Juneau puts on first-half offensive show in 34-20 win over Colony in final home game of regular season
- Mark Sabbatini
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Crimson Bears use toughness and trickery to send seniors off in style
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
An injury to a star player meant the Crimson Bears needed some different options — and they exercised plenty of them in rolling up a 34-14 halftime lead against Colony High School before coasting to a 34-20 win in their home finale of the regular season Saturday night at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Field.
"I felt like that was two different football games at this point," Juneau head coach Rich Sjoroos told his players after the game. "First half, we were clicking, we were locked in, I mean, I just felt like we were doing no wrong. In the second half we were tripping over ourselves."
Jaxin Jim, a junior who got his first start at running back in place of injured Ethan Van Kirk, ran for two touchdowns by the start of the second quarter to put Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé up 17-7. Junior quarterback Krew Ridle ran for a touchdown and caught another on a trick play just before halftime, and junior Sonny Mazon kicked two field goals to complete the Crimson Bears’ scoring.
A scoreless third quarter made Juneau’s lead seem safer, but Colony made a last effort by scoring a touchdown with 3:51 left to make the score 34-20 after a failed two-point conversion. The Crimson Bears, trying to run out the clock on the ground, fumbled in the backfield and the Knights returned the ball to the Juneau 45-yard line with 2:45 remaining.
But two incomplete passes by the Knights, a completion stopped immediately by Jim for a one-yard loss, and a final fourth-down pass that hit the turf with no Colony players nearby preserved the Juneau victory.
"I think a couple people got a little over themselves and thought it was secured, but really it's never secured," Ridle said after the game. "So we just kind of kept driving — me and the O line, we kept going. Defense, though, they definitely were a lot better that second half. They had those first few mess-ups, and then just everything was locked in, locked down, nothing behind them."
Juneau (3-4, with all three wins coming at home) plays its regular-season finale at West Anchorage High School (6-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2.
"I'm feeling good about it," Ridle said. "West has a very big team that I want to beat because they've beat us week one of the playoffs every year that I've played at the high school level. So going into this game I really want to just go 100%."
The Crimson Bears, coming off an emotional high point of the season after beating defending champion Dimond High School in a torrential downpour while being filmed by NBC for a Super Bowl broadcast documentary, came out storming against Colony.
The Knights mishandled a short opening kickoff that Juneau recovered at the Colony 43-yard line. Ridle hit senior wide receiver Noah Ault on a 15-yard pass to get in scoring range and Mazon hit a 32-yard field goal with 9:10 left in the first quarter to give Juneau a 3-0 lead.
Colony struck back quickly after returning the ensuing kickoff to the Juneau 48-yard line. After a five-yard run, senior quarterback Hayden Shafer hit a 27-yard pass, ran for three yards and then connected on a pinpoint 13-yard pass to put the Knights up 7-3 with 8:13 left in the first quarter.
The Crimson Bears, starting their next drive on their own 43-yard line, then put together an 11-play drive relying most on the power running game that has been the strength of the offense this season — with Jim doing most of the heavy-duty work in Kirk’s absence. One key play came on a third-and-11 at the 42-yard line when Ridle lofted a pass caught by Ault, who was tackled after a 28-yard gain at the Colony 30-yard line. Another came on fourth-and-1 at the 1-yard line when, following a Juneau timeout, Jim easily stormed through the middle of the line for a touchdown that put Juneau back in front 10-7 with 3:25 left in the opening quarter.
Jim, after the game, described being the primary back for the first time as a "very, very fast" experience.
"As soon as I catch the ball and am running I just see three white Colony guys running after me," he said. "But I’ve just got to follow my blocks and find the open lanes, and take it all."
A holding penalty contributed to a three-and-out by Colony on its ensuing possession, and a long punt return by Ault gave the Crimson Bears the ball back at the Knights’ 43-yard line. A seven-play drive entirely on the ground ended with Jim again scoring from a yard out to extend the lead to 17-7 less than a minute into the second quarter.
