Moose 0-2 after rough night at Bartlett

ANCHORAGE — Early-season struggles continued for the Palmer Moose on Friday, as they fell at Bartlett High, 56-9.

After falling to East 33-0 in last week’s opener, the Moose got out to a slow start against the Golden Bears, who fell at home to Colony last week, 47-6.

Bartlett took the opening kickoff 68 yards on 10 plays before scoring on a 35-yard pass from Aaron Egoak to Jerome Afe.

Three straight three-and-outs by the Moose quickly turned into a three-score deficit as Markus Sagatu scored on runs of 23 and 43 yards to make it 20-0.

As the clock ticked inside of a minute to go in the first quarter, the Bears had a total yardage advantage of 202-0 on the Moose, who were still looking for their first first down.

They got that with the help of a pair of unsportsmanlike penalties against the home team, which helped set set up a 32-yard strike from quarterback Clayton Southwick to wide receiver Trey Witz, who was knocked out shy of the pylon at the 2.

But on the very next play, Moose running back Nick DeBach coughed it up at the line of scrimmage, where it was recovered by Bartlett linebacker Eddie Telea.

Two plays later, Trey Kingsland was off to the races on a 93-yard touchdown run and, at 28-0 17 seconds into the second quarter, the rout was on.

Palmer kept fighting however, and thanks to a 50-yard run by fullback Austin Farris, they again had it in the red zone.

Bolstered by two more personal fouls against the Bears, the Moose got it inside the 1 on third down, only to see a quarterback sneak and run by DeBach came up shy, and Palmer turned it over on downs.

Palmer did get its first points of the season, however, on the very next play, as Egoak struggled getting control of the snap and was taken down in the end zone by Rhett McKenney for a safety that made it 28-2.

A 37-yard run by Sagatu and a 52-yard touchdown pass from Egoak to Kingsland made it 42-2 going into the half.

The Moose managed their first touchdown of the season with 6:28 to play in the fourth when tailback Larry Cutsforth took it in from the 5. Cutsforth added the point after to give the game its 56-9 final.

After rushing nine times for just 12 yards in the first half, Cutsforth found some room to operate in the second, finishing with 81 yards on 19 carries.

Southwick completed 7 of 14 passes with two interceptions for 107 yards, three of those completions to Witz for 48 yards. Matt Daniels made two catches for 33 yards.