Crimson Bears play final regular season football game against familiar foe
- Klas Stolpe
- Oct 1
- 8 min read
JDHS travels to league-leading West Anchorage on Saturday
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé football team travels to the site of the team that ended the Crimson Bears' playoff run in the first round last season — in the last minute — 20-13.
The “Nest on Hillcrest,” home of the Cook Inlet Conference-leading West Anchorage Eagles.
“It is a phenomenal environment to play football in,” JDHS line coach and head assistant Jeff Hedges said. “I mean, just the great crowds, they get really loud crowds…It is a really nice field, just everything about it. It is a great place to play football. What makes it really difficult is they are a good football team. They are a well-coached football team, and they are large individuals. We have never had a team that came anywhere near the same size as them. So it is just a terrific test and a terrific arena for playing football.”
West and South Anchorage have identical 5-1 conference (6-1 overall) records, but the Eagles hold the tiebreaker due to their 13-8 season-opening win against the Wolverines. JDHS would love to return the “favor” West gave to them last season.
“If we can knock them out and make them second it would absolutely be a real nice thing,” Hedges said. “Always fun to play the spoiler. There are playoff implications, just not for us...West is physical. Even when we beat them, they can beat us up a little bit. So it's just making sure we are protecting ourselves, making sure that everybody is healthy going in and that we stay that way when we come out of the game.”
West historically has been a bitter pill for JDHS to swallow.
“That's a team that has definitely had our number over the years,” JDHS head coach Rich Sjoroos said. “So we're hoping to find some kind of formula that works against them. Since the year 2000, we have only beat them once. And there have been more than a few meetings. I mean, they've just had our number. We've had some heartbreaking losses.”
Sjoroos noted the 2003 season as an assistant under Riley Ritchie, JDHS’ first trip to the state finals.
“We had a chance to win the conference title that day,” Sjoroos said. “It was week seven. We were on the road. And Brian Felix ran the ball 45 times for 268 yards. And we totally controlled the line of scrimmage yet we still lost the game 21 to 7, just one of those scratch-your-head type days. Then the next week we went to Chugiak and won the conference title. So everything worked out great in the end, but West kind of had our number that year.” (JD would lose to East 33-17 in the state finals.)
In 2004, JDHS started 2-0 and then hosted West.
“We were laser focused, but we just couldn't breathe that night,” Sjoroos said. “They smothered us and beat us 49 to 9. It was just kind of a crazy deal. And then we had a strong team that year. So they beat us when we had some good teams…then we didn’t play them a few years (division changes). In 2019 they came down to Juneau and beat us…2020 was the COVID year…2021 was the year they were our only loss until the state championship game (lost to East 30-17). They beat us up at West Anchorage 49-26. And then the year we got them was in 2022 when they came down to Juneau and we shut them out 14-0. That was one of those finally breakthrough moments. And then of course they have gotten us four times in the last two years, in the regular season and in the playoffs.”
Last season JDHS lost by one point at home and lost in the last minute in the playoffs.
“We have proven we can compete with them,” Sjoroos said. “It's just a matter of closing things out and finding some wrinkles or maybe something that you save for later in the game that you pull out that works. Because they're just a tough team to beat. Nobody beats up on West. They are just a very well-oiled machine from year to year. They graduated a lot of kids off last year's team and yet here they are again.”
Sjoroos remembered one more game, the 2010 state semifinals in which he and assistant coach Al Fenumiai had put together a game for the ages.
“This is no joke,” Sjoroos said. “We had 424 yards of offense. And they had 120. And we lost the game 21-18. Isn't that crazy? I mean, we missed three field goals in the fourth quarter and any one of those would have tied the game up… We just couldn't catch a break that day and then they won the state title the following week. So, yeah, just some heartbreak over the years. Definitely that one team that kind of had Juneau’s number.”
In last year’s playoff loss West Anchorage connected on a 39-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 with the score tied and just over one minute remaining in the game. The winning score came shortly after an exchange of fumbles when the Crimson Bears (then called the Huskies) got the ball at midfield with about four minutes left, only to turn the ball over on their first ensuing play.
Said Sjoroos, “Last year was the season where we lost by one point at home in the regular season and then we played them so well in that playoff game and lost in the last minute by a touchdown.”
JDHS is locked into the fifth spot in the CIC and will travel to the fourth seed when playoffs start after this weekend’s games.
“We are the only team that has nowhere to go,” Sjoroos said. “But looking at the way tiebreakers go and scenarios and things we could end up playing either Bartlett, South or Service…”
West wins the conference title if they defeat JDHS this weekend or if Service upsets South.
“There is a lot if you start penciling things out and in,” Sjoroos said. “But for us, bottom line, we are locked in at the five seed and will just play it out, see how the other games fall and know that we will be on the road the following week playing either on a Saturday day game or Saturday night game.”
But parity is king across the CIC this season and no team can rest on their laurels. Of the 30 games played so far, 15 have been decided by one score.
