Sports

Defense optional: No. 2 West takes down No. 1 Bartlett, 61-50

The defense rested on the final Friday of regular-season football play in the Cook Inlet Conference.

No. 2 West won a shootout with No. 1 Bartlett 61-50 at West High, and that result, coupled with East's 40-33 win at Dimond, made East the conference's No. 1 seed in next week's quarterfinal state playoffs.

West (6-2, 4-2 CIC) is the conference's No. 3 seed and Bartlett (6-2, 4-2 CIC) the No. 4 seed.

In a game with six lead changes in the second half, West seized command by scoring back-to-back touchdowns in the game's final six minutes.

Julo Tagalu's fifth rushing touchdown of the night put West ahead 54-50 with 5 minutes, 24 seconds. The Eagles recovered their onside kick and cashed in with Sean Duffy's third touchdown pass with 2:06 left.

That was the final touchdown in the shootout at West High, where points came at a furious pace.

And although the game belonged to offense – Bartlett's Ethan Falaniko matched Tagalu's effort with five touchdowns – defense came through with a touchdown for each side.

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Mark Fisher recovered a fumble by Falaniko and returned it for West's third straight touchdown of the first quarter, lifiting the Eagles to a 20-0 lead.

But Bartlett stormed back. The Golden Bears grabbed the lead midway through the third quarter on Markus Sagatu's 50-yard interception return, which gave Bartlett a 36-33 lead.

After that the teams traded the lead five teams before Tagalu put the Eagles in the lead for good.

Four teams finished the regular seasons with 4-2 conference records – East, Chugiak, West and Bartlett – but the T-birds own the tiebreakers and will be the CIC's top playoff seed.

Chugiak (4-3, 4-2 CIC), heading into a nonconference game Saturday against Eagle River, is the No. 2 seed, and Dimond (5-3, 3-3 CIC) is the No. 5 seed.

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