The top three seeds picked up victories Tuesday in the opening round of the Cook Inlet Conference flag football playoffs, but fourth-seeded South suffered a home-field loss to fifth-seeded East.
The T-birds triumphed 18-7 to advance to Thursday’s semifinal round, where they will face top-seeded and undefeated West.
West ran its record to 15-0 with a 35-6 win over eighth-seeded Eagle River. In other first-round games, second-seeded Dimond blanked No. 7 Bartlett 20-0 and third-seeded Chugiak shut out No. 6 Service 27-0.
East 18, South 7
Fua Filoialii completed 12 of 17 passes for 168 yards, rushed for 41 yards on eight carries and had a hand in three touchdowns to lead the T-birds (7-8).
She tossed touchdown passes to Emma Butcher and Amari Brown and ran for a fourth-quarter score.
Brown caught three passes on offense and intercepted two passes on defense. Tatum Epperson grabbed 10 flags and batted down two passes, Butcher had six pulls and Ali Butcher and Kimora Nicdao each had five.
South finished the season 7-8.
West 35, Eagle River 6
Two big scoring plays — a 100-yard interception return by Inah Cruz and an 84-yard run by Sylvia Xaivong — sparked the Eagles.
Cruz picked off a pass in the end zone and returned it the length of the field and added seven flag pulls to lead the West defense. Kaylie Stone grabbed another six flags, four for losses.
West's other touchdowns came on a 10-yard run by Elizabeth Johnson and 1-yard runs by Rebecca Syrup and Ta'Zhay Wyche.
Eagle River (0-15) trailed 14-6 at the half but West got breathing room by scoring on its first possession of the second half.
Dimond 20, Bartlett 0
Makenna Boring and Desi Tanuvasa each had three sacks to help shut down Bartlett (4-11). Boring finished with seven pulls and Tanuvasa was right behind with six.
Megan Luther and Victoria Johansen provided all of the scoring for the Lynx (13-2). Luther rushed 8 yards for one, Johansen rushed 6 yards for another and Luther threw a 5-yard TD pass to Johansen for a third.
Chugiak 27, Service 0
Chugiak's running game produced all four touchdowns for the Mustangs (9-6).
Eva Palmer rushed for 119 yards, including three touchdowns, and passed for 161 yards. Her favorite target was Chasity Horn, who caught 98 yards worth of passes and rushed for 51 yards, including one touchdown.
Taylor Rukes anchored a balanced Chugiak defense with five pulls.
Service (5-10) got a defensive boost from Haily Greening's five pulls and one blocked pass. Angel Amora added an interception.