Warriors earn Railbelt win over West Valley

WASILLA — The Wasilla Warriors outlasted the West Valley Wolfpack 17-13 on Friday night at Veterans Memorial Field led by an outstanding performance from Aeron Milliron not with his passing ability, but with his running.

On 4th-and-1 with 1 minute, 25 seconds left in the game, Warriors head coach Will Stout chose not to punt the ball away. Instead, he would put the ball in the hands of his quarterback. On their own 32-yard line, Milliron gained six yards to ice the game for Wasilla.

"They came to the sideline and right away they wanted to go for it," said Stout. "He's a tremendous athlete and leader."

Milliron led all rushers with 185 yards on 17 carries, and helped the Warriors improve to 2-2 overall and win their Railbelt Conference opener. The Warriors failed to reach the end zone on their first drive of the game and had to settle for an Emmett Millhouse field goal. After the defense forced a three-and-out from the Wolfpack, Milliron found daylight around the edge and danced his way up the sideline past the West Valley defense for a 66 yard score.

The Warriors stripped West Valley running back Preston Damario of the ball and used the short field to add another score, a 3-yard run from Matthew Trask.

In contrast to the result of their game against interior opponent North Pole last week, the Warriors scored on their first two drives, and put up all of their points in the first half. With a healthy lead and a medley of running backs, Wasilla chewed up clock by running the ball, and did not require Milliron to throw the ball very often.

The Wolfpack, however, found little success in their running game, and struggled to sustain success passing the ball. Quarterback Maurice Maiden threw 20 passes, and dropped back to pass many more times before he was flushed out of the pocket and opted to run. Maiden led all West Valley rushers with 74 yards.

After the Trask score, the Wolfpack took the ball with 39 seconds on the clock and raced down the field. Chancelor Fields-Colbert caught two consecutive passes for first downs before stepping out of bounds to stop the clock, trying to preserve enough time for Ethan Raygor to kick a last second field goal. Stout called a timeout just before the snap, icing the kicker, and prevented West Valley from scoring.

Merrick Stacy scored on a pass from Maiden early in the third quarter. Damario took a pitch to the sideline and tip-toed to stay in bounds and reach the ball across the corner of the end zone to make it a one score game. Opting to cut the Warrior lead to just three points, West Valley attempted a 2-point conversion, but Maiden would fall short of the end zone.

The Wolfpack forced a fumble late in the fourth quarter and charged toward the end zone. A Maiden pass to Stacy was just shy of a first down. On fourth and millimeters, Damario took the pitch to try to gain yardage and keep the West Valley hopes alive, but was met by Wasilla linebacker Jacob Norton in the backfield and stopped short with 1:51 left in the game.

Stout wore a cowboy hat and boots on the sidelines throughout the game. A Texas native, he said it was to keep his sister on his mind, who is in flood-stricken Houston. The proceeds of the split-the-pot raffle went to relief efforts, as well as the winnings from last week’s game against North Pole.

The Warriors now move on to face Valley rival Colony, Alaska’s top-ranked Division I team, next week at Colony High.

"We still have a lot of mistakes to clean up, especially against Colony. They're No. 1 for a reason," said Stout.

Tim Rockey is a freelance writer. Contact him at timothy.rockey@frontiersman.com.

Wasilla 17, West Valley 13

Friday, Veterans Memorial Field

First Quarter:

Wasilla — Millhouse 26 field goal 6:35.

Wasilla — Milliron 66 run (Millhouse kick) 2:42.

Second Quarter:

Wasilla — Trask 3 run (Millhouse kick) :39.

Third Quarter:

Stacy 5 pass from Maiden (Raygor kick) 8:35.

Damario 8 run (Maiden run failed) 3:21.

Fourth Quarter:

No scoring.

\INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

RUSHING: Wasilla: Quenga 12-47, Milliron 17-185, Helton 2-9, Trask 12-75, Shogren 3-5, Wheeler 1-10, Montes 1-1; West Valley: Maiden 11-74, Damario 10-44, Simon 1 -(-2), Tiapula 1-6.

PASSING: Wasilla: Milliron 2-7-0-13; West Valley: Maiden 10-20-0-94.

RECEIVING: Wasilla: Trask 1-4, Fuller 1-9; West Valley: Tiapula 1-3, No. 25 2-5, Fields-Colbert 2-38, Stacy 3-48, Agnew 2-8.