“I think from what I saw in practice Monday, the kids are really focused in and feeling like we are starting to play our best football,” Sjoroos said. “We know that regardless of who we play this week, we have got to find a way to play good on the road because that is where the whole playoff scenario is going to be for us is on the roads. So at some point we have got to put together a good four-quarter game. Not two quarters, not two and a half, not three. We just got to find that full, four-quarter effort and hopefully this is the week.”
Last week JDHS defeated Colony 34-20, South stopped Dimond 37-6, Bartlett toppled West 20-12 and Service outlasted East 6-3. This week Dimond faces East, Bartlett takes on Colony, South plays Service, and West will play JDHS.
The four conference quarterfinal playoff games begin at each home field of the higher seed Oct. 10-11. The two semifinals are at the higher seed’s home field on Oct. 17-18. The state championship game is Oct. 24 at Colony High School.
Earlier this year, Sjoroos said of the Crimson Bears, “I think last year I learned that there's just a toughness in these kids. We’re so undersized with the growth of the Polynesian teams up in Anchorage. It used to be just a couple teams had a lot of bigger Polynesian kids or bigger kids in general, but now it seems like everybody up there has just got a lot of big, strong kids. So I feel like we have a toughness and there's just no limit to what these kids can do as far as taking on some of these bigger schools. They played so hard last year against West and Bartlett and East and came out short in some of those games, but seeing a bunch of those kids coming back this year, I feel our run game is going to be really good and our run defense is going to be really great. I think in the state of Alaska, if you do those two things well and play good special teams, you're going to be competitive in every single game you play no matter the size of the team.”
COOK INLET CONFERENCE STANDINGS, INFO (points scored per game, points allowed per game, game scores)
West Eagles 5-1 (6-1 OA). PPG 19.7, PA 13.7 //// Week 1 won 13-8 South; Wk2 won 13-9 Dimond; Wk3 won 28-27 West Valley; Wk4 won 35-16 Colony; Wk5 won 20-0 East; Wk6 won 17-16 Service; Wk7 lost 20-12 Bartlett; Wk8 play JDHS.
South Wolverines 5-1 (6-1 OA). PPG 28.5, PA 13.8 //// Wk1 lost 13-8 West; Wk2 won 14-7 Bartlett; Wk3 won 31-7 Lathrop; Wk4 won 33-7 East; Wk5 won 29-28 JDHS; Wk6 won 48-29 Colony; Wk7 won 37-6 Dimond; Wk8 play Service.
Bartlett Golden Bears 4-2 (4-2 OA). PPG 14, PA 6.5 //// Wk1 won 12-0 Dimond; Wk2 lost 14-7 South; Wk3 no game; Wk4 won 27-0 JDHS; Wk5 won 12-6 Service; Wk6 lost 7-6 East; Wk7 won 20-12 West; Wk8 play Colony.
JDHS Crimson Bears 3-3 (3-4 OA). PPG 21.4, PA 24.5 //// Wk1 lost 19-12 Service; Wk2 won 41-22 East; Wk3 lost 41-20 Palmer; Wk4 lost 27-0 Bartlett; Wk5 lost 29-28 South; Wk6 won 15-14 Dimond; Wk7 won 34-20 Colony; Wk8 play West.
Service Cougars 3-3 (4-3 OA). PPG 15.2, PA 10 //// Wk1 won 19-12 JDHS; Wk2 won 27-13 Colony; Wk3 won 8-6 North Pole; Wk4 won 25-7 Dimond; Wk 5 lost 12-6 Bartlett; Wk6 lost 17-16 West; Wk7 won 6-3 East; Wk8 play South.
Bettye Davis East Anchorage Thunderbirds 2-4 (2-5 OA). PPG 11.4, PA 26.7 //// Wk1 lost 42-20 Colony; Wk2 lost 41-22 JDHS; Wk3 lost 39-21 Southwest, San Diego; Wk4 lost 33-7 South; Wk5 lost 20-0 West; Wk6 won 7-6 Bartlett; Wk7 lost 6-3 Service; Wk8 play Dimond.
Dimond Lynx 1-5 (1-6 OA). PPG 9.7, PA 25.7 //// Wk1 lost 12-0 Bartlett; Wk2 lost 13-9 West; Wk3 lost 56-7 Soldotna; Wk4 lost 25-7 Service; Wk5 won 25-22 Colony; Wk6 lost 15-14 JDHS; Wk7 lost 37-6 South; Wk8 play East.
Colony Knights 1-5 (2-5 OA). PPG 24.1, PA 30 //// Wk1 won 42-20 East; Wk2 lost 27-13 Service; Wk3 won 27-21 Wasilla; Wk4 lost 35-16 West; Wk5 lost 25-22 Dimond; Wk6 lost 48-29 South; Wk7 lost 34-20 JDHS; Wk8 play Bartlett.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@gmail.com.
