SURREAL FEELING

PALMER — As Brian McIntosh stood along the sidelines Friday night, ready to talk about his team’s 32-28 win over Palmer, the first-year Colony head coach was not quite sure where to start.

“It was such a long game and so intense, I’ll have to watch film to remember certain parts,” McIntosh said. “It was an unbelievable game.”

Colony senior Skye Rench rushed for a game-high 168 yards and four touchdowns and the Knights survived a late Palmer rally to not only earn a win over its cross-town rival, but also clinch the Railbelt Conference championship.

“It’s surreal,” McIntosh said. “We’re fortunate to be in this position. This is what everybody says in the offseason; win a conference championship, win a state championship.”

Adding to that surreality was a heavy coat of fog that blanketed the Colony High School field for nearly three quarters of the matchup.

Palmer, which led early in a game that featured five lead changes, needed to head 76 yards through that fog during the final minutes of the game to get the shot at the win.

And the Moose nearly did that.

Trailing by four points with two minutes left to play and no timeouts, the Moose started their final drive on their own 24 yard-line. Palmer junior quarterback Jackson Buresh, who threw for 163 yards and a touchdown during the loss, led his squad down the field. With four completions, Buresh gave his team 1st-and-goal at the 10-yard line, but the Colony defense forced four straight incompletions to secure the win.

“As a defensive linemen I just wanted to get as much pressure I could on the quarterback,” Colony senior Trey Farber said. “Our defensive backs did their jobs and we stopped them.”

Buresh, a first-year starting quarterback, was 4-for-12 for 54 yards on the final drive.

“It was a very good drive for a young quarterback,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said. “With no time outs and that long of field to go, you can’t fault him anywhere there.”

Before that final drive, Buresh had completed eight of his 14 attempts.

“He made a lot of good decisions,” Christiansen said of Buresh.

Buresh connected with senior Jim McCall three times on the final drive. McCall finished the game with a game-high nine catches for 112 years. He also caught a 53-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.

“They were trying to hit him every time,” Colony senior wide receiver and defensive back Connor Weihs said. “He’s super fast.”

Senior Kris Merritt also caught a key 28-yard pass that gave the Moose the ball at the 10-yard line.

“Palmer did make a couple plays,” McIntosh said. “But we were fortunate. A couple of receivers dropped (some passes). I don’t want to take anything away from the receivers. It’s hard to catch the ball in this (fog).”

Buresh gave the Moose the early 7-0 with a 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Palmer recovered a fumble after a bad snap on a Colony punt and took possession on the Knights 14-yard line. The Moose needed only two plays to score.

The recovery was one of a handful of key plays for the Moose special teams. McCall tied the game at 13 with his long touchdown grab and on the ensuing kickoff, junior Ian Ahrens recovered a live ball to give Palmer possession at the Colony 40-yard line.

On that drive, with the Moose facing 4th-and-7 near midfield, senior AJ Corbin threw a 36-yard pass to senior David Clement on a fake punt to give the Moose the ball at the 4-yard line. Buresh quickly scored on another 4-yard run to give his team the 20-13 lead.

Colony also had its fair share of big plays.

With the Knights trailing 7-6, senior Caleb Monson intercepted a Buresh pass and returned it 30 yards to the Palmer 15. Three plays later senior Dakota Wainwright dove into the end zone from 1 yard out to give the Knights the 13-7 lead.

Late in the fourth quarter, Weihs picked off another Buresh pass moments after Rench scored for the fourth time to give the Knights the 32-28 advantage.

“(Buresh) was rolling out and I saw the pass was tipped,” Weihs said. “I saw it in the air and went for it. “

In addition to the two turnovers, the Colony defense — which entered the game second in the large-schools class in points allowed — held the typically potent Moose running game to only 99 yards.

On offense, the Knights were able to put together more than 250 yards on the ground. That was done with the help of a new starter at quarterback, senior Payton McCann.

“We were fortunate we could run the ball tonight,” McIntosh said. “We had a new quarterback in and we really wanted to protect him.”

McCann is Colony’s third starting quarterback this season. He replaced senior Anthony Bricker, who suffered a broken collarbone during a win over Wasilla last week. The Knights opened the season with senior Mitchell Slater as their starter, but Slater was lost to injury during the second week of the year.

McCann completed only three passes, but rushed for 86 yards and 12 carries in the win. The game marked McCann’s first varsity start, but the senior has played the position at the youth and junior varsity levels.

“He’s played quarterback with us his whole life,” Weihs said. “He really had to step up.”

McIntosh credited his front line and offensive line coach Jason Ross.

“Coach Ross, he’s done such an amazing job,” McIntosh said. “You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. But also the guys who don’t get much credit are the wide receivers for their blocking ability.”

Despite the loss, Palmer clinched its playoff berth thanks to a West Valley win over Wasilla in Fairbanks. Juneau-Douglas, which beat Palmer earlier this season, also clinched the No. 2 seed in the Railbelt conference with the Colony victory.

Palmer can now solidify the third seed with a win over Wasilla on Friday or a West Valley loss to Colony on Saturday.

Colony 32, Palmer 28

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter

Palmer — Buresh 4 run (Merritt kick) 8:38.

Colony — Rench 4 run (pass failed) 5:19.

Second quarter

Colony — Wainwright 1 run (Weihs kick) 7:50.

Palmer — McCall 53 pass from Buresh (kick blocked) 4:04.

Palmer — Buresh 4 run (Merritt kick) 1:46.

Third quarter

Colony — Rench 1 run (Weihs kick) 8:37.

Fourth quarter

Colony — Rench 1 run (pass failed) 11:56.

Palmer — Clement 3 run (Corbin pass from Buresh) 7:14.

Colony — Rench 15 run (Weihs kick) 3:36.

Individual statistics:

Rushing — Palmer: Ahrens 15-43, Clement 8-14, McCall 5-15, Buresh 4-(-7), Sorenson 1-33; Colony: Rench 28-168, McCann 12-86, Weihs 1-3, Wainwright 1-1.

Passing — Palmer: Buresh 12-26-2—163, Corbin 1-1-0—36; Colony: McCann 3-7-0—54.

Receiving — Palmer: McCall 9-112, Merritt 2-51, Clement 1-36; Colony: DePriest 2-47, Wainwright 1-7.