Short week for Moose, who play rare mid-week game

PALMER — Rod Christiansen has seen a lot during his 23 years as the head coach of the Palmer Moose. But Christiansen is experiencing something new this week as he and his assistants work to prepare their players for a rare weeknight game.

Palmer will make the short trip south to face East Anchorage Thursday at 7 p.m. at Anchorage Football Stadium.

“It’ll be a new experience for us having a three-day, get ready week,” Christiansen said Sunday evening. “It’ll be a totally different deal.”

Christiansen said Palmer, fresh off a 21-12 Railbelt Conference win over West Valley in Fairbanks last weekend, will use the shortened week to emphasize improvement.

“This week there will be a lot of work on Palmer being better at what Palmer can do,” Christiansen said. “We’re at a point in the season where we’re really concerned about us doing things more efficiently; playing better football ourselves.”

Palmer improved to 1-0 in Raibelt play and 2-0 overall with the win over West Valley. Senior James Nisbett rushed for 93 of his game-high 136 yards in the second half, and scored a 5-yard touchdown to help seal the game for the Moose.

“We were a little more consistent in the second half,” Christiansen said.

The Moose finished with more than 300 yards rushing. Senior quarterback Zeth Merritt rushed for 110 yards, and senior running back Vincent Aumavae added a pair of rushing touchdowns.

While, Palmer, ranked third in the latest Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network Poll, remains undefeated. East Anchorage (0-2) is still looking for its first win after opening the season with consecutive losses to South Anchorage and Service, the teams that played for the large-schools state title last season. Defending state champion South kicked off its campaign with a 65-6 drubbing of the T-Birds. Service beat East 46-12 last week.

“They’ve had a rough start,” Christiansen said. “They’re probably really working on finding themselves, finding what they can do well.”

East finished with 113 yards rushing and 98 yards passing against Service, and turned the ball over five times. The T-Birds lost one fumble and threw four interceptions.

Thursday’s game marks a rematch of a 2012 large-schools state quarterfinal match won by Palmer 13-6.