Sports

Only mercy South shows West in a 55-9 blowout is a running clock

The only mercy South's football team showed West on Saturday night was the mercy rule.

Buoyed by a relentless, remorseless defense and a combined seven touchdowns from speedsters Justice Augafa and Nicholas Settle, the Wolverines dropped a 55-9 anvil on the Eagles at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Seldom has the distance between the No. 2-ranked team among large schools (South) and the No. 4-ranked team (West) looked like the light years that separated these Cook Inlet Conference clubs.

South's domination proved so overwhelming that the fourth quarter was played with a running clock because South led 48-0 -- the mercy rule is triggered when a team leads by 35 points or more after three quarters. For good measure, the Wolverines added a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, when Augafa rolled 14 yards for his fourth touchdown of the night and a 55-0 Wolverines lead.

Augafa book-ended South's scoring. He opened the game with a 85-yard kickoff return on which no Eagle touched him, caught a precise 33-yard strike from Colin Thompson for another first-quarter touchdown and delivered a 17-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Augafa generated 88 yards rushing on 14 carries and racked 237 all-purpose yards.

Settle was no slouch either. He rushed eight times for 114 yards and three touchdowns, caught two passes for 19 yards and returned an interception 81 yards for an apparent touchdown. But a penalty against the Wolverines snuffed that touchdown and backed up Settle's return to a mere 68 yards.

For all the electrifying work by Augafa and Settle, and Thompson's two touchdown passes -- he hit converted tackle turned tight end Cameron Kinnebrew for a 19-yard score -- the Wolverines (5-1, 5-0 CIC) stayed tied with Bartlett atop the standings courtesy of their fast, bruising defense.

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Particularly unsettling for the Eagles was South's defensive front of junior ends Logan Murray (two sacks) and Jordan Moore (one sack), and interior linemen Matthew Keogh (one sack and much mayhem caused) and Jacob Hoover (fumble recovery). That crew consistently owned the line of scrimmage and was continually in the faces of West quarterbacks Sean Duffy and Sam Wedin.

"We just want to get to the quarterback,'' said Murray, a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder. "We work on our speed in practice, to get around the tackles, and the two inside guys blow up the middle on bull rushes.''

South coach John Lewis said the defensive line enhances its natural size and athleticism with off-field work.

"They're weight-room rats and speed-work rats,'' Lewis said.

And they made an impression on West coach Tim Davis, whose running game came up empty (minus-37 yards). That deficiency constantly put the Eagles in long-yardage passing situations and afforded South's defensive front the chance to make a land rush into West's backfield.

"Neither quarterback had a chance,'' Davis said. "You've got to establish the run if you want to chuck the ball around the field. Any time you can't sniff the run, you're going to have a long night.

"We got whupped.''

Duffy and Wedin combined to throw for 201 yards, but took 44 attempts to do it. That's an average of just 4.57 yards per attempt.

Thompson went 5 of 11 for 78 yards, an average of 7.10 yards per attempt. Of course, he could also depend on South's running game. The Wolverines gashed West (4-2, 3-2 CIC) for 238 yards on 36 carries, giving Lewis the answer to his question of when the offense was finally going to ignite.

South was also superior on special teams. Besides Augafa's game-opening kickoff return, kicker Oskar Seglem boomed touchbacks on the first six of his eight kickoffs and launched another one just shy of the goal line. Seglem also made seven of eight extra points.

Even so, South's defense provided the biggest springboard to the blowout. The only points it surrendered came in garbage time.

"Our defense is one of the strong points of our team,'' said Augafa, who doubles as a safety. "We like hitting, swarming to the ball. We wanted to set the tone and be physical.''

On that front, the Wolverines proved merciless.

Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog

West 0 0 0 0 -- 0

South 14 14 8 20 -- 55

First Quarter

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South — Augafa 85 kickoff return (Seglem kick), 11:49.

South — Augafa 33 pass from Thompson (Seglem kick), 4:37.

Second Quarter

South — Kinnebrew 19 pass from Thompson (Seglem kick), 11:55.

South — Settle 39 run (Seglem kick), 2:39.

Third Quarter

South — Settle 57 run (Seglem kick), 10:37.

South — Settle 5 run (kick blocked), 8:39

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South — Augafa 17 run (Seglem kick), 1:49.

Fourth Quarter

South — Augafa 14 run (Seglem kick), 11:52.

West — Lena 30 FG, 7:05.

West — Elliott 17 pass from Wedin (kick blocked), 1:55.

West South

First downs 13 12

Rushes-yards 23-(-37) 36-238

Passing yards 201 78

Passes 18-44-2 5-11-1

Punts 7-35.1 3-36.3

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

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Penalties-yards 10-75 10-94

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — West: Tagalu 5-22, Seui 4-10, Murchinson 7-2, Wedin 1-(-13), Team 1-(-16), Duffy 5-(-42). South: Settle 8-114, Augafa 14-88, Jarrell 2-25, Cook 7-20, Phetchanpheng 1-10, Hanks 2-(-2), Thompson 2-(-7).

PASSING — West: Duffy 13-35-1—135. Wedin 5-8-1—66, Strong 0-1-0—0. South: Thompson 5-11-1—78.

RECEIVING — West: Bell 6-35, Leon 4-17, Strong 3-51, Elliott 2-43, Lawson 1-24, Murchinson 1-21, Taylor 1-10. South: Augafa 2-40, Settle 2-19, Kinnebrew 1-19.

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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