Wasilla storms past Lathrop

FAIRBANKS—The Lathrop Malemutes lost their second straight high school football game Saturday afternoon mostly because of a simple concept employed by the visiting Wasilla Warriors in the Railbelt Conference contest.

The Warriors coaching staff decided to put the ball in Devon Teeling hands and let him have his way on the grass at Lathrop Stadium, leading to a 37-6 win for the visitors and the second loss in a row for the hosts after the Malemutes started the season 2-0.

Teeling rushed 32 times for 200 yards, including 113 in the first half, and he scored on back-to-back 9-yard bursts in the third quarter to fuel the Warriors to a 28-0 lead.

“I have to give credit to my line first, them getting their key blocks, and me just running,” Teeling said of his career-best, single-game afternoon. “They were blocking the right way and I was reading their bodies and going.”

Teeling had 30 carries in last week’s nonconference win at Kenai and Warriors head coach Kent Rilatos figured the 5-foot-10, 205-pound senior was capable of handling another heavy workload.

“He’s want the ball, and he loves contact,’’ Rilatos said.

What’s more surprising than Teeling’s way of churning out yardage at Lathrop was that he was running behind the fourth different starting offensive line for the Warriors in as many games because of injuries.

“We had three starters out today and we had to use different people in different places,” Rilatos said. “As you can tell, the times we don’t block things perfectly, Devon just makes up for it perfectly by being (like) a 230-pound fullback.”

Malemutes head Jason Gazewood was impressed with Teeling’s efforts, but he wasn’t thrilled about the way his defense responded to the Warriors standout. Teeling often dragged two or three Malemutes with him on his trips up the field.

“He’s pretty powerful and we just didn’t tackle well, and that’s the bottom line of this game,’’ Gazewood said. “If we would have tackled well, we would be talking about a different game.”

The Malemutes (1-2 Railbelt, 2-2 overall) seemed to be different than the group that kicked off the season with a 45-0 win over Seward and a 26-19 conference victory at Colony. They were looking Saturday to rebound from a 62-18 Railbelt home loss to North Pole on Aug. 26, but after the defeat to Wasilla, the Malemutes are looking for answers.

Wasilla’s defense also stuffed Lathrop’s running game to 19 yards while the Warriors’ rushers compiled 299.

“This team is kind of learning slowly and it’s finding its identity,’’ Gazewood said. “It’s like a lot of teams, it’s a young team and that’s fine. Skill-wise right now, we’re underperforming a little bit and these guys have got to know that if they execute every play, they’re going to be successful. Unfortunately right now, we’ve got parts of our team taking play offs. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that.”

Montae Tate eliminated Wasilla’s bid for a shutout with 36.5 seconds left in the third quarter, as the senior wide receiver collected a 21-yard touchdown pass from reserve quarterback Robert Tanner, who was in at the time for starter Gabe Cunningham.

Tate nearly had a two-touchdown day. With 2:23 left in the first quarter, he got behind Warriors defensive backs Tyler Anderson and Jason Moriarty and was alone at the 2-yard when he bobbled and dropped a pass from Cunningham.

In the third quarter, he separated himself from Moriarty’s single coverage and made sure his hands clutched the throw from Tanner.

“That made me play a bit more cautious and watch what I was doing,” said Tate, who finished with five catches for 82 yards. “If the ball touches your hands, you’ve got to attack, you can’t let it roll off. That (dropped ball) hit me right in the (hands) and made me realize I’ve got to get on it.”

Wasilla (1-1, 2-2) rolled to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter with quarterback Ben Fielder’s 5-yard run and a dump pass to Anderson that turned into a 92-yard touchdown.

Dillin Wiggins recorded a safety with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter by sacking Tanner in the end zone, and Mitchell Rilatos contributed a 2-yard TD run with 3:01 remaining in the game.

Wasilla 37, Lathrop 6

Saturday, Lathrop High School

First Quarter:

Wasilla—Fielder 5 run (Perry kick), 6:31.

Wasilla—Anderson 92 pass from Fielder (Perry kick), 3:09.

Third Quarter:

Wasilla—Teeling 9 run (Perry kick), 5:53.

Wasilla—Teeling 9 run (Perry kick), 4:51.

Lathrop—Tate 21 pass from Tanner (kick blocked), :36.5.

Fourth Quarter:

Wasilla—Safety (Wiggins sack Tanner in end zone), 9:07.

Wasilla—Rilatos 2 run (Perry kick), 3:01.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Wasilla: Teeling 32-200, Fielder 9-49, Rilatos 4-36, Lessard 8-16, Clark 2-(-2). Lathrop: Seminario 7-31, Lee 4-23, Tate 1-5, Tanner 4-(-8), Cunningham 7-(-32).

PASSING—Wasilla: Fielder 4-7-0-121, Clark 0-0-0-0. Lathrop: Cunningham 7-22-1-91, Tanner 5-7-1-39.

RECEIVING—Wasilla: Anderson 3-107, Teeling 1-14. Lathrop: Tate 5-82, Lee 5-22, Seminario 1-24, Fox 1-2.