Patriots outlast Warriors 21-18

WASILLA — The North Pole football program may look like it raided the elves barracks at Santa’s workshop, but the petite Patriots play big.

Wasilla had trouble stopping North Pole senior Frankie Anderson, who pounded out 108 hard-earned yards on the ground Friday in leading the Patriots to a close 21-18 victory over the Warriors. It was the seventh straight win for North Pole over Wasilla and got the Patriots off to a winning start in Railbelt Conference play.

“We are very small, very undersized,” said North Pole head coach Richard Henert, adding Anderson is one of the smaller players on the team. “He’s probably 80 pounds soaking wet (he’s listed at 140 on the roster), but he runs huge. He’s got a great pound step, and when a little guy like that gets upfield, those guys in the backfield who should’ve wrapped him up are left and boom, he’s past them.”

While leaving with a win is always the goal, Friday’s victory wasn’t exactly an exercise in discipline, Henert said. Wasilla helped the Patriots with nine penalties in the first half for 85 yards, including seven in the first quarter.

“Penalties and turnovers killed us, same as last week,” said Wasilla head coach Glenn Nelson, referring to the Warriors’ 15-7 season-opening loss to Soldotna. “Conditioning is not an issue, it’s just mental mistakes. The only reason we were down was mental mistakes. We clean those up, hold onto the ball and we win the game.”

In addition to the nine first-half penalties, the Warrior offense turned the ball over twice and had little time to work downfield. A fourth-down interception near midfield halfway through the second quarter led to one of North Pole’s longest drives of the game, seven plays in just more than three minutes to bump the lead to eight, at 14-6.

A Warrior fumble on their next offensive play gave the Patriots the ball again near midfield, and again the Pats found the end zone to lead 21-6.

Although those turnovers and touchdowns came in about 4:40 of game time, it was Wasilla’s game early. After forcing the Patriots to punt on their first possession of the game, the Warriors capitalized on a bad snap that gave Wasilla a first-and-goal on the 6-yard line. Two plays later, Deonn Richardson rumbled into the end zone to put the Warriors up 6-0.

Near the end of the first, the Patriots got on the board when quarterback Danny Grzesiuk broke tackles up the middle for a 10-yard touchdown. A Chris Hueza extra point gave the Pats a 7-6 lead, and they would never trail again.

The Warriors gave the WHS faithful something to cheer about going into the locker room when AJ Marshall connected with David Green on a 23-yard screen pass that found the end zone to close the gap to 21-12. Wasilla would add another touchdown near the end of the third quarter, but couldn’t muster any consistency against the North Pole defense.

Tyler Polis turned in the highlight of the night for Wasilla when, with less than four minutes to go in the game and trailing by a field goal, he broke up the middle for 50 yards to set up a first-and-goal. But a 15-yard penalty nullified the play and moved the ball back to Wasilla’s 23 yard line. It was another big mistake that proved costly, said Nelson.

“We don’t believe in moral victories,” Nelson said. “You either win or you lose, and we didn’t win. We’ll regroup and work on the fumbles and penalties.”

That was the sentiment on the visitors’ sideline, Henert said.

“Honestly, that was possibly one of the ugliest games I’ve ever been involved in,” the North Pole coach said. “I don’t think either team could’ve done more (to help) the other. I think in the end that we had the last opportunity to stop them is all.”

Now 0-2 going into Saturday’s game against Kodiak, the focus for Wasilla will be gaining more experience and tightening up on penalties, Nelson said.

“Some of it’s just getting kids coached up who’ve never played before and the mental mistakes from our veterans has just got to stop,” he said.

There were a couple of bright spots for the Warriors, the coach said. Polis ran hard, earning 54 yards on nine carries, and Green’s touchdown reception and run “was real nice.”

Schedule change

A travel problem with Kodiak High School has pushed back the regularly scheduled game between the Bears and the Wasilla Warriors. Instead of being played at Veterans Memorial Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday, the game will kick off at 7 p.m. Saturday.

North Pole 21, Wasilla 18

Friday, Veterans Memorial Stadium

First quarter

Wasilla — Richardson 6 run (kick failed) 8:16.

North Pole — Grzesiuk 10 run (Huezo kick) 1:38.

Second quarter

North Pole — Anderson 8 run (Huezo kick) 4:42.

North Pole — Bartle 1 run (Huezo kick) 3:08.

Wasilla — Polis 22 run (run failed) :11.

Third quarter

Wasilla — Green 23 pass from Marshall (kick blocked) 1:19.

Fourth quarter

No scoring

Individual statistics:

RUSHING — Wasilla: Polis 9-54, Richardson 6-15, Marshall 5-18, Kuiper 4-(-22), Wild 3-1, Teeling 2-26; North Pole: Anderson 25-108, Rogers 11-94, Grzesiuk 9-6, Barrie 1-1.

PASSING — Wasilla: Kuiper 1-8-1—9, Marshall 1-2-0—23; North Pole: Grzesiuk 3-5-0—43.

RECEIVING — Wasilla: Griffin 1-9, Green 1-23; North Pole: Duncan 2-37, Crutcher 1-17.