Prep football: Knights blanked in Interior

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

FAIRBANKS—The West Valley High School football team often spared the clock while showing no mercy against the Colony Knights on Saturday afternoon.

The Wolfpack mostly employed quick offensive sets, leading to a 47-0 win over the struggling Knights in the Railbelt Conference game at West Valley.

The rapid plays, said head coach Daniel Esparza, come from the advantage of platooning players. The Wolfpack have only one player this season who plays on both sides of the ball.

“By coming out of the huddle fast and not spending a lot of time there, we wear teams down,’’ Esparza said, “and that’s where our numbers just make a huge impact on people.”

The Wolfpack, for example, needed only 18 seconds and two plays from scrimmage to grab a 27-0 lead in the second quarter.

The hosts had first down and 10 yards to go from the Colony 43-yard line with 9:20 on the clock. Lorenzo Graham peeled off a 29-yard run and Lars Evanger followed with a 14-yard dash into the end zone with exactly 9:02.5 left before halftime.

Graham set up the quick series by taking Fischer Summers’ 27-yard punt and returning it 35 yards.

In the first quarter, Graham and the Wolfpack staged a play so quick and efficient it would have made a parcel delivery company envious.

West Valley collected a false start penalty on a first-and-10 play at its 18, moving the ball back to the 13.

On the next play, Graham bolted ahead, cut to the right and zoomed along the sideline for a career-best 87-yard touchdown with 2:46.8 left in the first for 13-0 lead.

“My linemen had a really good wall, the center and the guard had a good base. I just went right off them and then went for the end zone,’’ said Graham, a junior who finished with 117 yards on four carries. All but one of his yards were compiled in the first quarter.

West Valley earned most of its success Saturday on the ground, generating 342 yards to the Knights’ 41.

Junior tailback JC Cummings contributed a pair of 1-yard scoring runs in the first and second quarter among his 12 carries for 68 yards. Fellow junior Dominick Anderson, on the way to a 12-carry, 47-yard afternoon, sealed the win with a 2-yard run with 2:43 left in the fourth quarter.

Junior quarterback Tucker Plass and senior tight end Chris Nuttall have usually hooked up through the air this season, but they used earthly ways to help West Valley improve to 2-0 conference and 2-1 overall.

Plass dove for the pylon at the end of a 21-yard run to give West Valley a 33-0 lead with 3.9 seconds left in the third quarter.

He also finished with 104 yards passing on 9-of-21 attempts with two interceptions. Only two teammates were the recipients of his deliveries — Nuttall with four catches for 65 yards and senior wide receiver Bryan Vinton with a game-high five for 39 yards.

Nuttall, with 7:37.1 left in the third quarter, showed that West Valley was as deceptive as it was quick. On fourth-and-4 from the West Valley 39, the senior faked a punt and zipped around the right end and down the sideline for a 61-yard touchdown.

Colony coach Brian McIntosh said he expected West Valley to use quick sets because the Wolfpack did likewise in last year’s matchup.

Other elements of the Wolfpack on Saturday led to the Knights dropping to 0-2 Railbelt and 0-3 overall.

“They’re just too big, too fast and strong. We didn’t anticipate that,” McIntosh said.

The second-year head coach is working with a mostly young team that returned only one varsity letter-winner from last season, senior halfback and linebacker Ty Farber.

“We have a lot of young guys and they’re playing their hearts out,’’ McIntosh said. “They just don’t know how to react in a varsity game. They’ve haven’t came together as a unit yet.”

West Valley, though, didn’t give Colony a lot of time Saturday to react.

West Valley 47, Colony 0

Saturday, West Valley High School

First Quarter

West Valley—Cummings 1 run (Nuttall kick), 6:58.3.

West Valley—Graham 87 run (kick blocked), 2:46.8.

Second Quarter

West Valley—Cummings 1 run (Nuttall kick), 11:32.4.

West Valley—Evanger 14 run (Nuttall kick), 9:02.6.

West Valley—Plass 21 run (kick failed), :3.9.

Third Quarter

West Valley—Nuttall 61 fake punt run (Nuttall kick), 7:37.1.

West Valley—Anderson 2 run (Nuttall kick), 2:43.0.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING— Colony: Pelletier 17-41, Niver 3-11, Farber 1-4, Lorentz 5-(-15). West Valley: Graham 4-117, Cummings 12-68, Nuttall 1-61, Sudduth 1-0, Matha 1-0.

PASSING—Colony: Lorentz 12-18-1-65, Niver 1-6-0-7. West Valley: Plass 9-16-2-104.

RECEIVING— Colony: Compton 4-25, Bilafer 3-20, Campbell 2-19, Root 1-7, Farber 1-2, Pelletier 1-(-1). West Valley: Nuttall 4-65, B. Vinton 5-39.