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Delta Junction trailed Nikiski 36-0 at halftime of Friday night’s Greatland Conference football game at Delta Junction High School, but Huskies head coach Gregg Wojcik was impressed with his team’s effort.

“Actually, I thought we played them pretty tough in the first half,” Wojcik said by telephone. “They got their points on a couple of big plays; we botched a couple of punts. Other than that, I was impressed with how our offense handled their first string defense, and if we didn’t have those botched plays, it could have been 0-0 at the end of the first quarter.”

More than botched punts would eventually hurt the Huskies, who lost 55-0 to the Bulldogs in the conference opener for both teams.

Delta, 0-1 in the Greatland and 0-2 overall, lost its top two rushers, Justin Hjelm and Jake Gebauer, to injuries early in third quarter. Hjelm, who carried the ball 12 times for 52 yards, went out with a hand injury after it was stomped on and Gebauer, after rushing for 36 yards on eight carries, had a hyperextended knee after it got hit with a helmet.

Before the injuries, Delta had three players in the backfield, but resorted to only one, freshman Nick Debilsan, after Hjelm and Gebauer left.

The Huskies had trouble with Nikiski’s offense, particularly Beau Calderwood. The senior rushed eight times for 171 yards and the visitors’ first three scores in a wing-T offense that Wojcik said resembled a (deceptive) shell game.

“He just shredded us up. He’s got a unique running style, he does a lot of fakes,” Wojcik said. “First, you have to decipher who has the ball in the backfield, and who had a guy singling out Calderwood. But by the time we figured out that Calderwood had the ball, he had already gotten to the second level of defense, our middle linebackers.

“He just made the moves and we weren’t able to stop him.”

Calderwood has 463 yards rushing and six touchdowns in the first two weeks of the high school season. He rushed for 292 yards and scored on two touchdown runs and a kickoff return last Friday in a 55-22 home loss to the Soldotna Stars.

Stephen Krogseng contributed 92 yards rushing and touchdown runs of 4 and 75 yards in the fourth quarter Friday for Nikiski, 1-0 Greatland and 1-1 overall.

Delta Junction, which has lost 10 games in a row dating back to last season, plays host to the Monroe Catholic Rams at 5 p.m. Thursday in a Greatland game.

“We played gritty ball, our guys were still sticking them in the fourth quarter,” Wojcik said of Friday’s loss. “They never quit, they were doing their best and that’s all you can ask of them.”

Also Friday, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears, the defending large school state champion, rolled to a 35-7 win over the Wasilla Warriors in a Railbelt Conference game in Juneau. The Crimson Bears, 2-0 in the Railbelt and overall, have won 13 straight games since last season.

Soldotna, last year’s small schools state champ, improved to 2-0 with a 40-16 romp of the visiting Colony Knights (0-2).

At the Anchorage Football Stadium, the Dimond Lynx moved to 2-0 overall and in the Cook Inlet Conference with a 26-7 win over the West Anchorage Eagles (1-1 CIC and overall). In another Cook Inlet contest, the Service Cougars jumped to 2-0 on the season and in conference after crushing the winless Chugiak Mustangs 38-0 at Chugiak Stadium.

The host Sitka Wolves downed the Ketchikan King Salmon 20-6 in the season opener for both teams.