Alaska sports week in review: Bartlett rolls over Colony while Juneau football avoids early scare to remain unbeaten; UAA volleyball stays perfect in GNAC

This past week saw several surging teams at both the prep and collegiate level stay hot across the Alaska sports landscape. In Week 6 of the high school football season, Bartlett outmuscled Colony in a statement win, top-ranked Juneau recovered from a slow start to remain undefeated and Service won a thriller over Dimond. The University of Alaska Anchorage volleyball team continued its strong start to the season by winning both matches over Great Northwest Athletic Conference opponents during a two-game road stint.

Headlines and highlights

This past weekend’s football action kicked off with a highly anticipated Division I matchup between a pair of top-ranked teams in the ASBN polls but it failed to live up to the hype as Bartlett bullied Colony for four quarters Friday. The Golden Bears had five players reach the end zone with a pair of players doing so twice. The Knights’ only score came in the first half.

[Bartlett football team pummels Colony in statement win on homecoming night]

The following afternoon, the top-ranked Juneau Huskies avoided a first-half scare in their Cook Inlet Conference matchup with a South High team that had yet to win a game this year. After being tied 13-13 at halftime, the Huskies scored 22 unanswered points to close it out and were powered by a five-touchdown performance from senior quarterback Jarrell Williams.

[Juneau Huskies use physicality and perseverance to establish themselves as top dogs in Alaska’s Division I football]

The most thrilling prep football game at the Division I level of the weekend didn’t even feature a team with a winning record as Service and Dimond went down to the wire under Friday night lights on the Hillside. The Cougars went back and fourth with the Lynx for most of the contest on the Service homecoming night. After taking a late lead on RJ Fine’s second rushing touchdown, it was the Service defense that closed the game. Dimond drove down to the Service 19-yard line and on fourth-and-9, senior Mason Crosby came up with an interception to ice the 30-25 win.

“They were trying to get (Malachi Casey) the ball all game. I saw him cut across my face. I followed him. I got under and the ball was just there,” Crosby said. “There were a lot of ups and downs, scores back and forth but we’re just glad to come out on top.”

Lathrop remains on top of the latest ASBN poll for Divisions II and III in football for the sixth straight week with Soldotna still hot on the trail. At 6-0, the Malemutes are one of three unbeaten teams in the poll, along with the 6-0 Stars and Houston, which stayed undefeated at 5-0 despite allowing its first points of the season this past weekend. Homer and North Pole round out the top 5 with identical 5-1 records.

The Dimond flag football team blew the doors off of Bartlett last Tuesday in a 40-0 shutout. The Lynx had five players reach the end zone, including one on defense. Mai Mateaki powered the offense with her 168 rushing yards on 15 carries and one score. Ellie Cunningham caught three passes and two went for touchdowns, and Kaylani Ugalino returned an interception 2 yards for a defensive score.

Camryn Stevens and Paige Miller helped lift the Service volleyball team over Bettye Davis East last Tuesday in three sets to win 3-0. Miller nearly recorded a double-double by leading the Cougars in kills with 10 and logging nine digs as well. Stevens recorded double-digit assists with a team-leading 22. Heida Young just missed out on a double-double as well after she finished second on the team in kills with nine and logged 12 digs as well.

On the college volleyball scene, UAA improved its overall record to 14-1 and still holds a perfect record against conference competition at 4-0 after beating a pair of GNAC opponents on the road in the the last week. Thursday they swept Montana State Billings 3-0 and two days later they edged out Seattle Pacific in five sets 3-2. The Seawolves were led to victory in both matches by senior outside hitter Eve Stephens and senior setter Ellen Floyd. Stephens was named GNAC Offensive Player of the Week for a record tying 10th time in her career after she led the team with double-digit kills in both matches for a combined 35. Floyd recorded over 20 assists in both matches, including 41 against SPU for a combined 67.

The UAA ski team announced its schedule for the 2022-23 season Thursday. The Seawolves open with the annual Alaska Nordic Cup hosted by in-state rival UAF from Nov. 25-26 and are highlighted by the UAA Invite and the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Skiing Association Championships, both of which they will host at Alyeska Resort and Kincaid Park from Feb. 20-25.

