Kyle Henrickson did what is expected of a veteran player Saturday — help his teammates overcome a series of early mistakes and lead them to victory.
The Lynx defeated Wasilla 28-10 at Dimond Alumni Field behind the senior's three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.
"Definitely we didn't start the way we wanted to, but our team's got a lot of fight," Henrickson said. "I liked how we finished — we finished strong."
Some early errors by the Lynx kept the ball on their side of the field for most of the first quarter.
Dimond went three-and-out on its first drive and a snap over punter Kota Ainu'u's head gave Wasilla the ball on Dimond's 25-yard line.
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The Warriors couldn't turn the drive into points, but they got another chance when Henrickson was sacked on both third and fourth down, forcing Dimond to give up the ball on the 40-yard line.
Again Wasilla couldn't score, but Dimond flubbed a third time, this time on a Matthew Ward fumble that led to Aeron Milliron's 14-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 lead for the Warriors.
Dimond's response? A 52-yard drive after Wasilla failed to recover a surprise onside kick to even the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.
Ward carried four times for 50 yards and Henrickson capped the drive by punching the ball into the end zone from two yards out.
Dimond took the lead for good on its next drive, scoring on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Henrickson to Dylan Tufaga.
On the two plays prior to that touchdown, Henrickson threw touchdown passes that were negated by penalties — an illegal man downfield and a block in the back.
"I thought we did a good job kinda gutting it out, but we gotta play better," Dimond coach Nick Winkler said. "We didn't play very good to start the game off and that kind of put us in a (bad) spot, but luckily we have great players and they went out and made great plays."
Wasilla closed the half with a 22-yard field goal by Gavin Barnes, and the Warriors went into the locker room trailing 14-10.
In the second half, Dimond's defense kept Wasilla at bay and the Lynx offense found the end zone two more times.
"We were up by four and coach told us to dig deep and fight more and we just executed the play calls," Henrickson said of the team's talk at halftime. "We wanted to stay in control, run the ball, keep clock management and then go for the pass, and I think we did that."
Henrickson finished with 182 yards through the air on 10 of 14 passing. The one smudge on his stat line was an interception in the end zone in the third quarter.
Tufaga added 88 receiving yards on four catches and Ward recorded 136 yards on the ground for Dimond.
"Our o-line and Matt Ward, our running, back stepped up," Henrickson said. "We have a lot of playmakers on our team. They stepped up big tonight."
Running backs Sean McDermott (90 rushing yards) and Milliron (75) provided most the bulk of the offense for Wasilla.
Wasilla 7 3 0 0 — 10
Dimond 0 14 7 7 — 28
First Quarter
Wasilla — Milliron 14 run (Barnes kick), 0:48.
Second Quarter
Dimond — Henrickson 2 run (Lyons kick), 11:21.
Dimond — D. Tufaga 34 pass from Henrickson (Lyons kick), 6:38.
Wasilla — Barnes 22 field goal, 0:01.
Third Quarter
Dimond — Ainu'u pass from Henrickson (Lyons kick), 3:27.
Fourth Quarter
Dimond — Maisey pass from Henrickson (Lyons kick), 6:45.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Wasilla: McDermott 16-90, Milliron 16-75, Walkemeyer 8-16, Cork 4-5, Hunglso 4-(-20). Dimond: Ward 17-136, K. Tufaga 2-14, Bozeman 1-1, Henrickson 2-(-3), Knightes 3-(-18).
PASSING — Wasilla: Hungslo 3-9-2–32. Dimond: Henrickson 10-14-1–182, Knightes 1-1-0–12.
RECEIVING — Wasilla: Milliron 3-32. Dimond: D. Tufaga 4-88, Lyons 1-39, Maisey 1-23, Ainu'u 1-21, Carrigan 1-12, Ward 2-11.