Undefeated Knights host Warriors

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors are riding a two-game winning streak. They’ve scored 83 points in the last two games, as opposed to just six during the first three weeks, and they’ve only allowed nine total points during their consecutive wins.

And then there’s the Colony Knights.

They’re undefeated and sit on top of the Raibelt Conference and at No. 2 in the Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network Prep Football Poll.

After a rough first three weeks of the season, the Warriors finally have some momentum, thanks to back-to-back wins.

Seems like a good time to play an arch-rival right?

“I don’t think any week is a great week to play Colony,” said Wasilla first-year head coach Glenn Nelson, who will lead his team into Colony High School to play the Knights tonight at 7 p.m. “It’s (their) senior night, homecoming. It’s a Jamie Mayo-coached team. It’d be nice to say they’ll be looking ahead to Juneau, but he’ll have them focused.”

Wasilla is playing a team in Colony that could be a few wins away from a Railbelt title, but the Warriors are a squad that suddenly found itself in the conversation for the playoffs.

The Warriors currently sit locked in a third-place tie in the conference with Palmer. Both teams are 2-2 in Railbelt play.

Wasilla can credit a pair of lopsided victories over Lathrop and West Valley and a few personnel moves with its mid-season improvement.

Freshman Ben Fielder made the move under center prior to the Lathrop win, and is now 2-0 as Wasilla’s starting quarterback. He’s completed 19-of-37 passes for 351 yards and six touchdowns.

And in 37 attempts, he’s been picked off only once. That’s the statistic Nelson really likes.

“We have some quarterbacks with more experience, but it’s the decision making. You can’t teach that,” Nelson said of his freshman signal-caller. “We like his decision making and we like his mobility.”

The move of Fielder to quarterback allowed Wasilla to put its former starter, senior Cody Pfeifer, on the outside to play receiver.

Wasilla had lost its top wide receiver, junior Izaak Probasco, to injury early in the season, and Nelson said the Warriors were in dire need of help at that position.

“We didn’t have anyone to stretch the field,” Nelson said.

Since moving outside, Pfeifer has emerged as Fielder’s top threat, snagging eight catches for 173 yards and four touchdowns.

Wasilla also took tight end David Green, and put him in the slot position.

“We were a wishbone team with a tight end. Teams would stick eight guys in the box and move the safety up close. They’d double-cover our lone receiver and pretty much shut us down,” Nelson said. “Now we have people having trouble covering David and Pfeifer.”

Nelson said spreading out the receivers has allowed for more success for sophomore running back Tyler Polis, who is up to a team-high 225 yards rushing.

“Things are starting to click,” Nelson said.

On defense, the Warriors put Pfeifer in the defensive backfield and also have senior Eric Washington back from injury.

While things are starting to click for the Warriors, the Knights continue to roll.

Colony improved to 5-0 overall with a 27-6 win over Palmer last week. The Knights are also tied for first with Juneau at 3-0 in conference play.

Following the win over Palmer, Colony senior quarterback Matt Jaronik said, regardless of record, the Knights never look past the Warriors.

“That’s a big game for us,” Jaronik said. “We’ll come in there with more intensity than maybe we have all season. We don’t care what their record is. It’s Wasilla.”

Palmer at Soldotna

The Palmer Moose will take a break from Railbelt play and head south to play Soldotna tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Soldotna High School.

Palmer dropped to 3-2 overall and 2-2 in the Railbelt with the 27-6 loss to Colony last week. Soldotna improved to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in the Northern Lights Conference with a 49-0 win over Kodiak.

Senior Brennan Bohman is currently the top rusher in the Mat-Su Valley with 554 yards.

The Moose return home to play North Pole Sept. 19 at 2 p.m.

Kodiak at Houston

After posting its first win of the season last week in Ketchikan, the Houston Hawks will return home to host the Kodiak Bears Saturday at 2 p.m. at Houston High School.

Houston used a 14-12 nonconconfernece win over the Kings to improve to 1-4. Kodiak dropped to 3-2 with a 49-0 loss to Soldotna.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.