Warriors run past North Pole

WASILLA — You could almost count the number of times the Wasilla Warriors threw the ball on one hand Friday night.

Mostly, they ran.

They ran up the middle. They ran to the outside. They ran with running backs and they ran with quarterbacks, and they ran with a senior defensive lineman on a night honoring seniors, when Kyle Klein scrambled over the goal line to cap the Warriors offensive tour de force.

“(Klien) has worked hard at the d-line position and he wanted a cookie and we gave him a cookie,” Wasilla head coach Kent Rilatos said.

Wasilla threw only six passes over the entire 48 minutes of playing time. When time expired, they had more points than minutes in the game, defeating the visiting North Pole Patriots 49-21.

“We don’t pass very often,” Rilatos said. “We try to pass when we need to and when we have to, and we keep our guys ready for that. For the majority, we enjoy running the ball we’re starting to gel a little bit and understand that running game.”

The Warriors ran a little bit less than the 447-yard virtuoso performance of the previous week, tallying 399 yards against North Pole.

Of course, behind, or more accurately in front of every great running performance is good blocking. The Warriors performed solidly on the line of scrimmage but defense critical, Rilatos said.

“Our line blocked well, we adjusted to a lot of different schemes they did defensively, and we just played four quarters of classy football,” he said.

Senior Devin Otto led the Warriors with 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Mosiah Renk added 143 yards and three scores. Zach Garnett finished with a season-high 82 yards and added a score.

Despite the lopsided score, the Patriots seemed to figure out the ground equation late in the second half, which will factor critically in their now guaranteed post-season appearance against either Soldotna or Kenai.

Both teams favor the run, said head coach Richard Henert.

“We stuck together and had a few moments of building up in the second half,” he said. “It’s a big, really really tough team, and Wasilla obviously played very well. I think our boys dug in a couple times and almost got it going. I don’t think we got as much going as we could have.”

The playoffs equation for the Valley is also unclear, though perennial rivals Wasilla and Palmer will now face each other in a make-or-break edition of the season-ending Potato Bowl. That means four more days of hard work for the Warriors squad.

Rilatos’s squad would have worked hard regardless, he said.

“Potato Bowl means something for the playoffs, but it means something for the Valley every time,” he said. “This time it has a little more weight on it. We’re gonna prepare for it.”

Wasilla 49, North Pole 21

Friday, Colony High School

First quarter:

Wasilla — Garnett 4 run (Reed kick) 8:30

Wasilla — Renk 78 run (Reed kick) 3:25

Second quarter:

North Pole — Sommer 4 run (Wollmann kick) 11:26

Wasilla — Otto 7 run (Reed kick) 10:09

Wasilla — Otto 40 run (Reed kick) 1:57

Third quarter:

North Pole — Skips 10 run (Wollmann kick) 9:40

Wasilla — Renk 4 run (Reed kick) 6:32

Wasilla — Renk 13 pass from Marks (Reed kick) 3:40

Fourth quarter:

Wasilla — Klein 4 run (Reed kick) 5:23

North Pole — Sommer 5 run (Wollmann kick) 0:59

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:

RUSHING — Wasilla: Otto 22-174, Renk 7-143, Garnett 7-82, Marks 5-(-7), Klein 2-9; North Pole: Rogers 17-82, Skipps 6-46.

PASSING — Wasilla: Marks 5-6-0 — 74; North Pole: Rogers 7-16-0 — 120, Sommer 0-1-0 — 0

RECEIVING — Wasilla: Renk 2-34, Morrison 1-16, Garnett 1-13, Goodrich 1-11; North Pole: Hursh 4-52, Rodgers, 1-2, Wollmann 2-47.