Sports

Wins for both Juneau high school varsity football teams this weekend.

The Thunder Mountain Falcons on Friday beat the Sitka Wolves on a score of 25 to 6, just the margin they needed for the drive to playoffs.

A 27-yard field goal late in the game sealed it. If the Falcons beat Ketchikan next week, they will host the Southeast Conference playoff game in Juneau.

Friday’s win was also sweet revenge for a loss to Sitka earlier this month.

The Falcons’ Ben Jahn scored two touchdowns and the field goal; Joe Ia had the third. Sitka scored just one TD.

After four losses, the Falcons have won two games in a row, beating Ketchikan handily last week. Sitka, Ketchikan and Thunder Mountain are the only members of the small Southeast Conference, and play each other at least twice in the season.

On Saturday, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears beat the Notre Dame Jugglers in a slow-starting, penalty-plagued game.

Notre Dame Regional Secondary School is in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Jugglers traveled to Juneau 17 years ago to play the Bears, and head coach Richard Scott says the hospitality and experience are always good, despite the loss.  

“We lost in the last play of that game. This one wasn’t that close,” he said.

Juneau beat Notre Dame 33 to 13. Neither team scored in the first quarter, and a penalty against the Jugglers negated a touchdown.  It was one of several that kept the Jugglers from scoring other touchdowns in the game.

“We were inside the 20-yard line three times and came away with nothing. When that happens you’re probably not going to win many of those games. You’ve got to take advantage when you’re in the red zone and we didn’t today,” Scott said after the game. “So we’ll go home and fix those things and get into league play in B.C.”

As Alaska teams steam toward playoffs, teams Outside are just getting started. This was Notre Dame’s second game of the season.

It was a bye week for JDHS, traditionally filled by playing a team from outside the state.

While the Crimson Bears’ defense was solid, the offense had trouble finding a rhythm. Head coach Rich Sjoross also blames penalties.

“You know whether they’re good penalties, bad penalties, it’s just hard to get in a flow when you see those flags flying. You don’t know what to call next when you’re starting at second and 25 instead of second and five, things like that. So I think that had a lot to do with us coming out and being hit and miss most of the night,” Sjoross said.

The Bears scored six touchdowns, beginning late in the second quarter. Phillip Fenumiai broke the ice with a one-yard carry.

Demetrius Campos had a 62-yard punt return and an 82-yard return on kick-off. Campos scored a third TD, Samson Nauer scored on an interception, and Sean Niumataevalu  scored a touchdown on a pass from Fenumiai. Three of kicker Adam Soto’s extra points were good, and Notre Dame blocked two.

Notre Dame had two successful touchdowns and one extra point.

In high school football action over the weekend, the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears took down the Palmer Moose 29-13 on Friday, improving to 3-0 on the year, while the Thunder Mountain Falcons struggled against the Nikiski Bulldogs, losing 46-6 and dropping to 0-3.

McLean Cannon has this recap.

Juneau runners took the top spots in the Capital City Invitational cross country meet this weekend (Saturday).

Sidney Browning finished the 5 kilometer race in 21:16 to best the girls’ field, followed by Juneau-Douglas High School classmate Martina Miller at 22:10 – one second ahead of Ketchikan’s Courtney Galloway, who was third. Katie Jones was the top Thunder Mountain girl, finishing 11th with a time of 22:57.

JDHS’s David Francis had the top boys’ time at 16:52. Sitka’s Niko Friedman was second at 16:57, followed by Juneau’s Jesse Miller at 17:01. James Steeves came in sixth for Thunder Mountain with a time of 18:38.

The Capital City Invitational was held Saturday at Savikko Park.

The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears left another football team scoreless this weekend.

In the first Railbelt Conference game of the season, the Crimson Bears varsity toppled the North Pole Patriots by a score of 57-0. The Juneau-Douglas junior varsity also beat the North Pole JV by 38-6.

The games were played in North Pole and heard in Juneau on KJNO radio and the KATH-TV website.

Quarterback Phillip Fenumiai says the varsity offensive and defensive lines really did “their thing” and the entire team was “clicking on all cylinders.”

Fenumiai had 290 yards passing, most of that in the first half. He threw three touchdown passes. The 6-foot 2-inch junior explains the plays:

“Two touchdown passes were to Sean Niumataevalu. One was on a post route. That’s where you just go up seven yards and just aim for a spot 45 degrees down field,” Fenumiai says. “The second one was on a drag. He just came across the middle of the field from slot and he made a play after he caught the ball and ran 70 yards.”

Fenumiai’s third touchdown pass was to first-year player Alec Calloway, in what he calls a go route.

