Seward tops Nikiski in 1st game on Seahawks’ new turf field

The host Seward football team celebrated its first game on the new artificial turf at Roger Steinbrecher Memorial Field by defeating Nikiski 36-14 on Friday in nine-man Denali Conference play.

Last season, the Seahawks jubilantly gathered around head coach Tyler Mallory after defeating the Bulldogs and winning the Fish Bowl, which has been awarded to the winner of the conference game between the two teams since 2019, for the first time.

Friday, Seward (1-0, 5-0) left the field and scarcely remembered the giant fish trophy was sitting on the bench.

The Seahawks can be excused, because this was finally a Fish Bowl out of water due to the new surface.

“It would have been miserable,” Mallory said about how the old grass field would have played Friday. “It’s been dumping all week this week. It would have been an absolute mess.

“I’ve been in Seward for 12 years, and for 12 years I’ve heard people talk about how we should have gotten turf 10 years ago. To see it finally done and done well, because it is done really well, is good.”

Seward senior Ronan Bickling has played football all four years and rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries Friday.

He said the turf has also helped during practice, because it was hard to keep lines painted on the mud on a daily basis.

“We’re not slipping and sliding in the mud all day,” he said. “There’s not puddles, and we’re not running on gravel and getting all scraped up.

“It was amazing, the first practice coming over here and there’s lines that we can see. So we know when to cut on our routes.”

Seward also ended the game with relatively clean uniforms.

“There no mud pits to get stuck in,” said Seward senior Noah Price, another four-year player. “You were always getting mud in your face mask and that slows you down a little bit.”

While mud didn’t slow down the Seahawks, Nikiski (0-1, 2-2) did. Seward had scored over 50 points in its first four games of the season and had a running clock in the second half every time. That included a 54-6 victory over Nikiski in the opener.

The Bulldogs were able to hold Seward under 40 points Friday to avoid the running clock.

“Credit to Seward,” Nikiski head coach Matt Trammell said. “They’re a really good team. But I’m really proud of the effort our kids put up.”

Nikiski’s bread and butter is a rushing attack that can eat up the clock. The Bulldogs were not able to do that in the first game, but Friday ran 71 plays to the 34 of Seward.

Nikiski also used more formations than their customary power-T.

“They know our offense about as well as we do,” Trammell said of Seward. “Sometimes, I think they know it better than we do.

“So, yeah, just a couple different looks and got creative.”

The key for the Seahawks was stopping Nikiski drives on the Seward 13- and 21-yard lines. Mallory said Price helped by constantly making plays at inside linebacker.

“It was definitely a lot harder,” said Bickling, also a defensive end. “We got the stops when we needed to. But like I said, I really don’t like 14 points on the scoreboard there.”

Nikiski got its points from a 17-yard pass from Ethan Ellis to Oliver Parrish to open the scoring and a 16-yarder from Ellis to Kevin Love to close the scoring.

Trammell gave credit to the whole team for staying tough during the game, particularly the linemen and Parrish, who rushed 21 times for 122 yards and also caught three balls for 37 yards.

On offense in the opener, Bickling, the 100-meter champ at the Division II state track meet in the spring, and the rest of the Seahawks continuously got to the edge of the field and ran wild.

“We beat them on the edge the last time we played, so they adjusted and moved some guys out and kind of spread,” Mallory said. “So we decided, we’ll take up the middle.”

Price said it wasn’t just strategy that made Nikiski tougher.

“They did a good job blowing up blocks and making tackles, because last time, basically they were just getting blocked,” he said.

Seward still found the space for 36- and 4-yard Bickling runs and a 38-yard scamper from quarterback Brett Gilmore to take a 20-18 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, Price scored on a 7-yard run, then Bickling ripped off an 80-yarder for a 36-8 lead with 8:10 left in the game.

Both teams stay in the Denali Conference this week. Seward hosts Valdez at a time to be announced, while Nikiski hosts Monroe Catholic at 5 p.m. Friday.

Friday

Seahawks 36, Bulldogs 14

Nik 8 0 0 6 —14

Sew 14 6 8 8 —36

1st Quarter

Nik — O. Parrish 17 pass from Ellis (O. Parrish run), 6:36.

Sew — Bickling 36 run (N. Price run), 5:32.

Sew — Bickling 4 run (pass failed), 1:55.

2nd Quarter

Sew — Gilmore 38 run (run failed), 4:46.

3rd Quarter

Sew — N. Price 7 run (Gilmore run), 3:29.

4th Quarter

Sew — Bickling 80 run (Schrock run), 8:10.

Nik — Love 16 pass from Ellis (run failed), 1:41.

Nik Sew

First downs 13 6

Rushing yards 50-212 27-251

Passing yards 61 37

Comp-att-int 7-21-0 3-7-0

Return yards 36 68

Punts 2-30.0 0-0

Fumbles 3-0 0-0

Penalties 5-35 5-40

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Rushing — Nikiski: O. Parrish 21-122, K. Parrish 17-79, Wyatt Maguire 1-(-3), Ellis 11-14. Seward: Bickling 9-139, N. Price 11-74, Cross 2-2, Gilmore 5-36.

Passing — Nikiski: Ellis 7-21-0—61. Seward: 3-7-0—37.

Receving — Nikiski: O. Parrish 3-37, Love 2-13, K. Parrish 1-(-2), W. Maguire 1-13. Seward: Cross 1-5, Petersen 1-4, N. Price 1-28.