West football soars to season-opening victory over Colony with a complete team performance

The West High football squad sent a clear message to the rest of the teams in the Alaska after dominating reigning Division I state champion Colony on Friday night in a lopsided 41-20 victory.

The Eagles did a lot more than successfully defend the Nest on Hillcrest in their resounding season-opening triumph. They sent the Knights home packing with a complete team effort in this highly anticipated matchup.

“It tells them that we’re ready,” senior wide receiver Aaron Hampton said. “There were a lot of questions but I felt like those questions got answered tonight. Everyone in the state should know that we’re dangerous and that we’re ready for anyone.”

West made several plays in every phase of the game, including racking up more than 30 points on offense before halftime, forcing multiple turnovers on defense and coming up big on special teams as well.

“We had so many different contributors tonight,” West head coach Tim Davis said. “The team came to play, and that’s why the feeling is so good.”

Hampton led the charge for the Eagles on both offense and defense and made the first big special teams play of the game when he snuffed out a fake punt attempt on the Knights’ opening possession to set up his offense just outside the Colony 20-yard line.

He found the end zone twice on offense, with the first coming on a beautifully executed screen play where he followed a convoy of blockers before erupting up the left sideline for a 34-yard touchdown. By halftime, West had established a 34-13 lead.

“I believed in our team,” Hampton said. “Everyone believed in what we had and our coaching staff and it really showed tonight.”

His second came on a heads-up play where he happened to be at the right place at the right time: He corralled a fumble by senior quarterback Azariah Atonio that popped up in the air just shy of the goal line, and before the ball hit the ground, Hampton took it into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown.

“If you had to circle an MVP for this game, (Hampton) is up there probably because of his impact on both sides of the ball,” Davis said. “He was tremendous defensively, he was tremendous offensively, and he was a spark plug.”

He had another big catch and run later in the game for a 34-yard gain but his most impressive play of the night came on defense in the fourth quarter when he dropped underneath a pass from Colony backup quarterback Jerimiah Brown and intercepted it as if he were the intended receiver.

“I saw the quarterback drop back, I was on my man, he tried to feed it but I have long arms and just made a play,” Hampton said. “I just did what I’ve been doing since I was 4, just make plays day in and day out.”

Despite Hampton’s heroics, Davis said he was far from the only player on the team to have a stellar performance.

“It wasn’t just one guy,” Davis said. “There were certainly highlights and there were certainly moments where a guy was widely impactful.”

Senior running back Davis Iloilo had a monster night on the ground. He eclipsed 100 rushing yards and punched the ball across the goal line for three touchdowns over the course of the night, including the team’s first two scores and the final TD.

“I’m not scared to take a hit and I’ll do anything for my team,” Iloilo said. “They got my back and I got theirs.”

Fueled by a dominant outing from the Eagles offensive line, he was a punishing force between the tackles and was averaging 7 yards a carry at one point in the game.

“I think our offensive line is really physically dominant,” Davis said. “We saw that at times tonight, and where I was proudest of them was that they played at a high tempo, which is something that big guys don’t necessarily like doing.”

Iloilo could’ve had four TDs had his incredible 29-yard touchdown rumble late in the fourth quarter not been called back and negated because he hurdled a Colony defender midstride, which is a penalty at the high school level.

While Hampton had the most impressive interception of the night, the team leader in that category was junior defensive back Dylan Sanders, who picked off two passes from his safety spot.

Atonio shook off early game jitters and made some impressive plays in the passing game in his first time out at as the Eagles starter under center after transferring from Bettye Davis East. He connected on several deep shots down the field, including a 23-yard touchdown to junior receiver Ariel Sanchez.

The Knights were not without some impressive highlights of their own courtesy of 2022 Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year Jack Nash, who played a part in all three of the team’s touchdowns.

He connected his favorite target on the night, Trevor “Star” Jamison, for a 20-yard touchdown that tied the game 6-6 in the first quarter. He helped tied it up again at 13-13 on a 39-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter when he reversed field after initially running left, then outrunning the West defense up the right sideline.

West knows this was likely not their last time seeing Colony, which proved last year that they can catch fire as the season goes on.

“We will see this team again, I’m pretty sure, somewhere along the road,” Davis said. “That’s a really good football team over there. They aren’t going away anytime soon.”

Friday night scores

West 41, Colony 20

Wasilla 48, West Valley 24

Dimond 24, South 18

Palmer 10, Chugiak 7

Kenai 37, Kodiak 0

Houston 60, Redington 0