West flag football team rallies past Dimond for perfect regular season

West 13, Dimond 12

The West Eagles wrapped up an undefeated regular season Saturday with a thrilling 13-12 flag football victory over the Dimond Lynx.

The game at West High was a battle between the Cook Inlet Conference's top teams. West is 14-0 and Dimond is 12-2 — with both losses coming against West — heading into Tuesday's first round of the conference tournament.

Trailing 12-0 at the half, West scored the tying touchdown in the final minute of the game when Rebecca Syrup ran 3 yards up the middle. The winning point came when Syrup tossed a one-point conversion pass to Sylvia Xaivong.

West defensive star Maya Baquiran pulled six flags to bring her season total to a school-record 117, breaking her own mark of 116 from last season. But the Eagles may have to play without her Tuesday — she injured her elbow late in the game, West coach Travis Cantrell said.

Dimond dominated the first half. The Lynx scored on their first play from scrimmage when Seanne Bialo bolted 53 yards to the end zone, and they scored again later in the first quarter on a 4-yard run by Megan Luther.

The Lynx missed both conversion attempts. On one, West's Nene Johns intercepted the PAT pass in the end zone.

Xaivong matched Baquiran with six pulls for West, while the Dimond defense was fueled by Makenna Boring's nine pulls, four for losses, and Angeline Nageak's seven pulls.

South 32, Chugiak 29

In a game decided by South's defense, Ariel Vergen batted down the potential game-tying PAT pass in the fourth quarter to seal a 32-29 win over Chugiak.

South scored two of its five touchdowns on interception returns. Kaylee Heck's pick-six near the end of the second quarter gave South a 20-14 at halftime, and Maris Soland made it 32-14 late in the third quarter by taking her second interception of the game into the end zone.

Chugiak led 7-0 and 14-7 thanks to two long touchdown passes by Chasity Horn. South answered with an 86-yard pass from Shelby Ottum to Allison Green and an 8-yard run by Ottum.

Ottum, who completed 9 of 15 passes for 182 yards, ran for another touchdown in the second half.

Chugiak finished strong with two straight touchdowns but the rally came up short when Vergen knocked down a 3-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game.

Service 19, Bartlett 6

Katie Pearce threw three touchdowns and piled up nearly 300 yards to power Service's 19-6 triumph over Bartlett.

Shawna Bertram scored two of the touchdowns on passes of 20 and 3 yards, and Ashlynn Noethlich collected a 5-yard pass for the other TD.

Pearce finished with 290 yards — 148 on 11 carries and 142 on 9-of-15 passing.

Leading the defense for Service were Jocelyn Chanonto (4 pulls, 1 interception) and Stephanie Fontaine (5 pulls).

East 27, Eagle River 6

The East T-birds celebrated Senior Day by breezing past Eagle River 27-6.

Two players passed for a combined three touchdowns for the T-birds — Angelina Samuth connected with Tatum Epperson on a 65-yard pass play, and Fua Filoialii tossed TD passes to Emma Butcher and Amari Brown.

Isabelle Pope rushed 3 yards to open the scoring and finished with 63 all-purpose yards. Kimora Nicdao totaled 30 all-purpose yards to go with three flag pulls, and Aniyah Dean and Ali Butcher each had four pulls.

CIC flag football playoffs

Tuesday's games (times to be determined)

Eagle River (0-14) at West (14-0)

Bartlett (4-10) at Dimond (12-2)

Service (5-9) at Chugiak (8-6)

East (6-8) at South (7-7)