Moose, Knights play for more than bragging rights

PALMER — More than bragging rights will be at stake when the Colony Knights host the Palmer Moose tonight at Colony High School.

“We’re approaching it like there’s probably a conference championship on the line,” Colony head coach Brian McIntosh said Thursday afternoon.

The Knights and Moose enter tonight’s contest as the two hottest teams in the Railbelt Conference. Colony (4-2 overall, 4-0 in conference play) is riding a four-game winning streak. The Moose (4-2, 3-1) are winners of three straight. Both teams have their eyes on the conference crown.

Colony could clinch tonight with a win. A victory would push the Knights to 5-0 in conference play. Juneau-Douglas (5-1, 4-1) is still in the conversation, but Colony holds the tiebreaker over the Crimson Bears. With a victory over Palmer, the worst Colony could finish is tied with Juneau at 5-1. The tiebreaker would give the Knights the Railbelt championships and conference’s top playoff seed.

Palmer has a shot for the title, but needs some help. The Moose have only one loss in conference play, but that came against Juneau. Wins over Colony tonight and Wasilla next week would leave the Moose in first place, but Palmer would still need a North Pole win over Juneau in Week 8 to win the Railbelt outright.

Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen does not want his players looking too far ahead. The focus is on tonight.

“This is the chance for us to get in the race,” Christiansen said Thursday.

For Colony to clinch, the Knights will have to stop a high-scoring Moose offense that ranks second among large-schools teams with an average of 34 points per game.

“They really run the ball extremely well,” McIntosh said. “You look at the stat sheets and they have five to six kids running the ball every game.”

Palmer has five different running backs with at least 170 yards and two touchdowns. Thanks to back-to-back 100-yard efforts, senior David Clement has emerged as the top back on the squad with 349 yards and six touchdowns. Junior Douglas Chadwick, who has battled injury since a hot start, has 330 yards and four scores. Junior Ian Ahrens topped the 100-yard mark for the first time in his varsity career during the win over West Valley last week. Fullback David Sorenson has contributed, and receiver Jim McCall is a threat running the ball from the slot.

Junior quarterback Jackson Buresh has also rushed for five scores.

“They do a good job of mixing the formations, keeping people guessing,” McIntosh said.

The Colony head coach also noted the success of Buresh throwing the ball to McCall. The pitch-catch duo has hooked up 17 times for 372 yards and five scores this season.

“Palmer tends to be really run based, but this year they’ve opened it up,” McIntosh said.

The Knights will use one of the state’s top defenses to combat Palmer’s attack on offense. The Knights are allowing 16 points per game, second lowest among large-schools teams.

“They’re just a good, all-around team,” Christiansen said. “We’ll need to be at the top of our game.”

While the Moose like to keep opponents guessing on offense, they’re trying to guess who will line up at quarterback for the Knights. Colony lost its starting quarterback for the second time this year last week against Wasilla.

Senior Anthony Bricker, who accounted for nearly 1,000 total yards and eight touchdowns during his four starts at quarterback, suffered a broken collarbone during the third quarter of the 20-17 win over the Warriors. McIntosh said Bricker underwent a successful surgery, and will be lost for a minimum of four weeks.

“He’s such a leader on this team,” McIntosh said of Bricker. “We’ll have some big shoes to fill.”

Senior Mitchell Slater, Colony’s opening day starting quarterback, suffered a season-ending injury during the second week of the season.

Colony has not officially announced who will start at quarterback tonight.

“We definitely need to be ready for whatever they have,” Christiansen said. “I think they have a lot of good options. The scary part is, if they come out with one and that’s not working, they could go to another.”

Senior Skye Rench, who leads Colony with 703 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, played the final quarter-and-a-half at quarterback. It marked Rench’s first career appearance at quarterback. The senior finished the game with 117 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

Wasilla at West Valley

Wasilla (1-3, 2-4) will try to snap a two-game losing streak tonight at West Valley (2-2, 3-3).

Both teams are still alive in the race for one of the Railbelt’s four playoff spots. Wasilla would be eliminated from postseason consideration with a loss.

The Warriors were within reach of victory last week, leading 14-7 midway through the third quarter of the 20-17 loss to Colony.

Junior Devon Teeling, who leads Wasilla with 422 yards rushing, sparked the Warriors with an 80-yard touchdown run against the Knights. Braydon Kuiper also scored, snagging a 12-yard AJ Marshall touchdown pass.

Wasilla kicker Paul Sliwa also booted a 45-yard field goal during the loss.

West Valley suffered a 38-21 loss to Palmer last week.

Houston at Kodiak

Houston (3-3 overall, 0-3 in Northern Lights Conference play) will try to get back into the win column Saturday at Kodiak (2-4, 0-3).

The Hawks cruised through their nonconference slate, scoring lopsided wins over Valdez, Ketchikan and Delta. Houston is still in search of its first conference win after losses to Kenai, Soldotna and Skyview.

Kodiak has also struggled in the NLC, scoring a total of six points in three conference games.

Houston senior Brandon Dukes continues to stand as one of the top running backs in the state with 816 yards and 10 touchdowns. Junior Tyler Barron has added 326 yards and eight scores.

The Hawks, who are still mathematically alive in the playoff race, cap their regular season next Saturday at Homer.

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