ROUGH KNIGHT

ANCHORAGE — Late in Colony’s loss to the Service Cougars Friday night, Colony head coach Brian McIntosh began to call his seniors to the sidelines.

But even down by about four touchdowns, McIntosh had little luck trying to coax his upperclassmen off the turf.

Those seniors led Colony to a pair of scores during the final five minutes of the third and another touchdown late in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to rally the Knights.

Led by its three-headed offensive monster, Service scored eight touchdowns during a 54-26 win over the Knights during the ASAA/First National Bank large-school state semifinals at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Service took a 26-7 lead into the half and scored again on its first offensive possession of the third quarter. But despite the lopsided margin, McIntosh praised his team’s effort, especially in the second half.

“The first half we weren’t playing aggressive, but the second half, the kids played hard,” McIntosh said. “Even when we tried to pull out that senior group, but they didn’t want to come. They played until the end.”

Service senior Michael McCrae rushed for 209 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Cougars to the large-schools title game for the first time since they won it all in 2008. The state’s leading rusher, who has more than 400 yards on the ground during the first two weeks of the playoffs, had seven carries of 11 yards or more and iced the Cougars’ win with two short touchdown runs late in the game.

McCrae was just one-third of the Service offensive attack.

Wide receiver La’Michael Fernandez rushed for 92 yards and a score on only four carries. Quarterback Amu Aukusitino rushed for 87 yards and two touchdowns, and threw for another 49 yards.

All showed almost ridiculous speed and an innate ability to shift on the fast AFS carpet.

“Service surprised us, even though we knew they were fast,” McIntosh said. “We thought we had some schemes that would slow them down, but they made plays tonight.”

Colony was also able to make some plays, just not enough.

Senior Skye Rench, who rushed for a team-high 155 yards and two touchdowns during his final game in a Colony uniform, scored from 1-yard out late in the first quarter to tie the game at 7.

After Service took a 33-7 lead, Colony senior quarterback Payton McCann and senior wide receiver Kenyon DePriest connected twice for scores during a five-minute chunk of the third.

McCann, who did not throw a touchdown pass during the regular season, hit DePriest on an 8-yard slant for a touchdown late in the third.

With less than a minute left in the quarter, DePriest took a McCann pass and went, untouched, 75 yards for a score.

“Kenyon had a heck of a game,” McIntosh said. “After he had that first touchdown and went on defense and started slamming it. We knew on our next offensive play, we were going deep to Kenyon.”

Rench added a late score for Colony, a 6-yard touchdown run that he helped set up with a 50-yard burst up the right sideline earlier in the drive.

Colony (7-3) tried to advance to the state title game for the third time in school history. The Knights made trips in 2000 (losing to Dimond) and 2006 (losing to South Anchorage).

After losing their first two games of the 2010 season, a pair of nonconference contests, Colony earned a perfect conference record, finishing 6-0 to win the Railbelt title. The Knights opened postseason play with a 27-14 win last week over a Dimond team that upset Colony 18-12 in overtime during the first week of the season.

“I am so very proud of this group,” said McIntosh, who led the Knights to the semifinals during his first season as head coach. “They’re very special. It’s the first group I started with at Colony High School as a teacher. I watched them as freshmen and watched them go through high school. There’s really a connection with this senior team.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com. Follow him at Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.

Service 54, Colony 26

ASAA large-schools semifinals

Friday, Anchorage

First quarter

Service — Aukusitino 5 run (Dotten kick) 7:12.

Colony — Rench 1 run (Weihs kick) 4:16.

Service — McCrae 13 run (Bomar) 0:11.

Second quarter

Service — Aukusitino 8 run (kick blocked) 9:15.

Service — Fernandez 31 run (run failed) 2:14.

Third quarter

Service — Ilailo 1 run (Bomar kick) 8:42.

Colony — DePriest 8 pass from McCann (kick failed) 5:37.

Service — McCrae 25 run (Dotten kick) 1:09.

Colony — DePriest 75 pass from McCann (kick failed) 0:50.

Fourth quarter

Service — McCrae 5 run (Bomar kick) 9:48.

Service — McCrae 4 run (Dotten kick) 6:42.

Colony — Rench 6 run (Weihs kick) 3:29.

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Colony: Rench 17-155, McCann 8-70; Service: McCrae 30-209, Aukusitino 12-87, Fernandez 4-92, Ranguindin 3-17, Toomer 1-4, Ilailo 1-1.

PASSING — Colony: McCann 8-15-4—151; Service: Aukusitino 5-14-1—49.

RECEIVING — Colony: Michaelson 3-71, Rench 3-(-3), DePriest 2-83; Service: Busey 3-34, Fernandez 1-17, Bolling 1-(-2).