After losing his starting job earlier in the season, West High running back Zephaniah Sailele took it in stride.

And Friday night, he took it to the South Wolverines.

Back to being his football team’s featured rusher, Sailele delivered his crowning achievement on homecoming with a 50-carry, 261-yard, 3-touchdown Herculean effort that powered the Eagles to a 23-16 victory.

Running between the tackles and following his blockers, Sailele broke off six runs of 10 yards or more with a long of 18. He bounced a few rushes outside but for the most part he inflicted damage with hard-nosed inside runs.

This was like a boxer repeatedly landing body blows. There were no haymakers; just solid shots to the midsection in the form of 23 runs between 5 and 9 yards.

Sailele ranks second in the Cook Inlet Conference with 790 rushing yards in six games and is tied with Dimond’s Cayden Pili for the league lead in rushing TDs (9).

Sailele bounced off arm tackles and first contact and always seemed to fall forward. South did have four tackles for loss, including two by South’s sensational defensive lineman Gabe Fisher, who leads the CIC in stops.

But they were few and far between. Most of the night saw a steady diet of Sailele punching a hole through the South defense.

And West kept feeding him. Over and over. On one drive, he carried the ball on seven straight plays. On another, five in a row. He didn’t look tired and never slowed down.

Sailele scored on runs of 6, 5 and 14 yards. The 5-foot-11, 229-pounder showcased power when he ran over tacklers and finesse when he side-stepped them with a hard cut. He ran with precision and poise.

Sailele’s 261 yards are the most in the CIC this season and a career high, but short of the school record of 323 yards set by Remy Martin in 2005.

CIC Football Standings

TEAM	CONF	OVERALL
Dimond	4-0	5-0
East	4-0	4-1
Bartlett	3-1	4-1
West	3-2	4-2
Service	2-3	3-3
Juneau	1-3	2-3
South	1-4	2-4
Colony	0-5	0-6

FRIDAY
West 23, South 16
Service 41, Colony 21
SATURDAY
East at Bartlett
Juneau at Dimond

Other standouts for West included the offensive line, wide receiver Ariel Sanchez (10 catches, 87 yards) and kicker Elias Sandberg, who made a 31-yard field goal.

Sandberg’s kick came on the final play from scrimmage of the first half and after South coach John Lewis tried to ice him with a timeout.

This was the third time this season West scored on the final play before halftime. The previous two times came on Hail Mary passes from quarterback Jethro DeCastro against Lathrop and Juneau. This time it was the kicker, who got a hold of it and would’ve been good from 40 yards.

DeCastro finished with 128 passing yards to surpass the 1,000-yard benchmark for the season. The air attack took a back seat to the ground game, primarily Sailele, who accounted for 292 yards of total offense compared to 102 for the rest of the Eagles.

West’s defense stood tall in the third quarter, holding South to just 38 yards and getting an interception from Christian Faletoi.

The Eagles did a good job containing the CIC’s top passing attack that was missing injured all-star receiver Landon Drumm. Quarterback Cole Yarrington spread the ball around and had three receivers with three catches or more.

Caleb Doerr led the receiving corps with seven receptions for 51 yards while Ethan Yarrington had four catches for 39 yards and Taylor Vojtasek hauled in a 17-yard TD.

Cole Yarrington led the way with 126 passing yards and 56 rushing yards and two TDs. The senior signal caller has a rocket right arm and twice put the ball right on the money on long passes only to be dropped by his receiver.

The Wolverines also got a 27-yard field goal from Ralf Braun.

South 6 3 0 7 – 16
West 7 3 0 13 – 23
FIRST QUARTER
South – Vojtasek 17 pass from C. Yarrington (kick missed)
West – Sailele 6 run (Sandberg kick)
SECOND QUARTER
South – Braun 27 FG
West – Sandberg 31 FG
THIRD QUARTER
No Scoring
FOURTH QUARTER
West – Sailele 5 run (run failed)
West – Sailele 14 run (Sandberg kick)
South – C. Yarrington 2 run (Braun kick)