards, and spent virtually the entire time in West territory. But the Knights couldn’t capilitize.

Colony’s lone score came with 53 seconds left in the first quarter. Senior Skye Rench, who contrbuted more than 100 yards of total offense, took a Mitchell Slater shovel pass and rumbled 45 yards for the score.

“That was an amazing run,” McIntosh said. “It was amazing to see him break so many tackles.”

But other than the Rench touchdown, the Knights couldn’t punch it in.

The Knights began their first possesion just inside West territory and used 10 plays to march down to the 2-yard line. Facing 4th-and-goal, the drive stalled when the Knights fumbled as the tried to sneak it into the end zone.

Colony had another 10-play drive on its second possesion and took the ball deep into Eagles territory again. And again, the Knights coulndn’t convert on fourth down.

The Knights recovered a West Anchorage fumble to give the Colony offense another opportunity in Eagles territoy. But five plays later, Slater was picked off at the West 16-yard line.

On the ensuing play, Feckley found Bell streaking down the left sideline and hooked up with the flanker for the 84-yard score.

“The coverage on that long pass was pretty good. Our guy was right there with him,” McIntosh said. “The receiver made a great play and we didn’t have the speed to keep up with him.”

The Knights had another shot to score late in the first half. Slater connected with Connor Weihs on a 27-yard gain to put the Knights inside the 10, but time expired before Colony was able to stop the clock.

West was able to shut down the Colony offense in the second half. The Eagles held Rench to no yardage and Slater to negative yards in the second half.

“West made some real good adjustments,” McIntosh said.

Overall, McIntosh was happy with the intensity of his team.

“Overall, I was pleased with the kids’ effort,” McIntosh said. “I have no complaint with the effort.”

Although the Knights did fall to 0-2, both losses came in nonconference play.

“We wanted to schedule two Anchorage teams to see how we could compete,” McIntosh said. “So far, we’ve been able to hang around. Maybe we could be 1-1. We could just as likely be 2-0.”

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

West Anchorage 7, Colony 6

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter

Colony — Rench 45 pass from Slater (run failed) 0:53.

Second quarter

West — Bell 84 pass from Feckley (Troxel kick) 5:18.

Third quarter

no scoring

Fourth quarter

no scoring

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — West: Holtman 17-64, Feckley 7-10, Dion 2-2; Colony: Rench 23-44, Slater 14-19, Wainwright 3-12, Monson 2-5.

PASSING — West: Feckley 10-22-2—147; Colony: Slater 15-25-1—132.

RECEIVING — West: Bell 6-121, Lawrence 1-15, Brown 1-13, Dion 1-11, Holtman 1-6; Colony: Rench 6-69, Bricker 5-19, Weihs 2-33, DePriest 2-11.