The 27th annual Alaska Men’s Run took place this past Saturday at Kincaid Park and Anchorage’s Ryan McLaughlin comfortably finished in first place with a time of 30 minutes, 32 seconds. The 29-year-old’s mark in the five-mile race was nearly six minutes faster than second-place finisher Joseph Bredar of Anchorage, who clocked in at 36 minutes, 10 seconds.

The ASD XC Class Race was held Saturday at Russian Jack Park, featuring 3,000-meter races from each grade from ninth through 12th. The senior class winners were Ethan Howe of East, who finished in 9 minutes, 35.9 seconds and South’s Robyn Miller (11:34.6). The junior class was paced by Blaise Boyer (9:53.6) of South and Eagle River’s Ava Trembath (11:59.4). Sophomore winners included Dimond’s Jarrett Jackson (9:55.5) and South’s Ava Murphy (11:45.7). South’s Vebjorn Flagstad won the freshman boys race in a time of 9:59.6, while East’s Rose Conway won the girls freshman race. Conway, who won the Mount Marathon girls race over the summer, was the second-fastest among all girls, trailing only Miller with a time of 11:39.9.

Last Week’s Results

Prep Football

Friday

North Pole 47, West Valley 19

Service 30, Dimond 25

Kenai 27, Redington 14

Homer 58, Barrow 20

Soldotna 49, Palmer 7

Bartlett 46, Colony 7

Saturday

Juneau 35, South 13

West 21, East 6

Lathrop 73, Kodiak 6

Seward 28, Eielson 7

Houston 20, Chugiak 9

Eagle River 24, Wasilla 21

Flag Football

Tuesday

Dimond 40, Bartlett 0

Service 14, West 6

South 35, Chugiak 12

East 18, Eagle River 12

Thursday

Service 20, West Valley 0

West 20, South 13

Friday

Bartlett 20, Eagle River 0

Dimond 32, Service 7

Prep tennis

Monday

Dimond 8, Chugiak 1

Tuesday

Dimond 8, South 1

Wednesday

South 5, Bartlett 3

West 9, Bartlett 0

Dimond 5, Service 4

Service 8, Bartlett 0

Saturday

South 5, Bartlett 2

Prep Volleyball

Tuesday

Service 3, East 0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-20)

South 3, Bartlett 0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-12)

West 3, Eagle River 2 (22-25, 18-25, 25-13, 25-19, 15-9)

Dimond 3, Chugiak 0 (28-26, 25-23, 25-18)

College

Volleyball

Thursday

UAA 3, Montana Billings State 0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-17)

Saturday

UAA 3, Seattle Pacific 2 (25-21, 25-17, 16-25, 24-26, 15-12)

Three things to watch for this week

Prep football

West at Colony, 7 p.m. Friday

A showdown between a pair of teams ranked in the top five of the latest ASBN polls will take place in the valley when the No. 3 ranked Eagles head out to Palmer to play the No. 4 ranked Knights under Friday night lights. In the penultimate week of the 2022 high school football regular season, West is coming in riding a three-game winning streak and will be looking to keep rolling while Colony will want to bounce back after a humbling loss.

Chugiak at Eagle River, 3 p.m. Saturday

The annual ‘Battle of the Bridge’ is going down this weekend and the Mustangs will be looking to claim their first victory over their rivals since the 2019 season. Eagle River produced shutouts on defense in each of the last two meetings and outscored Chugiak on offense by a combined 78-0 during that span.

College hockey

Simon Frasier at UAA, 7:07 p.m. Friday

After a two-year hiatus, the University of Alaska Anchorage hockey team will not only play but host a game for the first time since being reinstated. The Seawolves will welcome Simon Frasier University to town for an exhibition game at the Seawolf Sports Complex on campus. The Seawolves spent the last year compiling their whole roster from scratch and are eager to establish a winning culture for the program that was resurrected by the ‘Save the Seawolves’ campaign.

[Revived and reloaded: 2 big NCAA changes are helping UAA athletic programs build up their rosters]