Dimond football caps off undefeated season with DI state championship win against West

There was no denying who Alaska’s best Division I high school football team was heading into Friday night’s state title bout between undefeated Dimond and previous defending state champion West.

The Lynx had beaten every team in the Cook Inlet Conference at least once, including the Eagles in lopsided fashion in Week 4. But Friday’s rematch between the two familiar foes, with the First National Bowl trophy on the line, played out much differently and wound up going down to the wire.

Dimond’s juggernaut of an offense — led by junior quarterback and CIC Offensive Player of the Year Cayden Pili — had been the star of the show for the majority of the season, averaging 36.1 points per game before the state finals. However, on a frigid and windy night out in the Valley at Colony High School, it was a defensive stand in the final second that secured a 14-7 victory, capped off an 11-0 record, and locked in the program’s first state championship since 2001.

“I had all the faith in the world in our defense,” Dimond head coach Brian Yim said. “Coach (Nick) Middleton puts in so much work, and the defensive staff puts in so much work coming up with strategies, coming up with tendencies and trying to figure everything out. They do a great job of getting us in the right position.”

On the final play of the game, West faced fourth down and long from the Dimond 19-yard line with just six seconds left on the clock and one chance to get into the end zone — to either tie the game or go for the win, if the team felt bold enough to attempt a two-point conversion in the event of a touchdown.

Eagles senior quarterback Jethro De Castro, who had made some huge completions to move the ball just inside the red zone, dropped back to pass and wasn’t able to get his final attempt off before being strip-sacked by Lynx defensive lineman Jeremiah Seve as time expired.

“That last drive, I was just crying and bawling my eyes out,” Dimond senior defensive lineman Lamarr Heanu-Williams said. “It was amazing. The West players were trying to calm me down because all they could hear was me crying.”

Once he saw his teammate slam De Castro to the turf, he knew the game was over and that he was a champion.

“It’s been an amazing and really fun ride,” Heanu-Williams said. “I’ve loved every second of it. I’m so glad I get to go out like this in my senior year.”

Yim never worries about the chunk plays his defense gives up or the penalties they get called for over the course of the game because he knows they step up and deliver when they need to — and “that’s what they did.”

“I’m really excited by how our boys played, stepped up, and faced adversity,” he said.

The Lynx scored all the points they needed to ultimately prevail on a pair of highlight-reel plays in the first half from Pili, who was responsible for both of the team’s touchdowns.

“This feeling is great and there’s nothing else like it,” Pili said. “We knew we could be the best team out here if we really worked for it and wanted it. To be able to go undefeated and win, to have a perfect season like this means everything.”

On Dimond’s first possession, it only took three plays for the offense to score the first points of the game, on a 5-yard rush from Pili during which he broke several tackles and dragged a couple of defenders into the end zone.

West’s only points of the game came on a beastly 11-yard rushing touchdown by senior running back Zephaniah Sailele, who would not be denied as he plowed through a wave of defenders to tie the game at 7-7 in the second quarter.

“We just stayed grounded on defense,” Pili said. “We kept our composure the whole game, never let anything get over our heads, and did our job stopping the run and not letting them get those deep balls.”

The Eagles’ defense tightened up after that and did a better job bottling up the Lynx’s electrifying dual threat until the final minute of the second quarter, when Pili dropped back to pass, escaped the pocket to his left and then reversed field to the right, where he lofted a 26-yard floater to junior tight end Carter Woodhead.

“I’ve been saying it all year: He is just a great athlete, great player, and losing a year of varsity football experience last year due to injury, it’s tough to make up those reps,” Yim said. “For him to really step it up this year and grow each week has been huge.”

Last season, Dimond got off to a dominant 4-0 start, but injuries to its star quarterback and others derailed the team, which only managed to win one more game the rest of the season.

Pili believes that if the Lynx would’ve had him and some of his other teammates for the full season, they would’ve done much better and perhaps even snapped their title drought a year earlier.

“Walking into next year, I know we have a lot of great talent on this team, and we’ll have a chance to win another state championship,” he said.

Presenting him and the Lynx with the First National Bowl state championship trophy was a surprise celebrity guest who just so happens to be a prestigious Dimond alumna: Cayden Pili’s older sister, Alissa Pili. She just wrapped up her rookie WNBA season with the Minnesota Lynx this past Sunday and decided to surprise everyone, including her immediate family, with her appearance.

“It feels great to have her back home and seeing her,” Cayden Pili said.

Yim and his fellow coach would sometimes jokingly call this year’s squad the “Team of Destiny,” even despite some of the injuries they sustained and the different challenges that they had to endure and overcome.

“We just thought, hey, maybe this was just our year and we’re going to keep finding a way to win — and that’s what we did, and I’m blessed,” he said.

Yim is especially proud of the seniors on this year’s team who stuck with the program throughout their four years in high school and helped build it up to the powerhouse it was in 2024 — and has the potential to be again next year.

“There were some ups and downs, but we did what we needed to do to get the job done,” Heanu-Williams said. “It means everything to me, our defensive line, this entire program and this school.”