Playoff fate sealed for most Valley football teams

WASILLA — With only two weeks left in the regular season, the playoff fate for the majority of Valley teams has been sealed.

Colony is in, cementing the Railbelt Conference title with a win over West Valley last week. Palmer and Wasilla are both out, each officially eliminated in Week 6. Houston is the lone team in question, mathematically alive in the small-schools class, but facing a certain uphill battle.

“We’re still in the playoff hunt. We still have a chance,” Houston head coach Glenn Nelson said after his team snapped a three-game losing skid with a 41-0 win over Monroe Catholic last week.

Houston improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in Aurora Conference play with the win. But this week, Houston faces, undoubtedly, its toughest test of the 2015 campaign, a road game at defending state champion Eielson. A loss to the Ravens, who have won 14 of their last 15 games, would officially eliminate Houston from postseason contention.

Eielson hosts Houston Saturday at 1 p.m.

Eielson leads the Aurora with a 2-0 mark, and Barrow is second with a 2-1 conference record. Houston (1-1) sits in the middle of the conference, while Valdez (1-2) and Monroe (0-2) follow. The Hawks host Valdez Oct. 2 at Houston High. The top two teams from the Aurora advance to state.

Colony’s 7-0 win over West Valley last week in Fairbanks cleared the Railbelt playoff picture. Colony (4-2 overall, 2-0 in Railbelt play) clinched the conference title with the victory, that also officially eliminated Wasilla (0-6, 0-2) from postseason contention. West Valley and Lathrop are both 1-1 in conference, and the conference’s second and third seeds will be decided when the Wolfpack face the Malemutes in Week 8.

Colony will try to extended its winning streak and the Warriors will be in search of their first win of the season when the Knights host Wasilla tonight at 7 p.m. at Colony High. Play of its defense has been key to Colony’s success during the winning streak. The shutout over West Valley was its second during that stretch. The Knights have allowed only 21 points during the last four games combined.

Palmer (3-3, 1-2) was also eliminated from postseason contention with its loss to Kenai last week. Soldotna, which beat Palmer the previous week, and Kenai are both 3-0 in Northern Lights Conference play, and have locked up the conference’s two berths to the medium-schools state playoffs. The loss also snapped Palmer’s state-record streak of 15 straight appearances in the playoffs. Each of those 15 appearances in the state playoffs had come while Palmer competed in the large-schools Railbelt Conference. Palmer was moved to the medium-schools NLC when ASAA reclassified football during the offseason.

Palmer caps its conference schedule Saturday, hosting Kodiak at 2 p.m. The Moose meet Wasilla in the annual Potato Bowl Oct. 2 at Wasilla.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.