Week 8 loaded with intrigue

WASILLA — It’s not hard for Wasilla head coach Kent Rilatos to compare his 2012 squad to a Colony Knights team he watched in 2010.

In 2010, Colony used a senior-laden varsity group to win the Railbelt Conference title. But after graduating virtually its entire squad after that 2010 title, a very young Knights team struggled significantly in 2011.

While the youthful Knights took their lumps, the Warriors thrived. Wasilla, sporting a squad stocked full of seniors, played its way to the Railbelt title in 2011.

But graduation hit Wasilla football just as hard as it did at Colony the year before. Now the Warriors, who lost 21 seniors from their conference title team, are still looking for their first conference win of the season. Tonight, Rilatos hopes he can draw one more comparison between the 2011 Knights and the 2012 Warriors. Colony capped its 2011 campaign with a big win over North Pole in Week 8. Tonight, Rilatos would love to see his team do the same against top-ranked Palmer in the 34th annual Potato Bowl at Palmer High School.

“There’s definitely a parallel,” Rilatos said Wednesday night. “Colony last year was made up mostly by juniors. Last week in the Soldotna game, four of our scoring drives basically had three seniors out there. We’re a very heavy junior and sophomore-laden team.”

Colony ended its 2011 season with a 42-39 win over North Pole. This season the Knights are fighting for a Railbelt Conference playoff berth.

“We’re kind of in the same boat Colony was last year,” Rilatos said.

To get its first conference win of the season Wasilla (1-6 overall, 0-5 in Railbelt play) will have to find out a way to beat an undefeated Palmer team that clinched its own Railbelt championship with a 40-14 win over Juneau-Douglas last week.

“We get a chance to play a great team,” Rilatos said of his team’s match with the Moose.

The Warriors will play a No. 1-ranked team for the second straight week. Last Friday, Wasilla suffered a 68-48 loss to Soldotna, the top-ranked school in Alaska’s medium school’s division. Palmer is the top squad in the large-school’s class.

“Playing Soldotna was a good warm-up for Palmer,” Rilatos said. “It’s a good warm-up to show the intensity, the intensity we need to bring every play.”

The Soldotna loss was an example of the issues Wasilla has faced throughout the year. Scoring has not been a problem for Wasilla. The Warriors are averaging nearly 29 points per game this year, and has scored at least three touchdowns in every game this season. Wasilla has also finished with 27 or more points in more than half its games.

“The kids know if they perform each down the way they know how, they know they can score,” Rilatos said. “The frustrating thing is when we go over to the defensive side of the ball.”

Defense is Wasilla’s Achilles heel. The Warriors are allowing 45 points per game, and opponents have amassed about 3,000 yards in total offense against Wasilla this season.

Wasilla has done its best offensively to try to keep up in the shootouts. Senior quarterback Ben Fielder threw for a school-record 395 yards during the loss to the Stars. In seven games, Fielder has completed 82 passes for 1,249 yards and 15 touchdowns. In 155 attempts, Fielder has thrown only seven interceptions, and four came during a loss to West Valley.

Junior Cash McGregor has been Fiedler’s top target this season, with 34 catches for 491 yards and nine scores. He has at least one touchdown catch in every game this season.

McGregor is also within reach of Wasilla’s school record for catches in a season. Unofficially, former Warrior Travis Webb holds the record with the 39 catches he hauled in during the 2001 season.

Mitchell Rilatos has handled the bulk of the Wasilla running game this year, with 737 yards rushing and seven scores in seven games.

Wasilla, 10-23 in 33 Potato Bowl history, currently holds the coveted Mayor’s Cup Trophy, the traveling prize awarded to the winner of the annual match between the Moose and the Warriors. But after earning the Railbelt title against Juneau, the Moose have only one goal for Week 8.

“Get the trophy back,” Palmer senior Dylan Myers said after the win over Juneau last week.

Palmer has suffered only one Potato Bowl loss since 2008 and two since 2002, but Wasilla kicker Kyler Perry snapped Palmer’s three-year Potato Bowl streak last fall when he kicked a 30-yard field goal on the final play of the game to give the Warriors a 23-22 win.

Myers said the Moose have spent the last year motivated to get that trophy back.

The Moose will aim to use arguably the state’s top rushing attack to pull the Mayor’s Cup back to PHS. Junior James Nisbett leads the state in rushing with 1,074 yards and 19 touchdowns. Nisbett also has a kick return for a score this season, giving him an overall total of 20 trips to the end zone.

