Anchorage Daily News

Colony quarterback Collin Murphy couldn't be on a better roll.

Two games, 10 touchdowns.

A week after the senior accounted for all four Colony touchdowns last week in his team's critical win over Palmer, Murphy ripped off five rushing and one passing touchdowns Friday in Colony's resounding 53-24 victory over Wasilla at Veterans Memorial Field, the fourth consecutive win for the Knights.

Despite the rainy, sloppy conditions, there was no shortage of scoring as Colony raced to a 26-17 halftime lead. Murphy's final touchdown of the first half, a 29-yarder with 46 seconds to play, gave Colony some breathing room after Wasilla had closed the gap to 19-17 on Tillerman Kroon's 33-yard field goal midway through the second quarter.

Murphy ended the night with 255 yards rushing, including an 81-yard scamper.

The loss eliminated Wasilla from playoff contention. Last season, Wasilla broke a five-year drought of failing to make the playoffs.

Chris Crane scored both of Wasilla's touchdowns in the first half. His 21-yard scamper gave the Warriors a brief 7-0 lead, and he scored again in the second quarter from five yards out.

Colony started the season 0-2 but is now 3-1 in the Railbelt Conference. The turning point of its season may have come in Week 4, when Colony trailed East High 7-0 in the first half. Colony roared back with 28 unanswered points to score a big nonconference win -- and get a big confidence boost.

Colony's win created more tension atop the Railbelt Conference.

Undefeated North Pole (3-0) traveled to Juneau for a late Friday night game against the Crimson Bears, who have lost three straight but are always tough at home. Palmer, which hosts Kodiak today, is 3-1.

South 29, Dimond 22

Could a player have a more discouraging start to a game than Dimond's Travis Tutor endured?

On his team's first play from scrimmage Friday, he fumbled the wet football. South's Matt Higgins recovered in the end zone to help the Wolverines to a 7-0 lead.

Then, on Dimond's second play, Tutor fumbled again, this time on his team's five-yard line. Higgins recovered again, leading to a 1-yard touchdown run by Colin Graham and a 14-0 South lead.

But Dimond gamely fought back and took a 22-21 lead in the fourth quarter before South displayed its championship chops and prevailed 29-22 in a back-and-forth affair at Dimond's Alumni Field.

Midway through the fourth quarter, after another Dimond fumble, South drove deep but faced a fourth-and-nine situation with time running out and, perhaps, the game on the line.

Graham connected on the critical first-down pass to Marcus Spencer on the Dimond four-yard line, and Aaron Trent burst into the end zone on the next play.

Top-ranked South moved to 6-0 overall, 5-0 in the CIC -- but got a stern test and overcame a raft of penalties. Its third roughing-the-passer penalty with eight seconds to play gave Dimond one last gasp.

After its awful first-half start, Dimond got back in the game on an eight-play, 72-yard scoring drive capped by Mitchel Brandt's two-yard burst. Then, after recovering a South fumble, Dimond kicker Anthony Aguilar booted a 32-yard field goal to pull the Lynx within 14-10.

But the good feelings didn't last for Dimond, which gave up its third killer play of the first half -- an 80-yard touchdown run by Spencer, in which the South runner broke three tackles on the way to the end zone.

In all, 22 of South's 29 points came off turnovers.

Chugiak 17, West 0

Once Chugiak's defenders felt the goal line behind them, they stiffened all night.

Three times West drove close to the Mustang goal line, only to be blunted as Chugiak won its first game on the school's new turf field Friday night.

Chugiak had started 0-3 on its new turf.

First, Chugiak stopped a first-quarter drive by West, forcing the Eagles to turn the ball over on downs at the 13-yard line. Then Chugiak's Greg Ghramm picked off a Nilo Sila pass in the end zone -- Sila's seventh interception of the year -- to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard in the second quarter.

And in the third quarter, Chugiak stopped West on the 10-yard line.

Speedy Chugiak running back Ethan Hewitt scored first, finishing off a 48-yard, five-play drive with a two-yard TD run. The drive began after Chugiak's Greg Howard recovered a fumble by Justin Kauffman, West's top running back.

Justin Schwartz scored on a three-yard run to boost Chugiak's margin to 14-0 in the third quarter.

And a Sean Williams field goal up the margin to 17-0, a lead particularly difficult to overcome on a rainy night.

Soldotna 67, Skyview 0

At Skyview, the undefeated Soldotna Stars had no trouble rolling to a 67-0 victory.

Anthony Grigilone scored three touchdowns, giving him 13 on the season, in the mismatch. Skyview dropped to 0-6 overall, 0-4 in conference.

"A shutout, you can't argue with," said Soldotna coach Galen Brantley, Jr. "I'm sure it was our lowest yardage total we've allowed all year."

West Valley 38, Lathrop 6

Unruly fans brought an early end to Friday night's game between West Valley and Lathrop when officials ended the game with 10 minutes to play because of fights that had broken out among spectators.

West Valley notched the victory, 38-6.

North Pole 25, Juneau 0

Unbeaten North Pole, helped by four interceptions in the second half, captured a playoff berth with victory at Juneau. It was the fourth straight loss for the defending state champs.

The Patriots, 4-0 conference and 6-0 overall and ranked second among the state's large schools, took a 19-0 first quarter lead, highlighted by two scores from Lee Jones.

Juneau-Douglas dropped to 2-2 in conference and 2-4 overall with its fourth straight loss after riding a 13-game winning streak that went back to last season's state championship run. Two of those losses were to strong out-of-state teams.

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