Back-to-back defensive touchdowns propel undefeated Dimond past South

With an unblemished record through the first five weeks of the season, the Dimond High football team is off to its best start in over two decades since the program’s last state championship-winning season in 2001, before any of the players on this year’s team were born.

While the biggest catalyst to Dimond’s success on the gridiron this time around has been star junior quarterback Cayden Pili, he wasn’t the one who broke their Saturday afternoon game against South wide open and gave them the breathing room to pull away for a 42-28 victory.

That honor belonged to one of the most unlikely of candidates. Undersized senior defensive lineman Lamarr Heanu-Williams reached the end zone for the first time in his seven years of playing football not once but twice on a pair of fumble recoveries he returned for touchdowns in the second quarter.

“I’ve gotten a few fumble recoveries, but today was amazing,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. It felt unreal.”

Prior to that point in the game, South and Dimond were engaged in what looked like was going to be a back-and-forth slugfest between the top team in the state and last year’s Division I state runner-up. The Wolverines drew first blood and held a 14-7 lead after the first quarter and up until the last few minutes before halftime.

The Lynx knotted the game 14-14 at the 2:15 mark on Pili’s second rushing touchdown of the half from three yards out. His first score came in the first quarter on a 30-yard run on fourth down.

[Alaska sports scoreboard]

Over the Wolverines’ next two possessions, the ball was snapped over the head of senior quarterback Cole Yarrington on a pair of plays. Both times, Heanu-Williams was in the right place at the right time to pick up the loose balls and sprint to the goal line.

“He has gone through a lot of adversity personally, works hard (and) you can catch him at McDonald’s slinging burgers too,” Dimond head coach Brian Yim said. “I’m just happy for him. I’ve been with him for the past four years, and it’s great to see him have a great game like that. We always knew it was in him.”

Offensive and defensive lineman are not traditional ball-carriers and are taught to fall on the ball whenever it hits the ground but with no one next to him and nothing but wide-open space in front of him, Heanu-Williams seized the rare opportunities to turn good plays into scoring plays.

“I was always taught to fall on it, but there was nobody right next to me so I knew I had to pick it up and go for it,” he said. “I knew once we had those two touchdowns that we were going to win.”

After taking a 28-14 lead into halftime, Dimond didn’t let up in the second half as Pili went on to throw a pair of touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters to put his team up 42-14 before South was able to get on the board again with a pair of late scoring drives against mostly backups.

“My passes weren’t all that great but my receivers did a great job of catching the ball, and I was just doing what I can with my legs,” Pili said.

With yet another resounding victory over a high-quality opponent, Dimond improved to 5-0 and showed that the Lynx are the team to beat in the Last Frontier at the Division I level.

“We’ve faced adversity at different times all year and have been able to respond,” Yim said. “We take a lot of pride in that and how we got to this point. It’s been three years in the making to get here, and I’m just glad that we’re continuing to get the job done.”

Elsewhere in Division I gridiron action, the Bettye Davis East Anchorage Thunderbirds pulled off another second-half comeback to defeat the Colony Knights on Friday night. Across town on Saturday, Bartlett celebrated its homecoming with a double-digit win over Service and in the state’s capital city, reigning state champion West Anchorage narrowly escaped with a 28-27 win over Juneau-Douglas.

At the lower levels, Soldotna remained the only undefeated team in Division II with a nearly 30-point win over Palmer and Seward did the same in 9-man with a 22-point margin of victory over Nikiski on Friday night. Other impressive performances included Homer blowing out Kodiak by more than 50 points and Eagle River shutting out Lathrop to notch the Wolves’ first win over the Malemutes in nearly a decade.

Week 5 Results

Friday

Seward 36, Nikiski 14

Homer 58, Kodiak 6

West Valley 22, Wasilla 20

North Pole 21, Chugiak 10

Soldotna 42, Palmer 14

East 14, Colony 10

Saturday

Eagle River 27, Lathrop 0

Kenai Central 14, Houston 12

Bartlett 38, Service 22

Dimond 42, South 28

West 28, Juneau-Douglas 27