Patriots edge Moose, win Railbelt

NORTH POLE — All season long, North Pole’s defense has bailed the team out in close games.

On Saturday afternoon, with the Railbelt Conference championship in the balance, the Patriots needed their offense to return the favor.

It delivered.

Quarterback Lee Jones’ 28-yard touchdown pass to Mike Flenniken in the fourth quarter gave North Pole a 14-7 win over conference foe Palmer and gave the Patriots their first Railbelt title since 2004.

After the win, the Patriots lined up single-file to high five their fans and then strutted along the sideline in a six-man-wide parade of jubilation.

The North Pole players — many with a smudged mess of red, white and blue face paint on their sweaty faces — sang a victory tune with a chorus of “hey-ey-ey-ey” as they capered across the field.

“It just seems kind of unreal right now,” senior offensive lineman Brenden Martinez said. “My older brother, he win the Railbelt in the ’04 season. I remember I was a little kid watching that stuff. I never thought it would be happening to me right now.”

And like many wins in their unbeaten record, this one didn’t come easily.

With the score tied at 7 at the half, the Patriots offense couldn’t muster a first down until Jones almost single-handedly drove the team 60 yards for the winning score.

Jones slammed through Palmer’s linebackers for rushing gains of 16, 13 and 3 yards.

He then took to the air. With the North Pole offensive line giving him more than ample time, Jones heaved a long, high TD pass to Flenniken.

The pass, pushed by the string breeze, floated long enough for a Moose cornerback to get his sights on it, but Flenniken had the superior position and caught near the left sideline in the end zone.

But the Patriots worries weren’t over once they were ahead.

The Moose came back with a enlivened spirit, cruising downfield with consistent gains on the ground and two devastatingly effective pass plays: a 51-yard trick play in which running back Brennan Bohman threw to a wide-open Mitch Swetzof and a 16-yard strike to Jeffrey Mitchell from quarterback Dustin Silva that put Palmer at North Pole 4-yard line.

The Moose soon had second-and-goal on the 1-yard line.

The situation didn’t worry defensive coordinator Rusty Ham.

“We have less to defend on the goal line,”he said. “We look at that as our advantage.”

It turns out there was little to worry about, as defensive lineman Jackson Collins derailed Bohman in the backfield for a 4-yard loss.

“That was awesome! Wasn’t that great?” Ham said, praising Collins’ ability to read Palmer’s guard and know where the play was going to develop.

“I saw that guard pull, went back there and just hit that running back,” Collins said.

Linebacker Alex Innes then finished off the Moose by knocking down a Silva pass near the end-zone line.

And so, with 15.8 seconds left on the clock, Jones took a snap and kneeled, sealing the Railbelt title.

“The greatest thing about it: It has nothing to do with me,” head coach Richard Henert said. “It has everything to do with the kids, the coaches the community, the great support we have here. I’m the last piece of the puzzle.”

The win capped a journey that begin with a hard-fought comeback over Colony and a close call against then-winless West Valley.

“Every week our team gets better and better,” said running back Taylor Lewis, who had a 55-yard run in the second quarter and a 4-yard touchdown run two plays later.

With top running back Dane Ebanez off the roster for disciplinary reasons, the Patriots rushing was lead by Lewis (64 yards), Eric Antesberger (57 yards) and Jones (38 yards).

“Dane’s a really good back, works really hard, but we’ve got so many other guys stepping up … that we just come right up and plow in and don’t miss a beat,” Martinez said.

Palmer’s Swetzof had the best offensive performance on the day, reeling in four catches for 114 yards, more than a third of the Moose’s 261 total yards.

The Moose’s offense churned out clock killing drives, but Palmer couldn’t seem to put together a complete drive.

“We have to be able to finish getting into that doggone end zone,” Christiansen said. “That’s something that we have to get better at, and obviously we could still be playing overtime if we got in there.”

In the end, Ham chalked the title up to the Patriots mental advantage.

“We have the players who communicate so well, just a great bunch of intelligent players,” Ham said.

And that intelligence is the difference between the Patriots who barely missed out on the playoffs a year ago, and the No. 1-ranked North Pole team that clinched its conference championship Saturday.

“This means probably everything if you’re a coach or a football player,” Ham said. “… This is what we expected. We believed in it. We knew it was within reach. It was there.”

Contact Fairbanks Daily News-Miner staff writer Joshua Armstrong at 459-7583.

North Pole 14, Palmer 7

Saturday, North Pole

First Quarter

Palmer—Daly 4 run (Zegzdryn kick), 3:02.

Second Quarter

North Pole—Lewis 4 run (Hingst kick), 9:13.

Fourth Quarter

North Pole—Flenniken 28 pass from Jones ( Hingst kick), 5:22.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—North Pole: Lewis 7-64, Antesberger 11-57, Jones 10-38, Eriksen 3-2, Wright 1-2. Palmer: Bohman 9-78, Daly 7-31, Scoresby 11-12, Silva 2-3, Zegzdryn 1-1, McCall 1-(-4).

PASSING—North Pole: Jones 3-10-0-66. Palmer: Silva 5-10-0-89, Bohman 1-1-0-51.

RECEIVING—North Pole: Flenniken 2-41, Wright 1-25, Palmer: Swetzof 4-114, Mitchell 1-16, Scoresby 1-10