Moose, Patriots meet with Railbelt title, playoff position on the line

PALMER — There will be much at stake when the Palmer Moose and North Pole Patriots meet on Patriot Pride Field at North Pole High School on Saturday.

Palmer (4-2 overall, 3-1 in Railbelt Conference play) enters the contest in a tie for second place in the Railbelt, while North Pole (6-0, 4-0) is undefeated and sits at the top of the seven-team conference.

With Colony, which hosts West Valley on Friday, also sitting at 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference, the Moose could realistically finish the regular anywhere between first and third in the conference.

Palmer is still alive in the hunt for the conference title and a finish in the top two spots in the Railbelt would give the Moose the chance to host a first-round playoff game.

“Mathematically, there’s a lot of possibilities for us and everybody else,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said Thursday afternoon.

But before the Moose start dissecting playoff scenarios and playing the ‘what if?’ game, Christiansen said the Moose have to take things one step at a time.

“That hasn’t been the focus for us right now,” Christiansen said, referring to potential conference titles and home field advantage. “It’s just the opportunity to play North Pole, the No. 1 team. There’s a lot of reasons to prepare the best we can and go get after them.”

North Pole continued its very successful 2008 campaign with a 25-0 shutout of the defending large-schools state champion Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears on the island last week.

The Patriot defense recovered a fumble to set up one of North Pole’s three first-half touchdowns, and used four interceptions in the second half to keep the Bears off the scoreboard.

“Defensively, they’ve been very good,” Christiansen said. “In the last eight quarters they’ve given up one touchdown.”

Senior Dane Ebanez also returned a punt 50 yards for a score in the first quarter. Ebanez’ score was part of a 19-point surge within a five-minute span for the Patriots at the end of the first quarter.

Ebanez, one of about four options in the North Pole running game, leads the Patriots with 597 on the ground.

“They have good running backs, fullback, tailback — a lot to throw at you,” Christiansen said. “Up front they’ve played well all year.”

The battle at the line of scrimmage could be a key in the game. North Pole sports a veteran line that includes seniors Jackson Collins, Mike Sewell and Clay Tidwell.

Palmer also is led by a trio of seniors up front — center Kevin Priestley, guard Dan Contini and tight end J.D. Mitchell.

The senior-laden Moose line which also includes Raymond Chapman and David Zoerb has paved the way for a trio of Palmer running backs who have combined to gain nearly 1,200 yards on the ground during the team’s first six games.

Junior Brennan Bohman leads the Moose with 481 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

Bohman ran for 61 yards and a score during a 14-0 nonconference win over Kodiak last week.

Junior fullback Coleman Ahrens has 419 yards and three scores.

Junior Johnny Daly posted a career-high 112 yards against Kodiak and scored for the third straight week. In the last two weeks, Daly has touchdown runs of 40 and 60 yards.

After recording one or fewer yards passing in four of its first five games this season, Palmer had double-digit passing attempts for the first time this year against Kodiak.

Junior quarterback Dustin Silva, who had zero yards passing in three games and just a single passing yard in a week five loss to Colony, finished 6-of-12 for 82 yards in the win.

Silva connected with senior wide receiver Mitch Swetzof four times for 44 yards.

West Valley at Colony

Colony could take another step toward hosting a first-round playoff game with a win over West Valley tonight at Colony High School.

The Knights (4-2, 3-1) share the same record as Palmer, but hold the tiebreaker against the Moose thanks to a 27-6 win over Palmer during the fifth week of the season.

Colony is still mathematically alive in the hunt for the conference title, but would need Palmer and Lathrop (1-5, 0-4) to beat North Pole in the final two weeks of the season.

North Pole owns the tiebreaker against Colony thanks to a 20-16 win during the opening week of the season.

Colony improved to 3-1 with a 53-24 win over Wasilla last week.

Senior quarterback Collin Murphy posted a mind-boggling 272 yards rushing and five touchdowns in the win, and now has 709 yards and 12 touchdowns during the first six weeks of the season.

He also threw his seventh touchdown of the season during the win.

Seniors Chris Krieg and Gino Paoletti also scored in the win. Paoletti is second on the squad with 367 yards rushing, while Krieg is third with 297.

West Valley won a riot-shortened game at Lathrop High School last week. With 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, as West Valley held a 38-6 advantage, a fight involving spectators broke out at Lathrop High School. Due to the number of people involved in the mass altercation, school officials opted to end the game in the fourth quarter.

