High School Sports

Houston clinches Peninsula title; Bartlett closes in on Chugach championship

The Bartlett Golden Bears captured at least a share of the inaugural Chugach Conference championship and the Houston Hawks wrapped up an undefeated  Peninsula Conference campaign Friday night in Alaska high school football.

Bartlett shut out Wasilla 40-0 and Houston rocked Nikiski 34-8 to secure the top seeds in their conferences for the playoffs. Both will be rewarded with first-round home games.

No other conference championships were decided Friday, although Lathrop's 19-14 win over Palmer in Fairbanks prevented the Moose from clinching the Railbelt Conference title.

In Wasilla, the Golden Bears (6-1 overall) bounced back emphatically from their first loss of the season, last week's nonconference bruising at East High.

They raced to a 33-0 halftime lead while moving to 3-0 in the new Chugach Conference, assuring themselves of a share of the conference title and a chance to win it outright next week with a win against winless Juneau.

The five-team league was created as a result of statewide realignment, which pulled Bartlett out of Anchorage's Cook Inlet Conference and put it in a new conference with Chugiak, Colony, Wasilla and Juneau.

Bartlett is 3-0 in conference play with one game left and can finish no worse than 3-1. Colony, which crushed Juneau 49-0 Friday to improve to 2-1, can finish 3-1 if it beats Chugiak next week.

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If Bartlett and Colony both go 3-1 they would finish as co-champions, but the tiebreaker to determine the top seed for the Division I playoffs would go Bartlett's way by virtue of its 59-40 victory over the Knights earlier this season.

The Houston Hawks (6-1 overall) are the undisputed champs of the Peninsula Conference after their rout of Nikiski.

Their 4-0 conference mark means they'll host a Division III semifinal game in two weeks — the school's first home playoff game since 2002, according to the Peninsula Clarion.

Palmer had a chance to claim the four-team Railbelt Conference title Friday in Fairbanks, but Lathrop pulled out the win to create some suspense.

Palmer finished conference play with a 2-1 record. Lathrop is 2-0 and West Valley is 1-1 going into next week's Dog Bowl in Fairbanks, where a West Valley victory would create a three-way tie for the conference championship — and for the Railbelt's two playoff spots. A Lathrop win would give the Malemutes the conference title and send them and Palmer to the Division II playoffs.

Friday's scores

Bartlett 40, Wasilla 0

Colony 49, Juneau 0

Homer 21, Seward 20

Houston 34, Nikiski 8

Lathrop 19, Palmer 14

West Valley 46, North Pole 0

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