Equally enthusiastic celebrations from all participants are seldom seen when one high school football team crushes another by 49 points and the entire second half is played with a running clock.
Yet that's what happened after West's 55-6 throttling of the Dimond Lynx in a Cook Inlet Conference game Friday night at Dimond Alumni Field.
As expected, the postseason-bound Eagles exchanged hearty congratulations, hugs and handshakes knowing their season will continue into next week's Division I playoffs.
But the Lynx, their tumultuous season finished, didn't slink off into the night and leave the stage to the victors.
They stayed and mingled. They posed for pictures with opponents, family and friends. They showed appreciation for one another after playing out their final four games following a two-game suspension by the Anchorage School District for "inappropriate behavior" and an investigation into allegations of sexual assault by the Anchorage police.
The headline-grabbing stories about the alleged behavior by some Dimond players overshadowed much of the regular season.
"It's been difficult, sure," said Dimond junior Dylan Tibbets. "But football is what we all love, so that helped us see it through to the end. It was fun to be able to do so."
Watching from afar on his own sideline, West coach Tim Davis said he admired what he saw from the Lynx.
"Football teams always talk about controlling the play and the response factor," Davis said. "But then there are so many things that happen in life you have no control over. You do have control over your response.
"So when I look over see a (Dimond) community embrace its team like we're seeing right now, it's a testament to each one of those guys that played hard every minute. They had so many chances to cash it in and they didn't. They finished a football season and a lot of them have probably grown more than a lot of other players will in entire careers. That's impressive."
Early in the game, nothing was more impressive than the play of West running back Niko Fa'amasino. The junior battered his through many would-be tacklers to score on the game's third play from scrimmage, a 29-yard run with 9 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Fa'amasino later scored on runs of 59 and 14 yards, finishing with 152 yards on nine carries. He made sure to properly thank his blockers after the game, but he also summed up how it feels to run so dominantly.
"The whole time, you're just thinking, 'Oh, WOW,' " Fa'amasino said.
Brody Roy, Lewis Malala Jr., Marcus Laborde and Kolton Ortiz also scored West touchdowns. Kicker Ivan Tillman booted a pair of field goals (25 yards and 20 yards) and back-up quarterback Josh Stoltz tossed a pair of touchdown passes.
Tibbets scored Dimond's first and only points in the team's four games since the suspension. Moments after hauling in 45-yard, first-quarter pass from Riley Whetten, Tibbets caught a 32-yard touchdown in the left corner of the end zone.
"What a huge moment for our team," Tibbets said.
West (4-4 overall, 2-2 CIC) totaled 385 offensive yards to Dimond's 116. The Lynx completed their season 1-7, 0-4.
The Eagles can now look ahead. While the Alaska School Activities Association won't likely release the First National Bowl playoff brackets until Sunday or Monday, Davis believes his team may be in line to host a quarterfinal tilt next week.
Top-ranked East knocked off fifth-ranked Service 42-27 on Friday to claim the conference title and the No. 1 postseason seed that comes with it.
West, Service and South all qualified for the postseason with 2-2 conference records. Davis said he received word early Friday from ASD officials that a three-way tiebreaker would be decided by the fewest defensive points allowed in the games played between the Eagles, Cougars and Wolverines. He said his team should receive the conference's No. 2 seed and a home game if that's indeed the case.
"In this crazy, very bizarre season, we may very well be hosting a playoff game," Davis said. "Not exactly something we expected. I'm not even sure we have the (home) black jerseys clean right now."
Thankfully, West has a few days to take care of its laundry.