Prep football: Wasilla grabs overtime win

WASILLA — It may have been Colony’s homecoming celebration, but Wasilla stole the show — not to mention the football — Friday night.

Junior linebacker Casey Katchinska ripped the ball away from Colony running back Jaron Murphy in overtime to seal a thrilling 28-21 win for the Warriors, the school’s first over Colony since 2001.

“It was all just reaction,” Katchinska said, the game ball still firmly clutched in his arms.

The winning play came on the heels of a do-or-die touchdown pass from Adrese LaVern to Tim Orr with the Warriors facing fourth-down in overtime.

High school football uses a tie-breaking format in which each team gets four downs to try and score from the 10-yard-line. With the teams deadlocked at 21-21, Wasilla won the coin toss and elected to go first.

After failing to reach the end zone on its first three tries, Wasilla had to decide whether to kick a field goal or go for the score. During a time-out to talk things over, Tim Orr said he and LaVern told coach Jim Shetter they’d prefer to settle things themselves.

“We said, ‘Let’s just do it,’” the junior wideout said. “We just wanted to go off the field with a win.”

The winning play came just two weeks after Shetter made a similar choice against Juneau. But where that decision to go for a two-point conversion and the win against the Crimson Bears didn’t work out, Friday night’s choice to go for the touchdown paid big rewards, as LaVern hit a sliding Orr between two defenders for the game-winner.

“It didn’t work last time against Juneau, it worked for us this time,” Shetter said.

On Colony’s first attempt to send the game into a second overtime, Katchinska and Shane Green met Jaron Murphy head-on in the backfield, with Katchinska wrestling the ball away before being mobbed by jubilant teammates.

Colony coach Jamie Mayo said he couldn’t fault the effort of his players in defeat.

“I’m very proud of the way they played tonight,” Mayo said.

While the loss was a tough one to take, Mayo said it was fun to be part of such an exciting game between two big rivals in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000 people.

“At least the fans got their money’s worth,” he said.

The final minutes of the game capped what had already been a game for the ages.

Running early and often behind a big, athletic offensive line, the Warriors jumped out to the early lead on the strength of touchdown runs by Chris Crane and Beebo Russel.

Crane’s touchdown with 4:39 left in the first quarter came on a tricky toss play on which Wasilla lined offensive tackle Zach Orr lined up as a decoy in the backfield.

Following Crane’s score, Colony marched down to the Wasilla 6-yard-line before being turned back. The defensive stand set the stage for the Warriors to march 89 yards on 14 plays on the next drive, with Russel finishing things off with a 3-yard-plunge to make things 14-0.

Wasilla’s offensive line — center Kris Firey, tackles Zach Orr and Quinn Dunphrey and guards Treven May and Tucker Minnick — opened up big holes all night long. The Warriors dominated on the ground, racking up 172 rushing yards, including a game-high 128 by Crane.

“They’re hogs,” Katchinska said. “They just punish everybody every play.”

Colony wasted little time getting back into the game. Just 80 seconds after Russel scored, the Knights got on the board with a 6-yard draw play up the middle to Gino Paoletti. The drive took just four plays and was highlighted by a 33-yard swing pass from quarterback Collin Murphy to Jaron Murphy.

Wasilla’s play on the defensive line was nearly as impressive as on the offensive line. Led by Zach Orr, the Warriors held Colony to just 59 yards rushing on the night, including 36 from Jaron Murphy, who entered the game with 632 rushing yards through Colony’s first six games.

The Knights tied things up heading into the half thanks to a breakdown in the Wasilla secondary.

After Colony called time-out with just 10 seconds on the clock, Collin Murphy heaved a high, long pass to Jaron Murphy near the sidelines. LaVern’s attempt at batting the ball away came up short, and when Tim Orr missed the subsequent tackle, Murphy was able to walk into the end zone.

While he was bottled up on the ground, Jaron Murphy found plenty of success as a receiver, catching four passes for a game-high 102 yards and a touchdown despite being slowed by a leg injury in the second half. The senior finished the game with 138 of Colony’s 207 total yards on offense.

Colony capitalized on a Wasilla turnover to take the lead late in the third quarter. After Matt Packa fell on LaVern’s fumble on the Colony 31-yard-line, the Knights went 69 yards on 11 plays, finishing with a 10-yard touchdown strike from Collin Murphy to a diving Ryan Rupe with 4:22 left in the third.

The Warriors used some razzle-dazzle to set up the game-tying touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.

