Sports

Dimond's defense subdues top-ranked West; Wasilla stops Juneau

Dimond's defense dethroned West as the early king of Alaska football on Friday night.

The Lynx rebounded from a season-opening loss to South to upend the Eagles 26-13 at Anchorage Football Stadium. Dimond forced five turnovers, three by interception and two by fumble, in the Cook Inlet Conference game.

Dimond (1-1 overall, 1-1 CIC) led 26-0 before West finally got on the scoreboard with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Sam Wedin to Shanai Leon just before the end of the third quarter.

West (1-1 overall, 0-1 CIC) produced the only fourth-quarter points when P.J. Seui plunged one yard for a touchdown with 2:54, but it was too little, too late for the defending state champions.

Dimond led 20-0 at the half, striking first on J.J. Tanuvasa's 14-yard run and again on Rocky Vasai's 45-yard run.

The defense got into the scoring at the end of the first half when Timothy Schell returned an interception 95 yards no time left on the clock.

Tanuvasa pushed Dimond's lead to 26-0 when he scored his second touchdown, a five-yard run, with less than a minute left in the third quarter.

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In the Valley on Friday, Wasilla's Devin Otto scored two late touchdowns to lead the Warriors to a 35-22 win over Juneau, Colony thumped West Valley 42-20, Soldotna blanked Palmer 33-0 in and Nikiski got past Houston 16-6.

Wasilla (1-1) yielded an early touchdown to Juneau but led the nonconference game 16-7 and led by as much as 22-7 before Juneau clawed its way back into the game.

The Crimson Bears (1-1) began their comeback with a six-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dorian Izaak. With less than five minutes left in the game, Izaak connected with Adam Empson for a 56-yard scoring play that tied the game 22-22.

The Warriors grabbed a 28-22 lead on Otto's 30-yard run with 2:53 remaining. Juneau fumbled the kickoff, Wasilla recovered, and a few plays later Otto found the end zone again on a two-yard burst with 57 seconds left.

Otto finished with 171 yards on 30 carries, three of them for touchdowns. Blake Marks helped fuel the victory with two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

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