Weekend prep football games should help clear playoff picture

Sept. 22, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Both Colony head coach Jamie Mayo and Wasilla head coach Jim Shetter know the key to winning today's Railbelt Conference match lies in stopping the opponent's passing game and big play offense.

Guided by a pair of the state's leading passers, the Knights and Warriors will walk onto Veteran's Memorial Field at Wasilla High with serious playoff implication on the line.

For the Knights the game is a chance to rebound from a disappointing 22-13 loss to Juneau, their first of the season. The lesson Mayo hopes his team learned from the game is that you have to execute at near perfection to win in the Railbelt Conference. It's something he has been hammering into his team all week as they prepare to face their Valley rival.

&#8220We have to not make the same dumb mistakes we did last week against Juneau,” Mayo said. &#8220It is a Colony-Wasilla game we're gearing up for. Records don't really matter coming into this game. The teams could be unbeaten or without a win and I guarantee you that both teams will be playing hard to beat the other.”

Wasilla is also coming off a conference defeat, a 48-29 loss to Lathrop, a game where the Warriors put 29 points on the board and racked up 377 yards of total offense.

It's that offensive fire power that concerns Mayo as he prepares his team.

&#8220We both run pretty much the same offense,” Mayo said. &#8220And its a big play offense, so our defense will have to be sharp. They've got a quarterback who can throw the ball and receivers capable of catching the ball and making big plays.”

Wasilla quarterback Hunter Scholtz completed half his passes against Lathrop for 177 yards, and threw a touchdown pass to Dexter Pearce for 13 yards. Pearce is one of three Warriors among the conference leaders in receiving. Pearce, Jeff Champion and Jeremiah Collins have combined to catch 51 passes this season for 813 yards.

Quarterback play will is crucial to both offenses succeeding. Scholtz has passed for 901 yards, mostly to his trio of receivers.

&#8220We want to put some pressure on him, don't want to let him get comfortable in the pocket and have time to find his receivers,” Mayo said of the Warriors' quarterback. &#8220We've got to disrupt his rhythm or our defensive backs will be busy all day.”

Colony's Teddy Babcock has also shown he is more than capable of throwing the pigskin around, completing 12 passes for touchdowns this season.

Babcock, who missed the fourth quarter in the loss to Juneau after suffering an injury, will return to the starting lineup for the Knights.

&#8220Teddy is fine,” Mayo said. &#8220He'll be ready to play come game time.”

With Babcock out last week the Knights struggled, under the direction of Brad Truax.

&#8220I wouldn't say our play in the fourth quarter had anything to do with Brad (Truax) as much the players not executing,” Mayo said. &#8220We had players running the wrong routes, and giving up dumb penalties at the end of plays. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

The game has major implications, not only on which teams make the playoffs, but on who is the top ranked team from the conference. Currently, Colony and Palmer sit a half-game behind Juneau in conference standings, Juneau, Colony and Palmer each has only one loss, but Juneau has one more win. The Crimson Bears wrap up conference play tonight against West Valley in Fairbanks.

Colony and Palmer both have two conference games to play. If the three teams win their remaining conference games, there will be a three-way tie for the Railbelt title.

&#8220Our goal is to stay healthy and position ourselves to be the host of one of the two first round playoff games,” Mayo said. &#8220At worst, if we lose our next two games, we could slip to third in the conference and would have to play at either Palmer or Juneau. And we don't want to do that.”

For the Warrior's every game is a must-win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Palmer at North Pole

Palmer travels to North Pole this week, and the Moose face a team clinging to the conference's final postseason berth.

The Moose will be tested by one of the conferences' top running games and tailbacks Saturday. Patriot tailback Todd McCormick has averaged 5.6 yards a carry this season in the Patriots hard-nose offense.

Palmer will counter with a slew of running backs led by senior Haakan Bohman who has rushed for just more than 800 yards this season. Fellow senior Tanner Grover has nearly 400.

But the Patriots defense can't just focus on the two big runners, as the Moose had five different players find their way to the end zone last week against West Valley.

A Palmer victory combined with a win over Wasilla in the annual Potato Bowl on Sept. 29 will most likely put them in position to earn at least a share of the conference title.

Houston at Kodiak

In what might be a preview of a small-school playoff game, the Great Land Conference's first-place Houston Hawks are traveling to Kodiak, where they will face the Northern Lights Conference's second-place Kodiak Bears Saturday.

The Hawks were lead by a strong ground game in a 49-12 win over Delta last week, thanks to 100-yard games from fullback Israel Morales and running backs Brandon Parks and Karl Thistle.

Kodiak is led on offense by quarterback Stuart McFarland, who has thrown for 1,052 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season. The Bears also feature a stingy defense that has allowed just 53 points in the first six weeks of the season.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at darrell.breese@frontiersman.com.