Warriors, Knights represent the Valley in the large-schools playoffs

WASILLA — During the main event of the 1982 World Series of Poker, card player Jack Straus was down to a single chip at the table. Dubbed “Treetop,” thanks to his 6-foot-6 frame, Straus used that single chip to play his way to a World Series of Poker bracelet.

The play of Straus during that tournament helped coin the phrase, “chip and a chair,” according to various poker historians.

As Wasilla head coach Will Stout and the Wasilla Warriors prepare for a first-round playoff match at Bartlett Saturday at 3 p.m. at Bartlett High School, they know they’ll have their hands full. Bartlett boasts a 7-1 record and is the top-ranked team from the Cook Inlet Conference. Wasilla is 2-6 and the No. 4 seed from the Railbet.

But much like Straus way back in 1982, the Wasilla Warriors have a chip and they’re sitting at the playoff table.

The Warriors know they’re the underdog, but they’re feeding off it.

“When nobody expects anything of you, you really having nothing to lose,” Wasilla head coach Will Stout said earlier this week. “We’re going to go out and will play aggressive, and give it all we have.”

Wasilla is coming off a tough 21-14 loss to rival Palmer in the 38th annual Potato Bowl last week. The Warriors had the ball, 4th-and-goal and the 7-yard line during the final seconds of regulation, but were stopped short 2 yards shy of the end zone.

“I’m extremely proud. They didn’t give up and fought until the end,” Stout said. “It was a great game.”

While the Warriors hoped for a different outcome, Stout praised his players.

“They’re obviously disappointed, but they’re noticing the improvement they’re making week by week,” Stout said.

As the Warriors took forward to Bartlett, they see a team they know. Wasilla scrimmaged Bartlett at the beginning of the season, and Wasilla’s last playoff game, a quarterfinal loss in 2014, came against the Golden Bears.

“We’re familiar with Bartlett. The kids are excited about it,” Stout said.

The Warriors have had to battle through the last three weeks of the regular season without one of their top players, junior Aeron Milliron, a leader on both sides of the football. Without Milliron, who leads the Warriors with 597 yards rushing, Wasilla has turned to senior Nick Alexander.

In the last five weeks, Alexander has rushed for 587 yards and has eclipsed the 100-yard mark four times. He also has topped 100 yards on the ground in each of the last three weeks, including a 103-yard effort against the Moose last week.

“He’s a great runner,” Stout said of Alexander. “He runs aggressive and is not going to let one person bring him down.”

Knights host West Anchorage

The Colony Knights are also representing the Railbelt in the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the conference. Colony hosts West Anchorage, the No. 3 seed from the CIC, tonight at 7 p.m. at Colony High.

The Knights were riding a five-game winning streak before at 30-7 loss to Chugiak last week. Now Colony, a squad that has been hit by the injury bug in recent weeks, will try to bounce back against the Eagles.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys pretty banged up,” Colony head coach Rhett Magner said earlier this week. “It’s playoff football. You have to play through some pain if you want to win.”

The Knights not only want to win, but they’d love to get past the struggles they’ve had in the first-round of the large-schools playoffs in recent seasons. Colony has suffered four straight losses in the first round, and has not advanced to the semifinals since 2010.

“It’s not pretty at all,” Magner said about Colony’s recent history in the first round. “We talked about it. We want them to realize this year is a new team, new identity. That’s not acceptable for this team. That’s definitely helping us with our mindset moving forward.”

Magner has preached execution throughout the 2016 season. When the Knights struggle, it’s typically due to simple, but fixable, mistakes, Magner said.

“The couple of games we’ve struggled, it’s usually just one person not doing their job. It’s not one specific person. All it takes for this offense is everyone doing their job,” Magner said. “Everybody is capable of doing it.”

Simple things have separated the successes and the struggles, he said.

“When we’re on, we’re on. When we’re off, it may look like we’re off by a whole lot, but we’re just a couple of people shy of reaching their potential,” Magner said.

Bartlett, Wasilla, Colony and West share the same side of the ASAA large-schools bracket. The winners from each first-round game will meet next week in the state semifinals at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.