“Straight down the field,” Fenumiai explains. “I threw it up to him and led him in strides so he didn’t have to stop for the ball, and he scored a touchdown.”

Senior Fullback Lah Fifita also scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run in the second quarter. Kohl Jaeger and Gary Speck each had 6-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots were missing several key players, due to illness, injury and violating a team rule.

Fenumiai says the Bears knew that going into the game, but they still expected more because they had scrimmaged the Patriots in football camp this summer.

“I didn’t think we were going to go by them with such ease this game, but defense did their thing, actually got us the ball back when we wanted it,” he says. “Offense, we were just clicking on all cylinders. I don’t think North Pole knew what hit them.”

The Crimson Bears sacked the Patriots’ quarterback Moo Rogers twice and limited him to 97 yards passing and rushing.

The varsity Bears amassed 125 points in their first two games of the season. Last week they beat the Thunder Mountain Falcons 68-0.

Photos by Gail Fenumiai

There’s not much that’ll make you feel better when you lose by 64 points. But after suffering their second straight blowout – 84 to 20 at the hands of the Homer Mariners last night (Thursday) – Thunder Mountain High School Head Coach Bill Byouer told his team it’s not the end of the world.

“I’m not dead, and neither are they,” Byouer said. “So they’ll be in here come Monday and we’re going to be fighting hard again and try for next week.”

The Falcons came out strong, forcing a Homer fumble on the first play from scrimmage. Less than two minutes later, Thunder Mountain Quarterback Camden Thomas connected with Sam Jahn on scoring strike from five yards out.

But Homer was simply too quick, too savvy, and too good for the out-manned Falcons. Mariners Running Back Dylan Day had eight touchdowns, including five on the ground, one after a catch, one on a fumble recovery and another on a punt return.

The Falcons’ other touchdowns came on a one-yard quarterback keeper by Thomas with 8:03 left in the first half, and a 57-yard scamper by running back John Jolly to cap the scoring with 2:38 left in the game. Between those two scores Homer pretty much dominated both sides of the ball.

To make matters worse, Byouer says seven of his players had to leave the game due to injury.

“JV stepped in there and still worked hard,” said Byouer. “I mean, I got young, young freshman out there, sophomores, you know, and they’re learning.”

Byouer can only hope another week of practice will help his young players take on their next opponent – Nikiski. The Bulldogs are 2-0 and coming off a 48-0 win over Sitka on Wednesday. They’ll be in Juneau for a showdown at Thunder Mountain next Saturday (8-27).

Meanwhile, The Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears play the North Pole Patriots tomorrow (Saturday) in the first Railbelt Conference game of the season.

The game is played in North Pole. The Patriots had their shake-down game last week against West Anchorage – and lost to the Eagles by a score of 44-28.

The Crimson Bears first game of the season last week was an easy victory over Thunder Mountain.

The Thunder Mountain Falcons take on the Homer Mariners in Juneau Thursday.

The Alaska high school football season got underway last week. The varsity Mariners beat the Valdez Buccaneers 52 to 14; the Falcons lost to the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears 68 to zero.

Players and coaches say they’ll be ready for tonight’s contest, which is a non-conference game.

TMHS football is just in its third season. Expectations are high, considering the team’s success last year when the Falcons even made the small schools’ division playoffs – losing to Soldotna.

But 13 members of that team graduated. Head coach Bill Byouer says the junior varsity and varsity number about 45 players this season, when everybody’s eligible and healthy.

With only 23 varsity players…

“We’ve been conditioning quite a bit,” Byouer says. “They’re not going to be coming off the field too much. And I’m hoping they survive without getting an injury, and we’ll be good.”

Most of the sophomores have already moved up to the varsity, says Falcons’ JV coach Tom Jollie.

His team scored two touchdowns against the Crimson Bears last week. It was still a lopsided contest at 52 points for JDHS and 12 for TMHS, but Jollie’s freshman development program seems to be working.

“We’ll keep working them and working them. You know physically they’re able to move up, it’s more just learning the technical portions of it,” Jollie says. “I’m not big on the win-loss record at the JV level; I want to see them improve because that means they’re ready to go to the varsity.”

TMHS had hoped to have permanent bleachers this season, but Byouer says a glitch in the contract has delayed them. That means portable uncovered bleachers will have to be set up for each home game.

“They will have those bleachers and everything set up starting in October. So we’re not going to have bleachers out here at the present time besides the portables that we get,” Byouer says.

The Homer Mariners and Thunder Mountain Falcons junior varsity kick off Thursday at 5 o’clock. The varsity squads take the field at 8 p.m.