Retiring teacher, coach urges Colony grads to ‘find their 68’
By Jeremiah Bartz Frontiersman.com A football coach using a hockey reference as the centerpiece for his keynote address may
4 min read
Aug. 26, 2007
By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman
WASILLA - After watching his team dominate the scoreboard, Colony Knights head coach Jamie Mayo still wasn't happy following his team's 40-7 Railbelt Conference win Friday at Colony High School.
“If we play like this next week, we're in a lot of trouble,” Mayo said following the win.
Colony faces South Anchorage in a rematch of last year's large-schools state championship game, and Mayo said Colony will need to play better in order to get some payback against the defending champions.
“We've got a great team, but if one guy loses focus, too many bad things can happen,” he said.
Despite Mayo's less-than-enthusiastic words, there were plenty of things for the large home crowd to cheer about Friday night, including a standout performance by junior Tim Jaronik, who scored on offense, defense and special teams for the Knights.
Colony quarterback Bradley Truax also came to play Friday, throwing three first-half touchdowns as the Knights raced to a 34-0 lead at the break.
Jaronik returned a first-quarter interception 48 yards for his first touchdown of the game, then added a 50-yard touchdown catch in the third.
In between, Jaronik also found time to handle the
place-kicking, kick return and punting duties for the Knights, kicking two extra points and pinning the Wolfpack deep in their own territory with a 44-yard punt in the third quarter.
“This was a pretty fun game,” Jaronik said.
The speedy junior also plays soccer for the Knights, and said handling numerous responsibilities for Colony on the football field was really no big deal.
“It all comes down to conditioning,” he said.
West Valley head coach William Russell said turnovers have been a factor for his team this season, and Friday night's game was no different. The Wolfpack gave up the ball seven times in the game - three interceptions and three lost fumbles.
“That seems like it's a thing for us every game,” Russell said following the game.
Running back Jaron Murphy also added two touchdowns for the Knights, which moved to 2-0 in conference play with the win. West Valley fell to 0-2 in Railbelt play.
Murphy also had a 30-yard touchdown run called back in the first quarter on a holding penalty.
Murphy finished with a game-high 94 yards for the Knights, which outgained West Valley 166-27 on the ground. His first score of the game came on a 15-yard run off tackle right on Colony's second play from scrimmage.
Later in the quarter, Truax hit wide-open receiver Ryan Rupe with a perfectly-executed play action pass to put the Knights up 13-0.
Colony stretched its lead out in the second quarter behind two touchdown passes in the final two minutes of play. First, Truax found Geno Paoletti on another rollout pass, and the burly running back got a couple good downfield blocks from Matt Swan and Collin Murphy to score from 17 yards out.
After a quick West Valley punt, Truax aired one out, launching a bomb high into the night that found Jaronik streaking down the sidelines for a 50-yard score with just 39 seconds left in the quarter.
Murphy capped the scoring for Colony with an 11-yard run in the fourth quarter that put the Knights ahead 40-0.
With the offense rolling in the first half, Colony's defense shut down the Wolfpack's high-powered passing attack, which entered the game as the state's best.
“We knew exactly what they were going to do,” said Paoletti, who had one of Colony's three interceptions from his linebacker position.
Indeed, the Knights seemed to be in the head of West Valley's prodigious sophomore quarterback Sam McKinstry, who came into Friday's game with a state-best 615 passing yards. McKinstry threw two picks in the first quarter, the second of which Jaronik returned 48 yards for Colony's third touchdown of the opening quarter. Jaronik later added to his big day with a second interception in the third quarter.
Russell said Colony's defense did a good job of getting to McKinstry early on.
“It took my young quarterback out of the game,” Russell said.
McKinstry was out of the game both mentally and physically late in the first half after absorbing a late hit that had him shaken up for the rest of the half. The penalty negated what would have been an 85-yard interception return for a touchdown by Jaron Murphy.
But the 15-year-old showed his grit, returning to the game to throw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, a 4-yard strike to Jacob Claypoole that enabled the Wolfpack to avoid the shutout.
The touchdown came after West Valley marched down the field, going 41 yards on just five plays, and Mayo said his team's late defensive letdown was his biggest cause for concern.
“We told these kids at half time that they're not going to roll over, and they didn't,” Mayo said of the Wolfpack, which outgained Colony 168-98 in the second half.
While the Knights have plenty of work to do before next week's game, West Valley's Russell said it's clear his squad needs to get going quickly if it's going to get back into playoff contention.
“We've got to go back to the drawing board.”
Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@
frontiersman.com
Colony 40, West Valley 7
Friday, Colony High School
Colony 19 15 0 6 - 40
West Valley 0 0 0 7 - 7
First Quarter
Col - J. Murphy 15 run (kick failed), 9:26
Col - Rupe 26 pass from Truax (Jaronik kick), 3:56
Col - Jaronik 48 int return (kick failed), :31
Second Quarter
Col - Paoletti 17 pass from Truax (J. Murphy run), 1:27
Col - Jaronik 50 pass from Truax (Jaronik kick), :39
Fourth Quarter
Col - J. Murphy 11 run (try failed), 11:43
WV - Claypoole 4 pass from McKinstry (McDonough kick), 8:17
Col WV
First downs 9 11
Rushes-yards 35-166 17-27
Passing yards 149 142
Return yards 80 10
Comp-att-int 9-15-1 12-29-3
Punts 4-31.5 3-33.3
Fumbles-lost 3-0 5-3
Penalties-yards 7-60 4-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - Colony: J. Murphy 13-96, Paoletti 7-43, Mouton 5-28, Krieg 1-5, C. Murphy 1-2, Truax 8-(-8). West Valley: Claypoole 9-66, Tillman 1-(-1), Aker 1-(-11), McKinstry 2-(-17), Wisel 4-(-10)
PASSING - Colony: Truax 6-12-1-120, C. Murphy 3-3-0-29. West Valley: McKinstry 12-28-3-142, Wisel 0-3-0-0
RECEIVING - Colony: Jaronik 3-63, J. Murphy 3-27, Rupe 1-26, Paoletti 1-17, Mouton 1-16. West Valley: Eastman 4-51, Aker 3-24, Wisel 2-39, Claypoole 2-10,Herzberg 1-18
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