West quarterback Justin Kauffman dropped back to pass, cut right and turned upfield, his eyes glued to the first-down marker. The senior brushed aside a would-be tackler, galloped past the marker, turned away from the sideline and dove to the ground.

First down. Game over.

Kauffman’s risky scramble on fourth down from deep inside West territory Saturday afternoon enabled the top-ranked Eagles to run the clock out on a perfect regular season with a thrilling 26-21 win over third-ranked South at Anchorage Football Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

But according to West coach Tim Davis, Kauffman’s heroics should never have happened. The first-year coach said he should have punted the ball with the Eagles clinging to the lead on their own 24 with 15 seconds left in the game. “To be honest with you, I thought the math would let us run the clock out on that play,” Davis said after watching his team claim its first Cook Inlet Conference championship since 2004. “That’s why I teach social studies and not math ... It worked out, but it was kind of a stupid move.”

Kauffman’s heroics with his legs came just minutes after he used his arm to help West re-take the lead after a disastrous third quarter in which South stormed back from a 18-7 halftime deficit.

Kauffman’s 33-yard strike to J’Vonte Buster — his second of the day — proved the game winner for the Eagles, which finished 8-0 overall and earned the No. 1 CIC playoff seed. West will host North Pole, the No. 4 seed from the Railbelt Conference, next weekend.

Buster was supposed to run a curl route on the game-winning score, but he raced past the South corner into the clear. Kauffman saw the speedy wideout going for the home run, and hit Buster in stride near the goal line. “He tried to jump me, and I just did a swim move,” Buster said.

Buster finished with six catches for 143 yards, and West outgained the conference’s top offense by a 334-277 margin thanks to 205 passing yards by Kauffman.

“I just have that confidence in all my receivers,” said Kauffman.

The Wolverines held the ball for 10:59 of the 12-minute third quarter, scored one touchdown and set up another. “We never play good in the third quarter,” said Kauffman. “But we always finish strong.”

David Sollars’ 6-yard run midway through the third cut West’s lead to 18-13, and Matt Higgins’ 2-yard plunge on the first play of the fourth quarter gave the Wolverines their first lead of the game at 21-18.

“What an awesome game,” said South coach John Lewis, whose team held West to just minus-5 yards offense in the third quarter on four plays from scrimmage.

Lewis’ team will enter the playoffs as the CIC’s No. 2 seed and will host Palmer next week. Despite the setback, Lewis said his team (5-2 CIC, 6-2 overall) won’t spend too much time dwelling on Saturday’s loss.

“It’s the state championship every single week from here on out,” he said.

West dominated the first half, getting back-to-back touchdowns from Michael Sharp to open the game. Sharp, who scored two of the six times he touched the ball, had an 8-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter and a 4-yard scamper with the Eagles in their “Wild Bird” formation (a variation of the Wildcat) in the second.

Elliott Bauer got the Wolverines on the board with a 4-yard run in the second. But the Eagles headed into the locker room with a two-score lead when Buster ran a slant through the South secondary for a 24-yard score with 15 seconds left in the first half.

But South refused to cave in, and the Wolverines had the Eagles on the run until a pivotal turnover late in the fourth set up the winning score.

With South leading 21-18, the Wolverines had the ball on their own 30, needing only to kill the final eight minutes of the game to claim the conference title. But Sollars fumbled the ball on his own 29 and West’s Siaosi Sila came out of the pile with the biggest defensive play of the game.

“They had one more touchdown and we gave it away one too many times,” said Lewis.

Four plays later, Buster was standing in the end zone all alone after catching the biggest touchdown of his high school career. West’s defense then stood up to a late South surge, stopping quarterback Kyle Kirn’s fourth-down scramble just short of the first-down marker to end South’s final drive of the regular season on the West 17.

West’s post-game celebration was tempered by the fact that the Eagles are still three weeks away from their ultimate goal, a state championship.

“It feels pretty good right now, but we still have three more games left, and that’s what counts,” said Kauffman.

Find Matt Tunseth online at adn.com/contact/mtunseth or call 257-4335.

West 6 12 0 8 — 26

South 0 7 6 8 — 21

First Quarter

West — M. Sharp 8 pass from Kauffman (kick blocked), 8:59.

Second Quarter

West — M. Sharp 4 run (kick wide right), 8:47.

South — Bauer 4 run (Hornak kick), 6:57.

West — Buster 24 pass from Kauffman (pass failed), 0:15.

Third Quarter

South — Sollars 6 run (run failed), 7:01.

Fourth Quarter

South — Higgins 2 run (Higgins run), 11:55.

West — Buster 33 pass from Kauffman (Solomona run), 6:43.

West South

First downs 13 16

Rushes-yards 23-129 59-227

Passing yards 205 50

Return yards 0 0

Passes 11-22-1 3-8-0

Punts 3-37.0 2-34.5

Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1

Penalties-yards 5-55 4-24

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — South: Sollars 18-98, Higgins 17-81, Bauer 15-43, Friess 3-11, MacDowell 2-10, Moeola 1-1, Kirn 3-(-17). West: Wyche 14-74, Kauffman 5-47, M. Sharp 2-24, Taylor 1-(-5), Solomona 1-(-11).

PASSING — South: Kirn 3-8-0 — 50. West: Kauffman 11-22-1 — 205.

RECEIVING — South: Moeola 1-41, Bauer 1-6, Hanley 1-3. West: Buster 6-143, M. Sharp 4-45, W. Sharp 1-18.

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