Alaska News

West shines in 29-6 football win over East

One team's resurgence contributed to another team's frustration Friday at Dimond Alumni Field.

West played its best football game of the season and flattened East 29-6 in a Cook Inlet Conference showdown.

The Eagles won their second straight game and improved to 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the CIC. East fell to 0-4, 0-3 CIC at the midpoint of an eight-game regular season.

West came in with an offense capable of running and throwing, and a defense that stifled East's ability to consistently do either.

"This team has been developing a lot ever since we lost our starting quarterback in Week 2," said West wide receiver Leroy Elliot, who caught three touchdown passes. "I think our passing game is getting up there and our running game is still solid, so I'm pretty thankful for that."

West lost starting quarterback Sam Wedin for the season when he injured his knee in the first half of a loss to Chugiak. Tyrone Davis, who completed 9 of 12 passes Friday, has shown steady improvement since taking over as the signal caller.

"He's a sponge in practice," West coach Tim Davis said. "He's getting his chance to do what he wants to do, and that's being a leader on this team. He's not the same quarterback that had to come in in the first quarter against Chugiak a few weeks ago."

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Davis capped a seven-play, game-opening drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Elliot to put the Eagles up 6-0, then hit Davis with a 33-yard touchdown pass seconds before halftime to give West a 12-0 lead at the break.

"That touchdown before half hurt us," East coach Jeff Trotter said.

East bounced back to make it 12-6 midway through the third quarter when Clayton Washburn scored on a quarterback sneak from the 7-yard line, but the Davis-Elliot connection struck again a few minutes later, this time on a 52-yard score that served as the game's best highlight.

Elliot caught a short pass in the left flat, evaded a tackle and raced down the left sideline. He looked like he was going to step out of bounds, but somehow tip-toed the final 10 yards into the end zone.

"I actually thought I was out of bounds, but I saw the line and thought, 'I'm gonna keep going,' " he said.

After East punted to end its ensuing possession, West took over on the East 30 and only needed two runs from Lui Faamasino to go up 26-6 with 7.6 seconds left in the third quarter.

Faamasino, who led the CIC in rushing with 296 yards coming into the game and finished with a game-high 103 yards, pounded out a 23-yard run, followed by a pile-moving bull rush up the middle for a 7-yard touchdown.

West managed too many big plays, said Trotter, who was pleased the T-birds didn't turn the ball over but wasn't happy with the 85 penalty yards. As is often the case, many of the penalties came at the worst possible times and killed drives.

East was impressive on its lone scoring drive, ripping off runs of 21 and 18 yards to move from its own 23 to pay dirt in seven plays that spanned less than three minutes.

"We started doing that in the first half and then, penalties, penalties," Trotter said. "We had two holding calls in a row on a drive that we were rolling on."

With five teams from the CIC earning playoff berths, four losses doesn't sink East's chances of making a third straight post-season appearance. But the T-birds can't afford to lose many more.

"We gotta go 3-1 or 4-0 the rest of the way to get in," Trotter said. "We gotta just keep getting better."

Both teams are dealing with their share of injuries, Trotter said, and West might have suffered a costly one Friday. Davis was concerned about a knee injury to Jake Faualo, a senior running back who is the primary back in the Wildcat package West likes to run.

"It's costly," Davis said. "We got some guys knocked down and we know we're gonna be missing a few dudes (next week)."

West, which has reached the semifinals of the large-school state playoffs for the past three seasons, takes on Bartlett next week, and East will take on Dimond.

Reach Jeremy Peters at jpeters@adn.com or 257-4335.

West 6 6 14 3 -- 29

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East 0 6 0 0 -- 6

1st quarter

West -- Leroy Elliot 11 pass from Tyrone Davis (kick fail), 8:31

2nd quarter

West -- Elliot 33 pass from Davis (kick fail), 6.3

3rd quarter

East -- Clayton Washburn 7 run (kick fail) 3:41

West -- Elliot 52 pass from Davis (Davis Ortland kick), 2:29

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West -- Lui Faamasito 7 run (Ortland kick), 7.6

4th quarter

West -- Ortland 28 field goal, 11.7

East West

First downs 11 18

Rushes- yards 36-145 31-162

Passing yards 39 133

Return yards 123 62

Passes 4-7-0 9-12-0

Punts 2-34.0 2-19.0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-0

Penalties- yards 10-85 5-55

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Individual Statistics

Rushing -- East: Lealao 7-80; Hawk 12-33; Washburn 12-13; Schnellbaecher 3-12 Brown 1-7; Seui 1-0. West: Faamasino 15-103; Faualo 9-40; Murchison 3-34; Tuilimu 1-5; Davis 3-(-20).

Passing -- East: Washburn 4-7-0--39; West: Davis 9-12-0--133.

Receiving -- East: Lealao 2-24; Hawk 2-15. West: Elliot 5-94; Rayford 2-26; Faamasino 1-9; Cordero 1-4.

By JEREMY PETERS

jpeters@adn.com

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