Warriors run past West Valley

FAIRBANKS — After finishing winless last season, Wasilla head coach Will Stout has the Warriors football team on the right track. Led by a tough-as-nails ground attack, the Warriors held off the upbeat West Valley Wolfpack 36-28 in both teams' Railbelt Conference opener on Friday at West Valley High School.

Nicholaus Alexander rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns and Aeron Milliron added 90 yards on the ground with three scores, including a 2-yard rumble into the endzone with 1 minute, 32 seconds left to put the Warriors up for good.

"We started off full-throttle," Stout said, alluding to the early offensive explosion for the Warriors (2-1 overall, 1-0 Railbelt).

The Warriors erupted for three rushing touchdowns in their first four offensive snaps, opening up a huge lead in the first quarter.

Milliron scored on a 35-yard run on Wasilla's first play from scrimmage less than three minutes into the game, and Alexander added scoring runs of 40 and 86 yards, respectively, as the Warriors opened up a 21-6 lead before the second quarter.

But they weren't done in the first half.

Milliron scored his second touchdown later on a 52-yard scamper to put the Warriors up 27-6 with just less than 4:30 remaining in the half.

West Valley (2-2, 0-1) had seen enough of Wasilla's strong rushing game and decided to turn its offense up before the half.

After Milliron's score, Wolfpack senior running back Josh Cummings took the pitch from quarterback Zach Lester at their own 47-yard line, who just re-entered the game after getting hurt early in the first quarter, and went to work.

Cummings dashed right, evaded a few tacklers and cut back to the left and toward the sideline, hurdling multiple defenders before diving into the end zone for six and narrowing Wasilla's lead to 15 at 27-12.

Less than two minutes later, West Valley's Merrick Stacy recovered a fumble on Wasilla's 40 with 1:34 left and Lester then hit Cummings from five yards out on fourth down as the Wolfpack whittled the Warriors lead and went into halftime trailing 27-20.

"That's a family. Just making sure everyone's coming together, rallying together and making sure the way we started is not the way we're going to finish," Wolfpack head coach Kyle Allison said of his team's second-quarter comeback.

The Wolfpack defense stepped up in the second half, almost eliminating the big plays that gave Wasilla the early advantage.

Wasilla's Gavin Barnes connected for a 27-yard field goal as the Warriors took a 30-20 lead into the fourth.

The Wolfpack responded with a 4-minute, 30-second scoring drive which they converted two fourth downs, capped with Lester's endzone-finding quarterback sneak with 8:21 left. Merrick then caught Lester's pass in the endzone for the two-point conversion and the Wolfpack trailed 30-28.

The Wolfpack were in prime position to get the ball back after Wasilla faced a fourth-and-20 situation from West Valley's 40.

Quarterback Hunter Hongslo took the snap and saw daylight to his right, scrambling forward past the first-down marker, but he seemed to lose control of the ball as he was being tackled. Merrick picked the ball up and stumbled near the Wolfpack 15 with 3:37 left.

Flags littered the field, and the officials ruled the play to be an illegal forward pass, negating the fumble as the Wolfpack sideline went crazy.

"It looked like it was a fumble," Allison said.

"It should have been taken care of before that call," Allison said, referencing Wasilla's first down run on fourth-and-20.

Stout was behind the play and didn't get a clear look at the illegal forward pass.

"I didn't know what was going on," he said. "They said our quarterback tried to pitch the ball, but he pitched it forward."

Wasilla went on to score on Milliron's two-yard rush on fourth-and-1, but the point-after attempt missed wide right, leaving it a one-possession game at 36-28.

The Wolfpack didn't move the ball for 10 yards on four plays, and Wasilla kneeled the clock out.

Contact sports reporter/copy editor Jaryd Cline at 459-7530.