The favored Bartlett Golden Bears arrived at Dimond's Alumni Field on Saturday afternoon mindful they could not afford to stumble, not with two league losses already on their ledger and conference football games still looming against Service and Chugiak.

No wobbling from the visitors, just some waltzing.

Bartlett 51, Dimond 0.

The Golden Bears used suffocating defense, including two interception returns for touchdowns, and three touchdown passes from Willie Highlander to ruin Dimond's homecoming. The Cook Inlet Conference victory also kept their postseason ambitions in gear.

"If we lost, our season is pretty much done,'' Highlander said. "We knew everything was on the line, that we had to play hard for four quarters.''

While Highlander and company engineered five touchdowns and a field goal to help Bartlett improve to 3-2 overall and 2-2 in the CIC, the dudes on the other side of the football kept up their end of the bargain.

Bartlett's defense racked up eight sacks and three interceptions, scored twice, limited the winless Lynx (0-5, 0-4 CIC) to just 85 yards total offense and constantly afforded its offense enviable field position.

"We are very aware what the (playoff) situation is,'' said Bartlett defensive end John Daly, who bagged three sacks. "We came out, we played hard, we were fired up and we were trying to make as few mistakes as possible.''

Four CIC teams qualify for the state's eight-team, large schools playoffs, and four teams -- West (4-0), Service (3-1), Chugiak (3-1) and South (3-1) -- sit above Bartlett (2-2) with three weeks left in the regular season.

After a scoreless first quarter, Bartlett began to roll, thanks in large part to defense and special teams that gave the offense an average starting position nearly in the red zone on three scoring possessions in the second quarter. Junior Tufaga's 29-yard field goal, Highlander's 29-yard strike to Cyrus Chenault and his 8-yard pass to Brenton Gunn came during possessions Bartlett began, on average, on Dimond's 25.

The rout was on early in the second half, when Chenault, who rushed for a game-high 112 yards on 10 carries, raced 64 yards for a score on a clever play Bartlett runs occasionally. Highlander rolled to his right behind Chenault, who was stationed in the backfield as if to provide pass protection. Highlander slipped Chenault the ball from behind and the senior blazed to his left, untouched up the sideline to provide a 24-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Bartlett's defense harassed Dimond quarterback Ahmad Nasir and reduced the Lynx to negative yardage on 14 of their 52 plays. Sophomore Mark Cox contributed two sacks and an interception and linebackers Jacob Yates and Robert Dyett each stepped in front of Nasir passes in the flat to snag interceptions they returned for touchdowns.

Highlander also threw an 18-yard touchdown to Gunn and Trent Anthony added an 8-yard touchdown run.

Highlander never threw a pass that hit the artificial turf, although that included an interception by Dimond's Dwayne Carter, who also caught a game-high five passes for 33 yards and recovered a fumble. Still, Highlander completed 7 of 8 passes for 90 yards.

"Even the interception I threw, the receiver was wide open,'' Highlander said. "I just threw a bad pass. If that's the only bad ball, I can live with that.''

Of course, not much threatened Bartlett on Saturday, when even a mistake turned golden. Highlander pointed out that Chenault's long touchdown run came after the offense lined up incorrectly.

"We ran it out of the wrong formation,'' he said. "But everything seemed to turn out all right today.''

Find Doyle Woody's hockeyblog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

Bartlett 0 17 21 13 -- 51

Dimond 0 0 0 0 -- 0

First Quarter

No scoring.

Second Quarter

Bartlett -- Tufaga 29 FG, 5:39

Bartlett -- Chenault 29 pass from Highlander, (Tufaga) 4:02

Bartlett -- Gunn 8 pass from Highlander (Tufaga) :59

Third Quarter

Bartlett -- Chenault 64 run (Tufaga) 8:03

Bartlett -- Gunn 18 pass from Highlander (Dunn) 5:24

Bartlett -- Yates 27 interception return (Dunn) 4:59.

Fourth Quarter

Bartlett -- Anthony 8 run (kick blocked) 4:12

Bartlett -- Dyett 25 interception return (Dunn kick) 3:08

Bartlett Dimond

First downs 12 6

Rushes-yards 35-180 34-22

Passing yards 90 63

Return yards 156 133

Passes 7-9-1 11-18-3

Punts 2-44.0 7-25.6

Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-0

Penalties-yards 6-55 6-33

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Bartlett: Chenault 10-112, Hale 11-34, Anthony 5-25, Lisenby 2-21, Dyett 3-13, Crowell 1-(-6), Highlander 3-(-19). Dimond: Watson 10-27, Sargento 6-17, Romo 4-12, Carter 1-(-3), Nasir 13-(-31).

PASSING -- Bartlett: Highlander 7-8-1-90, Crowell 0-1-0-0. Dimond: Nasir 11-18-3-63.

RECEIVING -- Bartlett: Chenault 3-39, Gunn 2-26, Anthony 1-19, Lisenby 1-6. Dimond: Carter 5-33, Romo 4-32, Dodson 1-3, Watson 1-(-5).

ADVERTISEMENT