It's a high-stakes weekend for Alaska high school football

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 31

Anthony Manu, of the East High T-Birds, cheers on his teammates against the Dimond High Lynx during the grand opening of their new Thunderbird stadium in Anchorage, AK on Saturday, August 27, 2016. (Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News)

Alaska Dispatch News photographers compiled some of the most memorable photos from the 2016 season ahead of the upcoming high school football championship games. Read on for more about this week's matchups.

The stakes are high and the games plentiful this weekend in high school football.

Alaska will crown two state champions in football and an Anchorage champion in flag football on Saturday, while the finalists for next week's large-school state football championship will be decided in semifinal games Friday and Saturday.

Action begins Friday night at Anchorage Football Stadium, where defending state champion West takes on Cook Inlet Conference champion Bartlett in a large-school semifinal game.

That's the prelude to four big games Saturday — three boys games and one girls flag football game.

Among them is a 4 p.m. semifinal at AFS between East and Service. The winner of that game will play the West-Bartlett winner in next week's state title game.

[Meet the four QBs playing in the large-school semifinals]

Alaska's other two state champs will be decided Saturday at Palmer's Machetanz Field.

At 12:30 p.m., the Soldotna Stars will try to claim their fifth straight medium-school state title. If they do, they'll extend their state-record winning streak to 49 games.

Trying to stop the Stars are the Palmer Moose, who gained the home-field advantage by virtue of an offseason decision by the Alaska School Activities Association to hold this year's state championships for small- and medium-sized schools at Machetanz Field instead of in Anchorage.

Soldotna's 9-0 record includes wins over two of the large-school semifinalists — 22-21 over East and 49-30 over West.

But for the second straight game, the Stars will be without starting quarterback Brandon Crowder, who broke his foot in the team's final regular-season game. Soldotna played its first game without him in last week's semifinals and needed a fourth-quarter touchdown to rally past North Pole, 25-21.

Palmer (5-4) also won a squeaker to advance to the title game — 28-26 over Juneau's Thunder Mountain. The win was the fourth straight for the Moose.

[Stars, Moose post dramatic wins to land semifinal spots]

Like Soldotna, Palmer played two of the large-school semifinalists earlier this season, but with drastically different results. East beat the Moose 33-0 and Bartlett beat them 56-9.

After the Soldotna-Palmer game, the small-school title games is set to begin at 4 p.m. at Machetanz Field.

The Eielson Ravens (8-1) will take aim at their third straight championship. Their opponent: the Houston Hawks (7-2), who have never played in a state title game. Eielson picked up a 27-21 win over Houston in a regular-season game Sept. 9 in Houston.

Saturday's other big game will feature flags instead of pads and pulls instead of tackles, but no shortage of intensity.

West and Chugiak will play for the CIC flag football championship, which is essentially the state championship. While flag football is hugely popular and attracts many of the top athletes at Anchorage's eight public schools, the sport is still in the early stages elsewhere in Alaska.

West (13-3) will face Chugiak (9-7) at 2 p.m. at West High. The Eagles finished second in the regular season and warded off defending champion East 18-12 in a Thursday semifinal. Chugiak finished fifth and reached the title game with a 12-6 semifinal upset of Dimond, the winner of three straight CIC titles from 2012-14.

ASAA/First National Bowl

Friday

Large-school semifinal

7 p.m. — West (6-3) vs. Bartlett (8-1), Anchorage Football Stadium

Saturday

Medium-school championship

12:30 p.m. — Soldotna (9-0) vs. Palmer (5-4), Machetanz Field

Small-school championship

4 p.m. — Eielson (8-1) vs. Houston (7-2), Machetanz Field

Cook Inlet Conference flag football championship

2 p.m. — West (13-3) vs. Chugiak (9-7), 2 p.m., West High