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FAIRBANKS — Eielson head coach David DeVaughn reminded his Ravens to not take Monroe Catholic lightly, despite the fact that the shorthanded Rams lost 52-26 to the Homer Mariners in last Saturday’s nonconference season-opening high school football game in Homer.

Earlier this week, the Ravens watched a video of the Monroe-Homer game. It also emphasized the toughness of the Rams, who had only 13 players but got one of the state’s top rushing performances from Isaiah Weeks, who compiled 257 yards on 38 carries and scored two touchdowns.

“You never want your guys to overlook anybody,” DeVaughn said in a telephone interview Thursday night, “and I think that (video) got their attention that we have a job to do this weekend. These (Monroe) guys are playing varsity football and we have to prepare like we do every weekend.”

The Ravens and the Rams square off in a Greatland Conference game at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Kiwanis Field behind the Big Dipper Ice Arena.

Every Interior football team is in the Interior this weekend, starting tonight at 7, as the West Valley Wolfpack play host to the North Pole Patriots in a Railbelt Conference contest and the second annual Golden Heart Bowl. West Valley is donating 25 percent of the proceeds from the game to the American Red Cross.

“It’s just one of those nice ways of giving back to others,” said West Valley head coach Ben Johnson. “We’re lucky to be playing the game, and it’s nice to give back some of what we get.”

At 5 tonight, the Nikiski Bulldogs visit the Delta Junction Huskies in a matchup of Greatland teams seeking their first win of the season. Delta fell 47-8 at Houston on Saturday, and last Friday night, Nikiski lost 55-22 to the visiting Soldotna Stars, last year’s small schools state champion.

Lathrop aims for its second straight win at 7 p.m., as the Malemutes play the Palmer Moose in a Railbelt Conference game. Lathrop opened the season last Friday with an 8-6 nonconference home win over the Kenai Kardinals.

Also Saturday, the Barrow Whalers play host to the Seward Seahawks at 2 p.m. in the Greatland opener for both teams. Barrow started its third season of varsity football Saturday with a 36-27 nonconference victory over the visiting Skyview Panthers, while Seward fell 53-0 to the host Kodiak Bears, last year’s small schools state runner-up.

Just as DeVaughn cautioned the Ravens about Monroe, Rams head coach Bobby Pace advised his players about an Eielson squad that opened last Saturday with a 39-6 win over the Valdez Buccaneers. The Rams, who gained two more players this week (senior safety and wide receiver Nolan Burcell and sophomore receiver Shane Gilbertson) also watched video of the Greatland game at Buck Nystrom Field on Eielson Air Force Base.

“They’ve got a couple good athletes,” Pace said. “(Middle linebacker and offensive tackle Dwanye) Fearon is real aggressive, and (quarterback Colten) Growden was awful slippery. We’ve worked a lot on containment this week.’’

Growden accounted for five of Eielson’s six touchdowns. He passed for 119 yards and two touchdowns, returned a kickoff into the end zone and ran for two scores while rushing for 100 yards.

North Pole and West Valley had contrasting outcomes in season-opening Railbelt games last Saturday, but each team put in a lot of work in practices this week for tonight’s game.

West Valley fell 45-7 to defending state champion Juneau-Douglas, which went unbeaten last season, at West Valley High School and North Pole rallied for a 20-16 victory over the Colony Knights after trailing 16-6 in the third quarter at Patriot Pride Field.

West Valley, seeking its first win since the end of the 2006 regular season, saw its only score come from defensive back Victor Wisel’s 70-yard interception and saw its offense only generate 32 yards and never penetrate the Crimson Bears’ half of the field.

The Wolfpack, to no surprise, placed a strong emphasis on execution in this week’s practices.

“I think after meeting with the boys and going over film, we realized it came down to little steps and a little bit of execution ... we missed some big opportunities,” Johnson said.

The Wolfpack only trailed 2-0 in the first quarter to the Crimson Bears, who have won 12 games in a row going back to last season.

A pair of 1-yard touchdown runs by quarterback Lee Jones in the fourth quarter rallied the Patriots, but head coach Richard Henert said he saw “a lot of misfires and missed executions on offense,” earlier in the game.

“Our offense needs to pick it up well,” Henert said, “but in the first game, the offense tends to start a little slower than the defense.”

Henert doesn’t want a slow night against the Wolfpack, who are looking to end a nine-game, two-year losing streak.

“If you look at their side of the ball (against Juneau-Douglas), there were a lot of execution errors, a couple of bad snaps and punts,” Henert said. “They really were not too far out of that game (early). We have to stay fundamentally sound and stick to our game plan.”