On Friday, North Pole faced Wasilla in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The North Pole Patriots were the clear victor by a 43-20 margin over the Wasilla Warriors. The high-flying offensive performance was a huge turnaround for the Patriots considering their seven-point performance the matchup before.
A big part of the victory came down to the chemistry between Braiden Martin and his top target Devin Cooper-Jackson. Martin threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while completing 81.3% of his passes while Cooper-Jackson rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown on only nine carries. Cooper-Jackson's longest rush was for an impressive 56 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per carry total. A healthy portion of that aerial production (80 yards to be exact) went to Michael Putnam, who also brought in a receiving touchdown.
North Pole wouldn't let Wasilla keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force four fumbles. It was truly a group effort as Alex Miranda, Darren Coleman, and Jimmy Runnels picked up one apiece. Runnels' also deserves a shoutout for his performance on D, forcing a fumble and making ten total tackles (1.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, North Pole was moving up and down the field and finished the game with 493 total yards. That's the most total yards they've posted since was before the start of last season.
The win got North Pole back to even at 1-1. As for Wasilla, they are on an eight-game losing streak (dating back to last season) that has dropped them down to 0-2.
North Pole will look to defend their home field on Friday against Houston at 7:00 p.m. As for Wasilla, they will take on Barrow on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
