Warriors rally to beat rival Knights

PALMER — The Wasilla Warriors weren’t ready to let history repeat itself. Instead, the Warriors accomplished something they’ve only done twice in the last decade — beat Colony.

Sparked by a 21-point third quarter, the Warriors rallied for a 35-26 come-from-behind victory over the Knights at Colony High Friday night.

Senior receiver Isaiah Dawkins collected 141 of his game-high 156 yards receiving in the second half and hauled in a back-breaking 68-yard touchdown pass to help Wasilla earn its third win against Colony in the last 11 tries. The victory also helped the Warriors get back on track after a tough 17-14 loss to medium-schools Kenai last week, and not continue on a path that plagued the Warriors in 2012.

Last year, Wasilla started off with a big win over an Anchorage school, beating Bartlett in Week 1. But the Warriors followed with lopsided losses to Juneau-Douglas and Colony. Before they knew it, the wheels had fallen off, and Wasilla was en route to a 1-7 season.

In 2013, Wasilla, once again, started off the season with a big win over a big city opponent, beating West Anchorage 24-14. But that was followed by a head-scratching loss to Kenai a week ago.

Dawkins said the desire to avoid another long losing streak was certainly on their minds, and the Warriors were determined not let 2012 repeat itself.

“How could it not?” Dawkins said after the win. “We beat West and we come out and lose to Kenai. We’re thinking, ‘oh no, we can’t let this happen again.’ We’ve got to come out and practice harder, practice every day as hard as we can, prepare, watch film, do whatever we can to make this a winning season.”

Led by Dawkins, senior quarterback Josiah Williams and Wasilla’s two-headed running attack of Devin Otto and Matthew Thomas, the Warriors used 28 second-half points to erase a 20-7 deficit.

“The first half, we battled through a little adversity,” Dawkins said. “The second half, we came out a lot stronger.”

Williams, who tossed a pair of second-half touchdowns and ran for another, said his team rallied during the final two quarters.

“We came together as a family. We knew Colony was a big game,” Williams said.

After splitting time with sophomore Dylan Simons at quarterback last week against Kenai, Williams emerged Friday night, finishing with a career-high 201 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also notched the first of Wasilla’s 28 straight second-half points with a 1-yard plunge early in the third.

“It was a different game for him. I don’t know what he did to prepare, but he was completely different. He was really a leader out there today,” Dawkins said of Williams.

Williams capped a nine-play, 80-yard drive with the 1-yard scoring run midway through the third, but the play of the game came on Wasilla’s next offensive possession. After a quick Colony 3-and-out, Williams found a wide-open Dawkins on first down, and the pair of seniors connected on a 68-yard catch and run for the score.

“’It’s a touchdown,’ is exactly what I thought,” Dawkins said of seeing at least a 15-yard cushion between he and the closest Colony defender before making the catch.

Williams said he saw the opportunity and took advantage of it.

“I saw (the safety) come up and I let Isaiah have it,” Williams said.

Dawkins’ score gave Wasilla the 21-20 lead.

Senior captain Cash McGregor also hauled in a 12-yard scoring catch in the second half.

Otto and Thomas combined for 164 yards on the ground, with the pint-sized Otto eating up turf between the tackles and the taller Thomas gaining most of his yards around the edge. Otto also scored twice in the game. The duo helped fill the void left by an injury to Mitchell Rilatos, Wasilla’s leading rusher.

Colony, a victim of a brutal early chunk of the schedule, built leads of 10-0 and 20-7, but ultimately fell to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in Railbelt Conference play. After losses to 2012 large-schools runner-up Service and defending medium-schools champ Soldotna during the first two weeks, senior Daniel Bilafer helped Colony grab a 10-0 lead. Bilafer booted a 25-yard field goal to put the Knights on the board and caught a 13-yard Bryce Niver touchdown pass to give the Knights a 10-0 advantage late in the first.

After Otto scored the first of his two touchdowns in the second quarter, Bilafer nailed a 30-yard field goal to extend Colony’s advantage to 13-7.

Before leaving the game in the second half with an injury, Bilafer record six catches for 64 yards, and added the two field goals. Niver, Colony’s first-year starting quarterback, topped the 150-yard passing mark for the third straight week. He also threw multiple touchdown passes for the third straight week. Niver finished with 157 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Antonio Bush grabbed his fifth touchdown catch of the year, 15-yarder early in the third quarter. Six different Knights had at least one catch.

Running back Logan Conway enjoyed a career day, with 142 yards on the ground and a score.

Wasilla, winless in the Railbelt last year, jumped into a three-way tie at the top of the conference with the win. Palmer (1-0 in conference, 3-0 overall) beat West Valley in Week 2. Lathrop blanked West Valley on Friday to improve to 1-0 as well.

Colony dropped to 0-1 in conference and 0-3 overall. West Valley anchors the conference (0-2, 0-3).

Wasilla 35, Colony 26

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter:

Colony — D. Bilafer 25 field goal, 9:10.

Colony — D. Bilafer 13 pass from Niver (D. Bilafer kick) 2:12.

Second quarter:

Wasilla — Otto 5 run (O’Laughlin kick) 8:56.

Colony — D. Bilafer 30 field goal, 6:08.

Third quarter:

Colony — Bush 15 pass from NiverD (D. Bilafer kick) 10:25.

Wasilla — Williams 1 run (O’Laughlin kick) 6:16.

Wasilla — Dawkins 68 pass from Williams (O’Laughlin kick) 3:05.

Wasilla — Otto 2 run (O’Laughlin kick) 0:23.5.

Fourth quarter:

Wasilla — McGregor 12 pass from Williams (O’Laughlin kick) 7:46.

Colony — Conway 9 run (kick failed) 4:48.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

RUSHING — Wasilla: Otto 19-80, Thomas 15-84, McGregor 5-41, Williams 5-29; Colony: Conway 21-142, Niver 11-53, Summers 5-25.

PASSING — Wasilla: Williams 10-17-0—201, Colony: Niver 15-26-0—157.

RECEIVING — Wasilla: Dawkins 5-156, Dedrick 4-33, McGregor 1-12; Colony: D. Bilafer 6-64, Looney 2-31, Bush 2-27, Summers 2-25, Kolb 2-10, Harvey 1-0.