Although defenses for both teams practically took Friday night off, two huge defensive plays in the final quarter made the difference for the Palmer Moose in a 36-32 nonconference victory over the Kenai Kardinals.

Jim McCall picked off an A.J. Hull pass and returned it to the 14-yard line to set up the winning touchdown, a 12-yard pass from Jackson Buresh to McCall that put Palmer up by four points with about 8 1/2 minutes to play.

Then, with the hometown Kardinals choosing to go for it on fourth down, Hull found receiver Alex Nason at the 5-yard line, but the Moose stripped the ball and it wound up in the end zone. Palmer took over on the Kenai 20 with about 3 1/2 minutes left and ran out the clock on one of the season's most entertaining games.

"It was a great football game to watch because there was a lot of scoring. But it wasn't a great game to be a defensive coordinator," said Kenai assistant coach Jim Beeson. "It did come down to who had the ball last. We had our chances."

The game was a showcase for Kenai's Hull and Palmer's McCall. Hull rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries, completed 4 of 8 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown, and racked up 140 return yards.

McCall caught six passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns, rushed five times for 29 yards and led the Moose in return yards -- plus he had that big interception.

Almost every possession in the middle two quarters produced a touchdown, and the teams took turns scoring. Palmer claimed a 21-20 halftime lead when Buresh hit McCall with a 59-yard scoring strike in the waning minutes.

Kenai led 32-29 after the third quarter, which featured two of Hull's four rushing touchdowns. Hull scored on runs of 21, 1, 37 and 10 yards, to go along with an 8-yard TD pass to Nason.

Besides the two Buresh-to-McCall touchdowns, Palmer scored on Ian Ahrens' 26-yard run and Buresh's 1-yard run in the second quarter, and David Clement's 58-yard burst in the third quarter.

Palmer, which plays in the Railbelt Conference for large schools, improved to 2-2. Kenai, which plays in the Northern Lights Conference for small schools, fell to 2-2.

The Kards, ranked second among the state's small schools, face another big-school opponent next week when they entertain West Valley. It'll be the third time in four weeks Kenai takes on a large-school team.

Wasilla 55, Lathrop 0

A.J. Marshall threw for four touchdowns and ran for another Friday night, lifting Wasilla to a resounding 55-0 Railbelt Conference rout of Lathrop at Veterans Memorial Field in Wasilla. The loss extended Lathrop's losing streak to 19 games and left the Malemutes 0-4 this season and 0-3 in the conference.

Marshall launched a pair of bombs for first-quarter touchdowns and a 13-0 Wasilla lead. His 42-yard scoring strike found David Green and his 36-yarder found Brayden Kuiper.

He accounted three more TDs in the second quarter and the Wasilla defense chipped in with a safety, making it 35-0 at the half.

Marshall notched his fifth touchdown with an 11-yard pass to Izaak Probasco in the third before finally letting others engineer touchdowns in the fourth quarter -- Tyler Polis ran 7 yards for one and James Craft returned an interception 34 yards for another.

The Warriors improved to 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the Railbelt.

Soldotna 70, Houston 0

Phil Bennett scored five times, including once on a 65-yard punt return, to help top-ranked Soldotna rout Houston 70-0 in a Northern Lights Conference game in Soldotna.

Bennett's other TDs came on runs of 28, 40, 16 and 72 yards. But he didn't boast the biggest scoring play of the game -- that honor went to teammate Auston Tennis, who reeled off a 95-yard run at the end of the first half.

All of Soldotna's touchdowns came on big plays. The shortest was a 16-yard run by Bennett, while six came on plays of 40 or more yards.

The Stars, who remained undefeated at 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the conference, amassed 442 rushing yards. Houston (2-2, 0-2) managed 68 -- despite a 101-yard game from Brandon Dukes. Two other ballcarriers finished with negative yardage to lower the team's total.

W. Valley 33, N. Pole 24

West Valley's Ty Davis scored the last two touchdowns of the game, including one on a 72-yard kickoff return that gave his team the lead for good, in a 33-24 Railbelt Conference win over North Pole.

The kickoff return gave West Valley a 27-24 lead. A couple minutes later, Davis scored from three yards out to give the Wolfpack (3-1 overall, 2-1 in conference) some breathing room.