Two Wasilla penalties and a big Angelo Bellotte tackle for a loss had the Warriors facing a third down with 26 yards to go on the Colony 35-yard-line. With a quarter of the field to go, Crane took LaVern’s pitch right, faked the run outside, and chucked a perfect spiral downfield to Orr. The 28-yard option pass gave the Warriors a first down, and two plays later Russel barreled into the end zone for his second score of the evening.

The teams traded interceptions late in the fourth quarter, with Colony's D.J. Mouton picking off LaVern with 15 seconds left and Crane intercepting Collin Murphy as the final seconds ticked off to set up the overtime finish.

After Katchinska’s game-winning strip, Wasilla players and coaches stormed the field, jumping up and down and hugging each other in celebration.

“This is beyond huge,” Chris Crane said. “This is probably the biggest game of our season.”

Wasilla players credited Shetter’s team-first philosophy for enabling the Warriors to defeat Colony for the first time since 2001 and likely secure a berth in the state playoffs in two weeks.

“We're a team, we work hard as a team and we don’t quit,” Crane said.

The jubilant Wasilla celebration came in stark contrast to the dismay on the faces of the Colony players. The loss was the fourth straight for the Knights, which are now in danger of missing out on the playoffs after reaching the state title game last season.

“It’s my worst loss ever,” Jaron Murphy said.

Murphy said he took the blame for the final play — though Mayo was quick to point out that his star running back did plenty to keep Colony in the game all night.

“He didn’t lose that game for us,” Mayo said.

Despite the loss, Mayo said Colony isn’t out of the playoff picture yet. He said his job in the coming week will be to convince the Knights that their season isn’t over and that there’s still plenty left to play for.

“Our kids have got to believe that,” he said.

Colony’s (3-4 overall, 2-3 Railbelt Conference) final game of the season is next Saturday at home against Lathrop. The Knights need a win and likely some tie-breaking help to make the playoffs.

Wasilla (5-2 overall, 3-2 Railbelt Conference), meanwhile, will be looking to ride a wave of emotion past Palmer Friday night when the teams meet in the 29th annual “Potato Bowl” at Wasilla’s Veterans Memorial Field in a game that will have major implications on playoff seeding. A win over the Moose would put Wasilla in the playoffs, while the Warriors would need some help with a loss.

While that game will be big, all that Wasilla players wanted to think about Friday evening was the win over Colony.

As the team boarded its bus for the short ride back to Wasilla, Casey Katchinska continued to tightly grip the game ball that 30 minutes earlier he’d stolen from Jaron Murphy. High school teams use their own balls for offensive plays, and someone pointed out to Katchinska that the ball actually belonged to Colony High School. But as he prepared to head home, Katchinska said he had no plans to return the trophy.

“They can have one of ours.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com

WARRIORS 28, KNIGHTS 21

Friday, Colony High School

Wasilla 7 7 0 7 7 — 28

Colony 0 14 7 0 0 — 21

1st Quarter

Was — Crane 2 run (Cottle-Bosch kick), 4:39

2nd Quarter

Was — Russel 3 run (Cottle-Bosch kick), 4:58

Col — Paoletti 6 run (Jaronik kick), 3:38

Col — J. Murphy 35 pass from C. Murphy (Jaronik kick), :03

3rd Quarter

Col — Rupe 10 pass from C. Murphy (Jaronik kick), 4:22

4th Quarter

Was — Russel 8 run (Cottle-Bosch kick), 6:19

Overtime

Was — T. Orr 6 pass from LaVern (Cottle-Bosch kick)

Wasilla Colony

First downs 19 9

Rushes-yards 51-172 30-59

Comp-att-int 11-18-1 7-21-1

Passing yards 142 148

Return yards 12 19

Fumbles-lost 5-2 1-1

Punts 2-34.0 6-32.7

Penalties-yards 6-30 11-82

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Wasilla: Crane 27-128, Gonser-Chafin 7-25, Barkley 5-23, Russel 6-22, Katchinska 3-(-4), LaVern 3-(-22). Colony: Paoletti 10-44, J. Murphy 11-36, Mouton 1-(-1), C. Murphy 8-(-20).

PASSING — Wasilla: LaVern 10-17-1-114, Crane 1-1-0-28. Colony: C. Murphy 7-21-1-148.

RECEIVING — Wasilla: T. Orr 4-54, Green 3-48, Crane 3-34, Campbell 1-6. Colony: J. Murphy 4-102, Rupe 2-19, Jaronik 1-37.