Petersburg High School hosted Wrangell for homecoming last weekend, with the varsity boys splitting their wins with the Wolves. But it was a huge milestone for the Lady Vikings, who won their first games of the season.
The last time Petersburg played Wrangell, both teams were neck-and-neck all the way through. The Lady Vikings lost both of their games by just a hair. Matt Pawuk coaches Petersburg’s girls. He said, before the games started this weekend, he told his players to just put on a good show.
“One of the things I wrote on the board Friday night before we went out to play just said ‘be fun to watch,'” said Pawuk. “Like, because it should be entertaining for the crowd. Like, you want to go out and win, but you want it there’s no point in doing it unless you can put on a little bit of a show for the crowd, and I think we accomplished that Friday.”
He said he expected to see some improvement this weekend. But nothing could have prepared him for what came next.
“Honestly, [it] couldn’t have gone better,” said Pawuk. “It was pretty awesome… That group of girls went winless at the varsity level last year. So I think they felt a lot of pressure to try to just secure that first win of the year.”
The Lady Vikings won 31-to-28. But that first victory didn’t come easy. Pawuk said, every time they’re up against Wrangell — Petersburg’s rival high school — they can expect a combative and tight game.
“…And that’s really what it was,” said Pawuk. “It was back-and-forth all game long. And yeah, we came up ahead in the end. So, yeah, it was a good one.”
Pawuk said his players came to the court with renewed confidence the next day. But Wrangell’s players came out of the gate strong. The Wolves were up by eight points by the end of the first quarter, but the Lady Vikings caught up to them by the second. They were tied by the third quarter.
But then the Lady Vikings pulled it off again, scoring just one point over their opponents before the final buzzer. Saturday’s final score: 35-to-34. Another win for the Lady Vikings. Pawuk said he’s beyond proud of the progress his players have made in such a short amount of time. And, he said, their homecoming victory was completely a group effort. He was glad to see the glory spread across the whole team.
“The thing I think I like best about this group is that I don’t have any one player that’s like, ‘We just got to get it to her — she’s the standout,'” said Pawuk. “This is a group that really plays well as a team. So far this year, we’ve had five different people on our team be leading the leading scorer in the game — and that’s pretty cool.”
Why were they successful this time? He’s not sure. But he thinks the fact that they came in with a full team, and were playing in front of some very full, very loud stands might have helped them out.
“We had a full group this weekend at home,” said Pawuk. “It never hurts to play in front of your home crowd. I was what I was most excited about. Actually, I can’t say that, because I had 50 things I was most excited about! But to see how many people were in the stands — it was awesome.”
Altogether, he couldn’t have imagined a better weekend. But he knows there’s still half a season ahead.
“We’re riding high right now,” said Pawuk. “But I also reiterated to them [that they should be] be excited about this weekend — but don’t be satisfied with this. Like, this should not be the peak of our season. We’re perfectly positioned to have success the rest of the year. And we need to set our sights higher than just, you know, winning a couple of games at home. Not to not to discredit how big that was this weekend, because it was a big deal! But there’s no reason to think we can’t set our sights higher than they’re at right now.”
But the Wolves flipped the script on Petersburg’s varsity boys. The Vikings defeated them on their own turf early this month during Wrangell’s homecoming weekend. And the Wolves came back — with a vengeance.
The Vikings held them back on Friday, winning 40-to-32. Rick Brock, who coaches Petersburg’s boys’ teams, said it was a great demonstration of their defensive prowess.
“Holding Wrangell to 32 points — that’s good half-court defense,” said Brock. “And that really was a difference in that weekend. Rik Cumps just had a tremendous game — he ended up with 20 points. But it was all within what we were doing.”
But they came to the court on Saturday a little worse for wear. Brock had to bench one of his star players after he hurt his ankle in Friday’s game. He said some of his other players were feeling a little under the weather that day. He said the team was having a hard time guarding Wrangell’s shooters.
“We had a better third quarter on the offensive end — we had scored 17 points,” said Brock. “But then they started making their shots, hit a couple threes, and we had a harder time guarding them. So we couldn’t get any closer. And again, we had to spend a lot of energy just trying to fight that uphill battle.”
The Wolves won Saturday’s game 50-to-39. Wrangell’s junior varsity teams also had a triumphant weekend in Petersburg. On Friday, the Wolves won both JV games. And on Saturday, Petersburg’s JV boys won and Petersburg’s JV girls lost.
This weekend, Petersburg High School will host three JV teams from across the state — the Susitna Valley Rams, the Thunder Mountain Falcons, and the Klawock Chieftains.
Petersburg’s varsity teams will jump back into their conference games the following week. They’ll travel down to Metlakatla to face off against the Chiefs, who are currently undefeated in the 2A conference.
