Playoff run

PALMER — Typically, when the words “little” and “Palmer” are in the same sentence, it’s in reference to the population of the small Mat-Su town.

But there may be greater meaning when it comes to Palmer football team’s meeting with South Anchorage tonight.

“Little ole’ Palmer is just going to go for it and see how it goes,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said with a bit of a laugh Thursday afternoon, when asked about his team’s date with the Wolverines tonight at 7 p.m. at Anchorage Football Stadium. “It’ll be a big challenge.”

South does sport the bulk. The Wolverines’ front line averages 250 pounds, as opposed to a small Palmer front that hovers in the 200-pound range.

And then there’s the sheer difference in overall numbers. The Wolverines usually boast one of the deeper teams in the state.

But that doesn’t mean the Moose aren’t going to take a run into Anchorage with their sites set on a spot in the state semifinals. And when the Moose make that run, they’ll be riding one of the top rushing offenses in the state.

Palmer senior Brennan Bohman enters the contest with a state-best 952 yards on the ground. Fullback Coleman Ahrens has gained 554 yards and 10 touchdowns.

As a team, the Moose are averaging 235 yards per game on the ground.

Like Palmer, South also considers the run the bread and butter of its offense.

“They’ve got some good size and good speed. They have all those running backs, and they don’t seem to care who they give the ball to,” Christiansen said of South.

The Wolverines have a trio of runners with 450 yards or more. Elliot Bauer leads the group with 731 yards. David Solars has 525 yards and seven scores. Matt Higgens has added 456 yards and eight touchdowns.

“They obviously run the ball well,” Christiansen said. “They’re second in the Cook Inlet Conference for a reason.”

Palmer is the third-ranked team from the Railbelt, and South is the CIC’s No. 2 seed.

In other playoff action, Colony will host Bartlett tonight at 7 p.m. at Colony High School.

Like South, Bartlett packs a potent running attack.

Golden Bear running backs Cyrus Chenault and Jamal Hale have combined for nearly 1,700 yards this season. Chenault led the CIC with 897 yards and nine touchdowns. Hale is third in his conference with 797 yards and nine scores.

But Colony head coach Jamie Mayo warned, there’s more to worry about than Chenault and Hale.

“There’s more than just two backs. They’re pretty much a track team in football gear,” Mayo said.

Colony finished 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the Railbelt, winning its first seven games of the season before dropping an 11-0 loss to Juneau-Douglas in Juneau last week.

Mayo said his team made some mistakes during the tough loss to the Railbelt regular season champions, but they’re all fixable mistakes. He hopes the loss will actually re-energize his squad.

“I would be extremely surprised if this loss didn’t actually turn out to be a positive for these kids,” Mayo said. “We figured out what caused us to lose, and now we fix it.”

Bartlett finished 6-2 overall, and have won five straight since a 20-13 loss to West Anchorage earlier this season. The Bears beat Chugiak 35-3 last week.

“Bartlett is going to be a very, very tough game,” Mayo said. “They’re definitely one of the hotter teams in the state right now. They looked good against Chugiak.”

Both Colony and Bartlett have allowed a state-low 9.9 points per game. The Knights are also averaging 27.9 points per game.

Leading Colony’s offensive attack is senior quarterback Matt Jaronik, who has accounted for more than 1,000 yards of total offense this season.

Jaronik is among the conference’s top passers with 669 yards and 12 touchdowns. He’s also rushed for 478 yards and four scores.

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