Huskies give Eagles a game, Eagles give Huskies respect in 20-13 playoff loss to end Juneau’s season

When time expired in Saturday’s 20-13 first-round football road playoff loss for the Juneau Huskies at the “Nest on Hillcrest,” the home of the West Anchorage High School Eagles, one victor made sure to hug each of the vanquished.

“This is all about family,” West senior Zephaniah Sailele said. “I know how they are feeling. We have been there. We have lost a first-round playoff game. This is more than football, this is respect. We came into this game riding high. We had our heads held up high and they smacked us in the mouth. Their defense closed holes on us that others could not. They competed. I am proud to have played them.”

West had won the game, Juneau had won respect.

“It was a rollercoaster,” Rich Sjoroos, head coach for Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, said after the game. “I told the kids in these playoff games, and high school games in general, you’re going to have some big ups and downs, and that was exactly how that game was — a big rollercoaster all the way to the end. Unfortunately they made one more play than we did and came out on top. You don’t get to those kind of points unless you are playing good football and I thought they just played a great game tonight, and just unfortunately we came up short on the scoreboard.”

Highlighting the game was a matchup of each team’s biggest playmakers, with Sailele and Juneau’s Jayden racking up huge rushing totals by powering through defenders and speeding past them.

“You know…I’ve been through a lot with this team,” Johnson said. “From day one to this point now. I think we all went out there and gave it our all and it was tough. You don’t win them all. But like I always say, we just want to be a hard team to beat and I think we did that. I think we did pretty good.”

Johnson, playing his third straight game at quarterback after spending most of the season at wide receiver, also threw two touchdown passes that put Juneau ahead 13-6 in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, Juneau’s defensive line made West throw the ball and the Huskies secondary rose to the challenge.

“We were all over the field, communicating well, everybody was locked in tonight,” Sjoroos said. “They were giving every ounce of energy and strength they had and poured everything into that game. I would expect nothing less of them, this is how they’ve been. And they knew, just like West did, that somebody’s season is going to end tonight. I thought our guys really dug in hard, and unfortunately we couldn’t get that ball into the end zone at the end to try and tie it up, and maybe go for the win. But I would take this group every year. I love them.”

But as with their Sept. 14 regular season game against the Eagles, the Huskies couldn’t maintain the lead they’d built up at halftime.

The key play was a 39-yard touchdown pass by the Eagles on fourth-and-10 with the score tied and just over one minute remaining in the game. The play came shortly after an exchange of fumbles when the Huskies got the ball at midfield with about four minutes left — an ideal situation to drive for a winning score — only to turn the ball over on their first ensuing play.

“It was rough out there,” Johnathyn Kestel, a senior wide receiver for the Huskies who was wide open in the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown catch near the end of the second quarter. “I figured it might be my last game so I played as hard as I can. It was, but I kept playing. It was just a battle…I left everything out there on the field. I think everybody on our team did. It’s hard. It felt good to have this team out there. Everyone was putting their heart and soul into the game, and they knew it could be the last game for all the seniors so they were pushing it. All the underclassmen were going as hard as they can for us.”

Juneau, the sixth seed entering the playoffs, ends the season at 2-6 in the Cook Inlet Conference record and 3-6 overall, a step forward from last season when they were the eighth seed at 0-7 in the conference and 1-7 overall. West Anchorage (5-2 conference, 7-2 overall), seeded third, will face second seed Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School (5-2 conference, 5-2 overall) in the playoff semifinals next weekend.

“We just have to come back strong for next year,” said Ricky Tupou, a junior lineman who made some key tackles to keep Juneau in the game. “I just try to come in strong, be tough you know? This is a sad feeling right now.”

The Huskies experienced an up-and-down season, winning some lopsided games and getting blown out in others, and Saturday’s playoff game played out similarly as both teams had numerous big plays, missed opportunities, penalties and turnovers.

West Anchorage drove deep into Juneau territory on the game’s opening possession, but was stopped on a fourth-and-9 from the Juneau 14-yard line when Johnson knocked a pass down in the end zone. The Eagles’ second drive, after Juneau punted on its opening possession, ended with another turnover on downs when Huskies’ lineman Ricky Tupou stuffed a fourth-down run at the Anchorage 42-yard line.

“Our defense played really good the whole game,” said Sage Schultz, a senior defensive back for the Huskies. “We got our offense the ball back one time after another. Sometimes they capitalized and sometimes they didn’t, and sometimes the ref helped us and definitely sometimes they didn’t.”

Tupou’s stop led to Juneau’s first scoring opportunity when, after three runs by Johnson got the Huskies to the Eagles’ 26-yard line, senior running back Hayden Aube took a direct snap and bull-rushed through multiple defenders to the 6-yard line. Another direct snap run got the ball to the Eagle’s 1-yard line. But then three straight runs up the middle failed to score — although Aube appeared to break the plane of the goal line on a fourth-down run that was officially ruled short as the first quarter was winding down.

