Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- Inside Palmer High School is a trophy case showcasing the long and successful tradition of Moose football. For the past year, coach Rod Christiansen would walk by and couldn't help but wince when he saw a blank spot in the case.

That empty spot represented some painful memories from a year ago -- a stunning Potato Bowl loss to archrival Wasilla.

Palmer's going to have to make room in the trophy case once again: After a one-year absence, the Mayor's Cup is coming back to the Moose, who trounced Wasilla 42-14 Friday night in the 30th annual Potato Bowl.

"It was a difficult loss last year," Christiansen said, referring to Wasilla's 36-35 win, its first Potato Bowl victory since 2001. "With that trophy missing, it was hard to show the guys the history when it wasn't there."

The 3,000 or so fans who poured into Machetanz Field on a brilliant fall evening witnessed a Palmer High staple: Old-fashioned power football.

The Moose racked up 388 rushing yards in tackle-busting, spin-for-extra-yards style. Two players rushed for more than 100 yards -- tough and shifty Brennan Bohman (103 yards) and speedster Johnny Daly (119). John Scoresby almost cracked the 100-yard barrier with 99 rushing yards, and he put Palmer up just 45 seconds into the game with a 56-yard touchdown run.

Fullback Coleman Ahrens scored two short rushing touchdowns, Mitch Swetzof ran for one and caught another, and Daly sped 41 yards for a score.

But that's not unusual. What was novel, for Palmer at least, was it showed it can pass the ball as well.

Swetzof caught Palmer's first passing touchdown this season, and it was highlight-reel worthy. Swetzof out-leaped Wasilla defender Chris Bydlon in the corner of the end zone, where he somehow reached in front of Bydlon to make the grab. The 12-yard pass from Dustin Silva came with just 15 seconds left in the half and gave Palmer a 28-7 lead.

"He does that all the time in practice," Christiansen said of Swetzof. "He's got huge hands."

He's finally getting to use those big mitts in a game. The Moose didn't even bother to throw a pass in its first couple games this season. Christiansen said he knew that wouldn't fly for the entire season, because teams would simply stack the line of scrimmage to stop the run.

"We've established the passing game now and people have to respect that," said Swetzof, who made four catches for 114 yards in last week's 14-7 loss at No. 1 North Pole.

Palmer improved to 21-9 all time against Wasilla in the Potato Bowl, so named because it coincides with the Matanuska Valley's annual potato harvest.

The victory was also important in the Railbelt Conference standings. Palmer finished 4-2, which makes tonight's conference showdown between Juneau-Douglas and Colony all the more important. All three schools have already qualified for the playoffs, but a Juneau win would create a three-way tie.

In such a case, each team would be 1-1 against the others, so a tiebreaker, defensive points allowed, would be used to determine playoff seeding.

Wasilla's Chris Crane caught a 45-yard touchdown pass from Cody Pfeifer in the second quarter, cutting Palmer's lead to 14-7.

Wasilla ended its season 1-5 in conference and 3-5 overall.

Find Ron Wilmot online at adn.com/contact/rwilmot or call him at 907-352-6712.

Wasilla0 7 7 0 -- 14

Palmer14 14 8 6 -- 42

First Quarter

Palmer -- Scoresby 56 run (Zegzdryn kick), 11:15.

Palmer -- Swetzof 3 run (Zegzdryn kick), 5:01.

Second Quarter

Wasilla -- Crane 45 pass from Pfeifer (Kroon kick), 8:59.

Palmer -- Ahrens 1 run (Zegzdryn kick), 4:01.

Palmer -- Swetzof 12 pass from Silva (Zegzdryn kick), :15.

Third Quarter

Wasilla -- Katchinska 1 run (Kroon kick), 9:21.

Palmer -- Ahrens 1 run (Swetzof run), 3:02.

Fourth Quarter

Palmer -- Daly 41 run (kick blocked), 10:46.

WasillaPalmer

First downs1120

Rushes-yards25-10248-388

Passing yards13468

Return yards15875

Passes6-18-34-6-0

Punts1-43.01.41.0

Fumbles-lost0-00-0

Penalties-yards11-889-89

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Wasilla: Crane 12-49, Mock 5-40, Katchinska 4-24, Hines 1-2, Pfeifer 3-(-13). Palmer: Daly 6-119, Bohman 10-103, Scoresby 12-99, Ahrens 6-37, Zegzdryn 8-25, Swetzof 2-3, Silva 4-2.

PASSING -- Wasilla: Pfeifer 6-17-2--134, Kroon 0-1-1--0. Home: Silva 4-6-0--68.

RECEIVING -- Wasilla: Kroon 4-76, Crane 2-67. Palmer: Swetzof 3-56, Mitchell 1-12.

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