PALMER — Heading into his junior season at Colony High, Jack Nash’s coaches asked him to switch from wide receiver to quarterback after last year’s starter Harvey Pullen graduated.
He reluctantly agreed to make the position swap under one condition.
“I said the only way I’d do it is if I could play both ways because I love the game so much,” Nash said.
Two games into the 2022 season the Knights are off to a 2-0 start which included a decisive 24-21 win Friday over the defending Division I Alaska state champion Bettye Davis East High Thunderbirds. Colony’s success has come in large part from contributions by Nash on both sides of the ball.
“He didn’t want to play quarterback for us but he stepped up and that’s what the team needed,” said Robbie Nash, who is both Colony’s head coach and Jack’s dad.
Jack, the youngest of Robbie Nash’s three sons, ultimately decided the outcome with the plays he made under center as the starting quarterback and in the secondary as the starting free safety.
Nash threw a pair of first-half touchdowns, intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble. He returned his first interception 80 yards for a touchdown to give Colony a 14-7 lead in the second quarter. His second pick came with just over a minute left on the clock and secured the victory in dramatic fashion.
“It felt amazing,” Nash said. “I knew it was going to be a battle and I knew it was going to come down to a defensive stop and that’s what we did.”
East came into the highly anticipated matchup ranked in the top spot of the Alaska Sports Broadcast Network’s weekly high school football poll. However, the No. 2 ranked Knights had other plans and capitalized on another sloppy game by the Thunderbirds to pull off the upset.
“East has always been No. 1 in the state for years and I told this team that East lost a lot,” Jack Nash said. “They lost Deuce (Zimmerman), Damarion (Delaney) and a lot of weapons last year.”
When Colony played the Thunderbirds in 2021 with a young and inexperienced roster, the Knights kept it relatively close and trailed just 15-12 before East scored 20 unanswered points to pull away and win 35-12.
“I told them this year that if we play hard right from the get-go, we’re going to smack them in the mouth,” Jack Nash said.
The Knights believe the win will serve as notice to the rest of the teams in the Last Frontier that Colony means business in 2022.
“We were a young team last year and this was our game to prove something,” junior wide receiver Jayce Underwood said. “I really think that the whole state knows who we are now. We’re coming for everybody this year.”
Underwood was the recipient of Nash’s first touchdown pass, which tied the game at 7-7 in the first quarter. He made the catch of the night on the 11-yard score, snatching the ball out of the air with one hand and pinning it against his body as he hit the turf.
“I ran a corner (route) and kind of went inside too much but he threw it to a perfect spot and I was able to go up and grab it with one hand,” Underwood said.
He and Nash have a strong relationship off the field that helps strengthen their rapport on the field.
“We grew up together ever since we were little, Underwood said. “That connection has always been there.”
Nash feels the same way and has the utmost confidence in his top target to come down with clutch grabs.
“I’ve got some good chemistry with him,” Nash said. “If I throw him a ball, I know he’s going to go get it.”
The Knights led by as many as 14 points and were up 21-7 at halftime but the Thunderbirds would go on to outscore their hosts 14-3 in the second half with a 14-yard field goal from senior kicker Cody Peterson being the deciding differential in the end.
“We had a plan and we knew if we stuck with it with the tempo, we had a good chance of winning,” Robbie Nash said.
East cut it to a one-possession game with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter when senior outside linebacker Buster Stubbs scooped up a fumble by Colony senior running back Shayne Holladay. He returned the loose ball 43 yards for a touchdown to reduce their deficit to just three points with plenty of time to mount a comeback.
But Nash had one more big play left in him and made it after multiple Colony penalties gave what could’ve been the Thunderbirds’ game-winning drive new life.
“The kids showed a lot of resilience and we almost beat ourselves at the end,” Robbie Nash said. “It’s good for them to win a tight one like this, especially against East. They’re a powerhouse and always have been and always will be.”
Robbie Nash said the Thunderbirds haven’t regressed to the same degree as some programs around the state after graduating a talent-rich senior classes.
“They don’t rebuild, they reload,” he said.
The significance of a win over a quality opponent like East isn’t lost on Colony and the Knights hope that it will propel them going forward.
“A win like that against East gives these kids confidence,” Nash said. “We’re growing, the kids are getting better every week and looking forward to the season keeping going.”