Top Railbelt teams meet at PHS

PALMER — Last week, things officially got interesting in the Railbelt Conference. With Colony’s win over Lathrop and West Valley’s victory over Wasilla, the Railbelt Conference was left up for grabs.

But tonight, things should begin to sort out as the top two teams in the conference meet at Palmer High School. The Palmer Moose (4-1 overall, 1-0 in Railbelt) host the Lathrop Malemutes (4-1, 2-1) tonight at 7 p.m. at Machetanz Field.

“Lathrop is a good team,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said after the Moose improved to 4-1 with a 48-0 nonconference win over Homer last week. “They have a lot of team speed and seem to do a lot of things well this year.”

Heading into its game at Colony last week, Lathrop was in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 conference mark. But Colony scored the 28-23 come-from-behind victory over the Malemutes to delay Lathrop’s bid to clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2004.

“We knew Colony is very capable of scoring points. Colony has scored against everybody,” Christiansen said. “We need to be focused and prepared the best we can (against Lathrop). Maybe (Lathrop) is a little hungry too?”

Lathrop would officially clinch one of the conference’s three playoff bids with a win over Palmer tonight.

Palmer begins a stretch of three straight conference games to end the regular season. The Moose host Colony next week and travel to Wasilla for the Potato Bowl in Week 8.

Tonight’s match will pit the conference’s top scoring offense against one of the Railbelt’s top scoring defense. Lathrop is averaging nearly 31 points per conference game, and 34 points per game overall. The Moose have surrendered only 13.8 points per game in their five regular-season contests. But if you take away the 42 points scored against Palmer by Woodinville, Wash., in Week 4, Palmer has allowed only 6.8 points per game against Alaska teams. The Moose have shut out two teams, Homer and East Anchorage.

Palmer has also posted a 4-1 mark despite missing it’s top rusher, senior James Nisbett, for much of the last three weeks. Nisbett, who led the state with 1,550 yards last season as a junior, left with an injury after only one carry during a Week 3 win over East. Nisbett did not play against Woodinville, but returned to score a touchdown against Homer last week.

“He’s improved,” Christiansen said of Nisbett.

Palmer finished with five rushing touchdowns and two defensive scores against Homer. Nick Benshetler returned a fumble 10 yards for a touchdown, and Chase Ferris intercepted a pass and ran more than 60 yards for the score.

Tonight’s contest could make the Railbelt playoff picture a bit more clear. Lathrop (2-1) currently leads the conference, followed closely by Palmer (1-0) and Colony (1-1). Thanks to West Valley’s 20-13 win over Wasilla last week, the Wolfpack and Warriors are left in a tie at 1-2.

The three other teams from the Railbelt are playing nonconference opponents tonight. West Valley is facing Interior rival Eielson, the defending small schools state champion.

Wasilla is at Houston. For more on that game, see the related story in today’s edition of the Frontiersman. Colony is hosting North Pole in the annual “Battle for the Boots.” For more on that game, see the Tuesday edition of the Frontiersman or frontiersman.com/sports.