But Colony again struck back quickly via the arm of Shafer, who connected on a pass across the middle that resulted in a 55-yard touchdown on the first play of their next possession, making the score 17-14 with 11:02 left in the first half.
Juneau then put together its most sustained drive of the game, after a flag on the first play of the next possession resulted in a first-and-18 at its 20-yard line. A 13-yard run by Ault gave the Crimson Bears a third-and-4, with Jim then powering through the middle for 33 yards to put the ball well into Knights’ territory. Ridle then hit Ault on a 20-yard pass on third down to put the ball at the Colony 13-yard line, Jim picked up two yards on a fourth-and-1 gamble at the 3-yard line and Ridle ran the ball in for a touchdown on the next play to put Juneau back ahead 24-14 with 5:21 until halftime.
Another stroke of good fortune for the Crimson Bears occurred following another three-and-out by Colony, when a mishandled snap on a punt resulted in Juneau taking over on downs on the Knights’ 16-yard line. But Juneau failed to take full advantage, as a gadget play as a wide receiver pass by Ault — who last season was the Crimson Bear’s opening-day starter at quarterback — missed an open Andrew Sanders, a sophomore wide receiver, in the end zone. A 25-yard field goal by Mazon made the tally 27-14 with 2:48 in the half.
Colony’s offensive struggles continued with another three-and-out, and a punt return by Ault gave Juneau the ball back on its own 49-yard line with 1:59 left in the half. Luck proved in the Crimson Bears’ favor on an 11-play drive that saw Colony drop two would-be interceptions and Juneau recover a backfield fumble at the Knights’ 10-yard line with 14 seconds remaining.
On the next play Sjoroos again called the wide receiver pass by Ault, who this time threw back across the field to his left to an open Ridle, who easily took the ball into the endzone to make the halftime score 34-14.
"That one we were watching film, they just come down hard on that," Ridle said. "Just looking at film from past years we're like, ‘This will work.’ …So we were right there and we just went for that shot, and it went right in."
Juneau appeared as if it might add to its lead on the first possession of the third quarter, driving from its own 47-yard line to inside the Colony 10-yard line. But the drive stalled and a field goal attempt by Mazon was wide left with about nine minutes left in the quarter.
After an exchange of punts, an interception by Sanders gave the Crimson Bears another scoring opportunity at the Knights’ 32-yard line. But a fumble on third down gave Colony the ball back on the first play of the fourth quarter.
However, both teams continued to struggle on offense, with Colony turning the ball over on downs at the Juneau 29-yard line when a run came up short and the Crimson Bears punting after a three-and-out on their next possession.
The Knights then put together their final scoring drive almost entirely on the ground, with Shafer running the ball in from two yards out with 3:51 remaining to make the score 34-20 after the failed two-point try.
The Crimson Bears’ attempt to run out the clock — or at least make Colony use up its timeouts stopping Juneau — misfired due to the backfield fumble that gave the Knights a final chance to rally. But a middle screen pass on third down was stopped immediately on a crushing tackle by Jim, leading to the visitors’ final futile incompletion.
"They had a little wingback that came in and I knew it was a screen because I've been seeing that all year," he said. "People have been screening, I've been missing it, and I finally just came in and laid the boom on it, and he felt it."
Sjoroos, in an interview after the game, said Van Kirk’s absence meant using some different formations and "doing some things to maybe spread the ball around to some different guys because Ethan had been kind of the focal point of our offense."
"I think we did a pretty good job tonight of getting different guys involved and making plays, and made it a little hard on their defense in stretches there, especially in the first half," he said.
The decision to rely heavily on Jim, a fullback, occurred because Colony has been effective shutting down the counter runs Juneau had great success with last week, so a more straightforward attack was intended to "just kind of take what the defense gives you," Sjoroos said.
The Crimson Bears will find out if they’re playoff-ready next Saturday against West Anchorage, which was undefeated until a 20-12 loss to Bartlett High School on Friday night. West Anchorage is still at the top of the eight-team Cook Inlet Conference despite the loss (tied with South Anchorage at 6-1), while Juneau is fifth and facing a road game in its opening when the playoffs start.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