“We continue to ask a lot of him, but he’s doing a great job,” Palmer head coach Rod Christiansen said of Nisbett after the Juneau win. “He’s a hard-nosed runner, and has speed to go with it.”

Nisbett is not the only weapon in the Palmer backfield. Junior Vincent Aumavae (439 yards, four touchdowns) and senior Luke Heun (323 yards and four scores) have also had success.

Senior Cameron Christiansen has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the conference. The first-year varsity starter has only 27 completions, but is completing 64 percent of his passes. He also has six touchdown passes, compared to only one interception.

While the Palmer offense has received much of the hype, the Moose also sport the top scoring defense in the Railbelt. Palmer is allowing only 16 points per game this year. Defending state champion Service is the only large-schools team allowing fewer, sitting at 13 points per game.

Tonight’s game will not change Palmer’s playoff standings. Regardless of outcome the top-seeded Moose will host the fourth seed from the Cook Inlet Conference during the ASAA quarterfinals next weekend.

Colony at North Pole

While the Moose know exactly where they will be during the first round of the postseason, Colony’s playoff fate is still very much up in the air.

Colony took a step toward solidifying its spot in the postseason with a 23-19 win over West Valley last week, but did not officially clinch.

Heading into Week 8 action, Colony is locked in a third-place tie with Juneau-Douglas at 3-2 in conference play. Depending on what happens this weekend, Colony could finish anywhere from second to fifth in the Railbelt. There are four potential scenarios, and the Railbelt’s final three playoff spots will be decided by two games in the Interior this week. Colony travels to North Pole to face the Patriots tonight at 7 p.m. Juneau is at West Valley Saturday at 6.

The following are the four potential playoff scenarios involving Colony, North Pole, Juneau and West Valley. Palmer is officially No. 1, and Lathrop and Wasilla have been eliminated from consideration. Like Palmer, the No. 2 seed will also host a first-round game.

• If North Pole and Juneau win:

North Pole gets the No. 2 seed and finishes 4-2. Juneau would finish third at 4-2. Colony is fourth at 3-3, and West Valley (2-4) is eliminated from the playoffs.

• If North Pole and West Valley win:

North Pole would get the No. 2 seed with a 5-2 record. Juneau, Colony and West Valley would finish in a three-way tie at 3-3. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, and said teams are all 1-1 against each other. The second tiebreaker is point differential involving the tied teams. Juneau is currently a +1, Colony is a -1 and West Valley is at -4. The team with the best differential is the No. 3 seed. Head-to-head competition between the other two teams would decide the fourth seed.

• If Colony and Juneau win

In this scenario, West Valley would be eliminated with the loss to Juneau. North Pole, Juneau and Colony would all finish in a second-place tie at 4-2. Each would make the playoffs, but the seeds would be decided by tiebreakers. Again, head-to-head play is the first tiebreaker, but involved teams would be 1-1 against each other. The second tiebreaker is point differential in games involving tied teams. North Pole is currently at +19, Colony is at -1 and Juneau is at -18. The team with the best differential after this weekend would be the No. 2 seed. The third seed would be decided by head-to-head play involving the two remaining teams.

Colony’s quest for one of the conference’s three remaining playoff spots is led by one of the top quarterbacks in the state, senior Rob Lorentz.

Currently, Lorentz is ranked second in the state with 1,447 yards passing. Only North Pole senior Moo Rogers has more, with 1,470. Rogers is Lorentz’s opponent tonight.

Lorentz has had a pair of record-breakers to throw to this season. Daniel Bilafer now owns the school record for catches in a season with 46. Last week, Antonio Bush broke the school record for receiving yards in a single season at Colony, and currently holds the new mark of 604. Both records were set in 1999. Cole Magner had 35 catches that season, while Jason Deml had 588 yards receiving.

Houston at Homer

The Houston Hawks will wrap up their 2012 season with a road contest at Homer High School Saturday afternoon. Houston (1-3 in Northern Lights Conference play) was officially eliminated from the NLC playoff race by Homer’s 20-0 win over Kodiak in Week 7.

Like Wasilla, Houston still hopes to end the season with a win.

The Hawks have been led by its ground game and running tandem of Waylon Soptick and Hunter Smith. Sopitck leads the Hawks with 667 yards rushing in six games. Smith has more than 400 yards on the ground. Both have five touchdowns.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com, follow him @matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.