REDEMPTION

PALMER — The Colony Knights were not going to let it happen again.

Just more than a year ago, Soldotna held a slim 13-8 halftime lead over Colony and used 27 second-half points to blow away the Knights in a 40-16 nonconference victory.

Now fast forward to Friday night.

Soldotna once again held a slim advantage at the intermission. This time the Stars led 17-7 at the half.

But the Knights refused to let history repeat itself.

Colony scored 17 second-half points, 10 during the final five minutes, and the top-ranked Knights earned a 24-17 win over the three-time defending 3A state champion Stars at Colony High School.

“I give our kids a lot of credit, we were down 17-7, it could have been real easy to say, here we go again, just like last year,” Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said after the win, just before he was mobbed by a pack of elated Knights at the center of the Colony High School field. “They were not going to let that happen.”

Colony senior quarterback Matt Jaronik threw a pair of touchdown passes and junior kick Conner Weihs booted a 27-yard field goal during the second half to help the Knights, the No. 1 team according to the Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network Prep Football Poll, improve to 4-0 this season.

Junior flanker Del Ciucci took Jaronik’s pass 88 yards for the score in the third quarter, and senior Eric Fan snagged a 7-yard Jaronik toss with 2:37 left in regulation for the go-ahead score.

Fan was a hero on both sides of the ball late in the game for the Knights.

With about five minutes left in the fourth and the score knotted at 17, Fan picked off a Jake Jansen pass to give the Knights the ball at the Soldotna 15-yard line. Four plays later, Fan grabbed the Jaronik pass and the converted lineman muscled his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score.

“Eric Fan’s a stud,” Mayo said of the 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior who played on the offensive front for Colony last season. “He’s a competitor. He’s got a great attitude and it shows.”

Fan’s catch was one of eight completions for Jaronik, who finished thegame 8-of-16 for 174 yards and two touchdowns.

“It’s all Matt Jaronik,” Fan said. “I was confident Matt would get me the ball. It’s all Matt.”

Soldotna used one long drive and stellar special teams to take a 17-7 halftime lead.

Senior Dylon Story capped a 78-yard drive in the first quarter with a 2-yard score to give the Stars the 7-0 lead. In the second quarter, junior kick Daniel Koch split the uprights from 37 yards out and with 21 seconds left in the first half Braden Price fell on a fumble in the end zone to account for another special teams score.

“I would have been extremely disappointed if we would have lost, but the reality of it is, they scored one touchdown on our defense,” Mayo said. “The rest of (the points) were on special teams, and those were because of our mistakes.”

After Colony senior Ben McGraw squeezed into the corner of the end zone after a 12-yard dash off the right side and tied the game at 7, Story returned the ensuing kickoff 59 yards and gave the Stars the ball on the Knights 18-yard line.

The sturdy Colony defense did hold, but Koch helped Soldotna capitalize off the long return with the 37-yard field goal.

Soldotna’s superior work on special teams continued late in the half. Price fell onto a ball in the end zone after a Colony bad snap.

Facing 4th-and-5 at the Colony 27, the snap sailed high above the head of punter Hayden Summers. Price led a charge of Soldotna players after Summers and the ball in the end zone, and Price was able to land on it before Summers could knock the ball away.

“It was everything we thought it was going to be,” Mayo said of the nonconference battle between two of the top teams of their respective classes. “We told our kids this was going to be a heavyweight fight, and it’s going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes. First half, we made two and it led to two of their scores. Second half, they made two, and interception and a fumble, and it led to our two scores.”

Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley agreed with Mayo.

“We thought if we came in and didn’t make mistakes, we’d have a chance,” Brantley said. “We had lots of opportunities, but we didn’t make enough plays. We had two turnovers late in the game, and interception and a fumble, both on our end of the field.”

An active interior of the Colony defense also helped quiet Soldotna’s potent and powerful running game.

Soldotna ran the ball 54 times in the game, but was held to 170 yards and just more than three yards per carry. The Stars consistently tried to push the ball between the tackles, but the interior defense — led by the likes of linemen Trey Farber and Shane Duque and linebacker JD Mayo — limited the Soldotna ground game.

“We’ve got some beasts in there, little ones, but beasts,” Mayo said of a defense that doesn’t feature anyone heavier than 230 pounds. “We don’t have the big heavy linemen.”

But the biggest feat for the Knights was erasing the halftime deficit.

“Halftime we were down a little bit, but we came together as a team,” Fan said. “We worked hard, we believed in each other, we pushed through.”

And while Soldotna was forced to deal with their second loss of the season to a 4A foe, Brantley praised the work of his team.

“My kids worked their tales off,” the Soldotna head coach said. “I couldn’t be more proud of their effort. We’re going to get back and work really hard to fix our mistakes, and hopefully we won’t repeat them next week.”

Contact Mat-S u Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Colony 24, Soldotna 17

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter

Soldotna — Story 2 run (Koch kick) 0:35.

Second quarter

Colony — McGraw 12 run (Weihs kick) 10:14.

Soldotna — Koch 37 field goal, 7:56.

Soldotna — Price recovered fumble in end zone (Koch kick) 0:21.

Third quarter

Colony — Ciucci 88 pass from Jaronik (Weihs kick) 1:43.

Fourth quarter

Colony — Weihs 27 field goal, 5:27.

Colony — Fan 7 pass from Jaronik (Weihs kick) 2:36.

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Soldotna: Nolden 24-99, Price 10-39, Story 7-10, Smithwick 6-20,

Ja. Jansen 7-2; Colony: Jaronik 14-21, Rench 10-55, McGraw 5-31, Jimenez

1-3, Smith 1-(-1).

PASSING — Soldotna: Ja. Jansen 0-2-1—0; Colony: Jaronik 8-16-1—174, Slater

1-3-0—5.

RECEIVING — Soldotna: none; Colony: DePriest 4-69, Ciucci 1-88, Michaelson

1-86, Fan 1-7, Jimenez 1-5, Hintz 1-0.