West Valley’s Jacob Claypoole returned a kickoff 87 yards for a score in the second half to spark the Wolfpack in the second half.

Houston at Wasilla

The Wasilla Warriors could be creating a new Valley rivalry when they host the small-schools Houston Hawks at Veterans Memorial Field at 7 p.m.

Both teams are coming off difficult losses. Wasilla fell 53-24 to Colony last week, while Kenai blanked Houston 28-0 at Terry Shurtleff Field.

Wasilla was eliminated from postseason play with the loss, and to add injury to insult, the Warriors lost all-conference quarterback Adrese LaVern for the season. The senior signal caller suffered a broken upper arm while being sacked in the third quarter.

Senior wide receiver Tim Orr left the game soon after with a concussion, and also could be lost for the season.

Senior Chris Crane continues to be the workhorse for the Warriors. Even though he was held to a season-low 36 yards rushing, Crane scored two of Wasilla’s three touchdowns.

Crane now has 609 yards and seven touchdowns in six games.

While Wasilla’s year is done after its regular season finale against Palmer in the Potato Bowl, Houston is a virtual lock for one of the Northern Lights Conference’s four playoff bids despite its two-game losing skid.

The Hawks started the season 4-0, but have suffered back-to-back losses to small-schools powers Soldotna and Kenai.

Skyview (0-6, 0-4) was eliminated from postseason contention after its 67-0 loss to Soldotna (5-0, 3-0) last week.

Soldotna and Kodiak (4-1, 3-0) are the undefeated teams in the conference and play this weekend with a potential conference title on the line.

Kenai stands at 2-1 after its win over Houston, and the Hawks sit fourth at 2-2.

Homer (0-3) is on life support and will be eliminated from postseason contention with a loss to Kenai on Saturday. Regardless of what happens the remainder of the year for Houston, a Kenai win over Homer puts Houston in the playoffs.

Houston could potentially have to make the long trip to Barrow to play the Whalers, who stand in first place of the Greatland Conference, in the first round of the playoffs. The game would be historic, marking the first time a prep football playoff game is hosted above the Arctic Circle.

Following the conclusion of the Wasilla-Houston game, Wasilla High School is hosting a fireworks show. The fireworks are part of Wasilla’s homecoming celebration.

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

Mat-Su Valley leaders

Rushing

Player-Team Att. Yds. Avg. TD

Collin Murphy- Col 75 709 9.5 12

Chris Crane- Was 108 609 5.6 7

Brennan Bohman- Pal 97 481 5.0 3

Kyle Sumner- Hou 91 448 4.9 5

Coleman Ahrens- Pal 64 419 6.5 3

Gino Paoletti- Col 46 367 7.9 1

Chris Kreig- Col 54 297 5.5 5

Johnny Daly- Pal 36 294 8.2 2

Matt Jaronik- Col 59 280 4.7 2

Brandon Dukes- Hou 42 187 4.5 2

Micah Ranum- Hou 34 185 5.4 4

Ryan Contreras- Hou 22 183 8.3 1

Passing

Player-team A-C Yards T-I

Jordan Webb- Hou 39-87 530 7-4

Collin Murphy- Col 41-71 448 7-4

Cody Pfeifer- Was 27-65 444 5-5

Adrese LaVern- Was 31-80 337 1-4

Dustin Silva- Pal 9-28 105 0-3

Receiving

Player-team Rec. Yards Avg. TD

Tim Orr- Was 24 326 13.6 2

Matt Jaronik- Col 17 177 10.4 2

Bryan Mason- Hou 16 236 14.8 4

Tim Jaronik- Col 13 168 12.9 2

Chris Crane- Was 13 153 11.7 1

Total scoring

Player- school TD 2-pt PAT FG Total

Collin Murphy- Col 12 1 2 0 77

Chris Crane- Was 8 1 0 0 50

Kyle Sumner- Hou 7 0 0 0 42

Chris Kreig- Col 6 0 0 0 36

Tillerman Kroon- Was 2 0 15 2 33

Tim Jaronik- Col 3 0 13 0 31

Bryan Mason- Hou 4 2 0 0 28

Matt Jaronik- Col 4 1 0 0 26

Zach Zegzdryn- Pal 0 0 14 4 26

Micah Ranum- Hou 4 0 0 0 24

Brennan Bohman- Pal 4 0 0 0 24

Coleman Ahrens- Pal 3 0 0 0 18

Johnny Daly- Pal 3 0 0 0 18