Crimson Bears hoping to bounce back versus West

When the Juneau-Douglas High School football team hosts the West Anchorage Eagles on Friday, both teams will be on the rebound.

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The rebuilding Crimson Bears, who thought they'd been showing progress over their first three games, are trying to bounce back from an ugly 49-0 loss to top-ranked Bartlett last Saturday. The winless Eagles, who haven't won in four seasons, thought they were turning a corner when they lost their first three games by a total of 11 points. Then came last Friday's 57-21 loss to East Anchorage in a game West led 21-19 late in the first half.

With both teams coming off big losses, Friday night's 8 p.m. varsity game at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park could go a long way toward helping one of the squads turn their season around. The junior varsity teams will play at 5 p.m., although there might be delays due to the resurfacing of the track.

"It's going to be a big win for us, down to the edge," Juneau defensive back T.J. Mason said. "They're going to want to win, and we're going to have to want it more. Last week was definitely a humbling game. We still have to go for it."

"We've got to turn it around," Juneau tight end-linebacker Sterling Henderson said. "We still have a lot to prove. We need to come back from a 49-0 loss and show what kind of team we are. We have to win, no excuses."

The Crimson Bears (1-3 overall, 0-3 Cook Inlet Football Conference) are treating Friday's game as a must-win situation. Juneau is the only large schools team in the state to finish with winning record in each of the past three seasons, and the Crimson Bears need to start winning now if they want to continue that streak.

"This is our season," Juneau fullback-linebacker Nick West said. "We're laying it all out on the line, like in 'Friday Night Lights' (the book on high school football in Odessa, Texas, by H.G. Bissinger)."

But this weekend there will be more pressure on the Crimson Bears, because they don't want to be the team that ends West Anchorage's two 27-game losing streaks. The Eagles (0-4 overall, 0-3 CIFC) haven't won a CIFC game since they beat East 34-24 on Oct. 4, 1997, and they haven't won any games since beating Soldotna 33-6 on Sept. 19, 1998, in a nonconference game.

"We have to win," Juneau running back Austen Clair said. "We're not going to be the first team in the conference to lose to them."

"It's must win," Juneau defensive end-tight end-punter Colin Conerton said. "All we can do is worry about ourselves."

When asked if the Crimson Bears had put last week's loss to Bartlett behind them, Conerton replied, "What last week?"

West brings one of the state's top running backs in Jared Solberg, who has 439 yards on 67 carries and four touchdowns. But Solberg hurt his collarbone last week and, even though he plans to play, Ben Faaliga led the Eagles in rushing with 120 yards on six carries and an 83-yard touchdown run. Solberg had 76 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown last weekend, while Montel Massenburg scored West's other touchdown.

The Eagles also have one of the state's largest lines, with seven players weighing at least 240 pounds and four over 270 pounds. West coach Bob Garman said some of his key players are a little banged up this week, but they were all planning on getting clearances from their doctors to play this weekend.

"We're still fighting, but we kind of folded in the second half last week," Garman said. "We're a little more competitive this year. There's not a game we go into where we don't think we have a chance to win. We think we can win every time. We're going to explode one of these days."

Charles Bingham can be reached at cbingham@juneauempire.com.