Juneau takes on North Pole for a title-game berth

ANCHORAGE - There's no real secret about what the Juneau-Douglas High School football team expects to see when it lines up across from the North Pole Patriots for Saturday's state semifinal playoff game in Anchorage.

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The Crimson Bears expect to see Perry Monzulla run to the left, Perry Monzulla to run to the right and Perry Monzulla to run up the middle. The Patriot offense is all Perry Monzulla, all the time. The North Pole senior running back broke the state's single-season rushing record with 2,389 yards on 202 carries and a whopping 37 touchdowns this fall.

Sure, the Patriots will occasionally throw the ball to keep defenses honest. But Monzulla has had two games where he rushed for more than 300 yards and he's only had one or two games where he finished with fewer than 200.

"Stopping Perry? You have to stop him before he gets to the stadium," Juneau head coach Reilly Richey said. "After that, all you can do is hope to contain him."

The Crimson Bears (6-3 overall) take on the Patriots (8-1 overall) at noon Saturday at Anchorage Football Stadium. Juneau has seen good running backs before, and it's even given up more than 200 yards apiece to East Anchorage's Ryan Stickler and Washington State-bound Shelton Danzy of Rainier Beach (Seattle, Wash.) this season. But those two running backs played on teams that looked to throw first. North Pole has an underrated passing game, but Monzulla carries the ball about 30 times a game and is the focus of his team's offense.

"We're feeling very confident," Juneau senior wide receiver-defensive back C.J. Keys said. "North Pole is a tough opponent and Perry Monzulla is probably the best back in Alaska right now. Stickler was more of a smash-mouth runner, while Monzulla will try to beat you to the corner. Shelton Danzy was one of the best running backs I've ever seen."

"We're feeling pretty good. We can hold him down," Juneau junior fullback-linebacker Josh Lehauli said. "He's like Danzy and Stickler, but we'll try to hold him."

One of Juneau's keys to stopping the run may be how the Crimson Bears do in stopping North Pole's passing game. Quarterback Chris Powell has only completed about 30 passes this year, but 14 have gone for touchdowns. In an early season game against Palmer, Powell completed four touchdown passes to wide receiver Jacob Barthelemy and five touchdowns for the game when the Moose tried to stack the line to stop Monzulla.

"They've thrown as many as 15 times in a game, and they've got an amazing touchdown-to-reception rate of about 50 percent," Richey said. "You have to commit so much to the run, you have to roll the dice a bit and you have to bring guys up to help out. They've got a couple of decent receivers and a quarterback who can get them the ball."

"If we can stop the pass, that's going to be huge," Keys said.

While Monzulla is the main headline-grabber for North Pole, the Patriots surround him with a strong supporting cast. Monzulla deservedly was voted the Railbelt Conference's offensive player of the year earlier this week, but the Patriots swept the other main awards and had 18 of the conference's 34 players named to the all-conference team.

Senior linebacker Cam Culver was voted the defensive player of the year for the Railbelt Conference, while senior tackle Andrew Stefan won the lineman of the year award. Head coach Buck Nystrom shared the coach of the year award with retiring Colony coach Randy Magner.

First-team offense players for North Pole included Monzulla, Culver at tight end, fullback Jamie Hurlburt, tackles Stefan and Jeremy Warwick, guard Justin Ballek and center E.J. Martinez. On defense, the first-team players were Stefan at tackle, Culver at linebacker, Ballek at end, lineman Jeff Conley and defensive back Charles Spencer.

"It's pretty clear they have something pretty special going this season," Richey said.

"We've got a good offensive line, a good fullback in Hurlburt, and a great nose tackle (Stefan)," Nystrom said.

Nystrom's biggest worry facing the Crimson Bears is Juneau's tougher schedule.

The Patriots opened the season with a 19-16 loss to Bartlett, a team Juneau beat 61-40 at the end of its schedule. After that loss, North Pole scored at least 50 points in all but one game as it dominated its conference and other two non-conference opponents (small-school teams Skyview and Homer). North Pole beat Palmer 53-7 in the first round of the state playoffs last Saturday at North Pole. The Crimson Bears opened their season with a 37-0 victory at Palmer, making the Moose the only other common opponent besides Bartlett.

"The whole thing is, they play at a level above the level we play at," Nystrom said. "They've got some definite haves and have-nots in their league, but they play at a competitive level in every game. Our conference has been much weaker. This will be a real test for us."

Juneau's offense has been more balanced than North Pole's. On the ground, Juneau senior Brian Felix has rushed for 1,089 yards and 14 touchdowns on 202 carries and ranks fourth in the state this season. Nystrom said he expects Felix to carry the ball about 30 times on Saturday, even though Felix has been favoring a deep thigh bruise the last couple of weeks.

"Our biggest fear is Felix," Nystrom said.

The Crimson Bears also feature sophomore quarterback Chris Hinkley, who has moved up to second in the state in passing yards with 1,136 yards on 57-for-94 passing and 14 touchdowns with one interception. Junior Pat Kohan has thrown for 515 yards on 33-for-69 passing with four touchdowns and three interceptions.

Keys is Juneau's top receiver with 22 catches for 508 yards and six receiving touchdowns.

"I know Brian's looking forward to this game, not just because he's a back but because he plays defense," Keys said. "They pretty much just have Perry, but we've got three or four backs who can run the ball. We've got a lot of depth."

A victory on Saturday will send Juneau into the state championship game on Oct. 23 against the winner of Friday night's semifinal between West Anchorage (9-0 overall) and Colony (8-1 overall). Juneau's motto all season has been "1300 hours, 10-23-04," the time of the state championship game, and this week the Crimson Bears practiced its two-minute drills with "10-23" on the scoreboard at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park.

"We've been really focused," said Lehauli, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass in last week's 27-26 victory over East Anchorage in the first round of the playoffs. "We'll have to step it up against them. It'll be a close game."

• Charles Bingham can be reached at charles.bingham@juneauempire.com.