Prep football playoffs start Friday

Houston finished the regular season at 7-1 overall, the best record in Alaska Division III football. But the Hawks were also locked in a three-way tie with Kenai and Barrow at 3-1 at the top of the standings in conference action.

The tiebreaker didn’t go Houston’s way.

Houston beat Kenai, Barrow beat Houston and Kenai beat Barrow to create the tie. Defensive points allowed is the next tiebreaker. Kenai allowed 22, Houston gave up 25 and Barrow allowed 27. Kenai earned the first seed.

That left Houston and Barrow. The Whalers earned the second seed and home field advantage with the head-to-head win over the Hawks.

Houston finished third and travels to Barrow to face the Whalers Saturday at noon.

“It’s going to be a tough game, but we can do it,” Houston head coach Jared Barrett said. “I believe in the boys. We can go up there and take care of business.”

Kenai and Homer play in the other DIII semifinal. The winner of each semifinal meets in the state title game Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. at Service High School in Anchorage.

Houston has finished as the state runner-up in each of the last two seasons, and earned its first state football title in school history in 2019.

Colony was on the other end of the tiebreakers and is the lone Valley school to host a playoff game this weekend. Colony scored a 25-14 victory over the Lynx, and with the win, Colony clinched home field advantage during the first round of the ASAA Division I state playoffs.

Colony (5-3 overall, 4-3 in conference) will host Bartlett (2-5, 2-4) in the Division I quarterfinals Friday at 7 p.m. at CHS.

Colony started the night in the bottom half of the Cook Inlet Conference. The Colony win over Dimond and a Service loss to West left Colony, Dimond and Service tied at 4-3 in the conference standings. Colony beat both Dimond and Service this year, and jumped to third place in standings.

With a Colony win, the Knights would face either second-seeded East Anchorage or seventh-seeded South Anchorage in the semifinals.

Palmer and Wasilla both advanced to the Division II playoffs. Palmer is the No. 6 seed in the eight-team DII bracket, and will face third-seeded Eagle River Saturday at Eagle River. Wasilla is the seventh seed and will meet second-seeded Lathrop Saturday at 2 p.m. in Fairbanks.

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