West Anchorage embarked on a 99-yard scoring drive that consumed only about four minutes of the play clock due to the no-huddle offense used by the Eagles throughout the game. It was aided by two key Juneau penalties — one on the first play that gave West Anchorage a bit of breathing room at its own 6-yard line, then a 15-yard personal foul after a completed pass that put the Eagles at midfield. A few plays later from the Juneau 40-yard line senior Ariel Sanchez took a screen pass down the sideline and then made a cut-in move past a defender for a touchdown, making the score 6-0 with 8:20 left in the half when the extra point try hit an upright.

Juneau promptly put together another drive starting at its 20-yard line, this time in the air as well as the ground starting with a lob pass by Johnson to Kestel for 27 yards. A series of runs mostly by Johnson got the Huskies to the Eagles’ 10-yard line, where Johnson tossed another lob pass to senior Caleb Ziegenfuss to put the Huskies up 7-6 with 4:17 left in the half.

The Eagles came rumbling back as Sailele ran the ball from midfield to inside the Juneau 30-yard line on the first play after the kickoff. But three plays later Schultz made a leaping interception in front of a receiver at the goal line and returned the ball to the Juneau 36-yard line with 3:15 left in the half.

“I just read the QB well and he threw the ball up and it happened to come down and I got it,” he said.

With Johnson again carrying most of the load, the Huskies drove to the Eagles’ 22-yard line with about 90 seconds left, where Johnson made one of his best throws of the season to hit an open Kestel beyond three defenders to make the score 13-6 when the extra point try was blocked.

While West Anchorage would drive to the Juneau 31-yard line in the closing seconds of the first half, Schultz knocked down a pass in the end zone as time ran out to end the scoring threat.

Juneau got the ball to start the second half, but an interception on a long pass by Johnson gave West Anchorage the ball on its 42-yard line. Using a mix of runs Sailele and quick sideline passes the Eagles took the ball down the field in eight plays to tie the game on a seven-yard screen pass.

The Huskies had to punt on their next possession — but a 54-yard kick backed West Anchorage up inside its 10-yard line. Two plays later Daniel Campbell, a junior wide receiver and defensive back, intercepted a long pass at the Juneau 40-yard line that he returned to the West Anchorage 42-yard line.

“He just threw it up and I guess it was kind of short,” Campbell said. “So I came back around and just picked it off. I wasn’t that nervous of their size or speed. I just wanted to play.”

But Juneau would fumble the ball back on a run up the middle at the Eagles’ 20-yard line, beginning a series of several possessions by both teams that were ended by miscues. West Anchorage turned the ball over on downs on a badly overthrown pass, with Juneau then forced to punt when a trick play by Johnson on third down misfired.

“We had a few opportunities,” Sjoroos said. “We ran that flea flicker (and) it would have been nice if we would have been able to hit that one. That would have been an easy touchdown. But those plays are hard too. They are wide open, but they take a lot of moving parts to execute. The wind picked up a little bit there and I think that caused trouble, they experienced it too, they had some overthrows on their part as well.”

The Eagles punted on their next possession after a backfield fumble put them in a hole and Juneau returned the favor after a three-and-out drive with a mishit kick that went only 14 yards, giving West Anchorage the ball at the Juneau 27-yard-line. But West Anchorage committed yet another turnover on a fumbled backfield snap that gave the Huskies the ball near midfield after the Eagles were penalized for a late hit, with 4:06 remaining in the game.

But the Huskies immediately committed their own critical turnover when Johnson fumbled on the first play — and Juneau was hit with its own late hit penalty, giving the Eagles the ball on the Juneau 44-yard line. But the Eagles struggled to move the ball and, due to a penalty, were facing a fourth-and-10 at the Juneau 39-yard line when senior wide receiver Jethro De Castro caught the winning touchdown pass to make the score 20-13 with 1:04 remaining.

Juneau took over on its 35-yard line after the kickoff, and an 11-yard run by Johnson and a roughing-the-passer penalty put the Huskies at the West Anchorage 39-yard line. Two more runs put Juneau at the 31-yard line with about 30 seconds remaining, but then the Huskies lost 10 yards on two consecutive pre-snap penalties. With less than 10 seconds left, Johnson threw one Hail Mary that fell incomplete and a second that was intercepted to end the game — and the Huskies season.

For Johnson, the Huskies’ primary offensive playmaker the past two years — and following in the path of his brother Jamal who starred two years ago as a senior — what stands out during his final season is being a mentor in the Huskies program through his play and leadership.

“At first I had to get used to it,” he said. “I was always used to looking up to my teammates…wanting to be like them, wanting to be like my brother and all that. They helped me learn how to be a leader, these coaches helped me learn how to be a leader and I just went out there and gave it my all. Every game.”

The Huskies have nine seniors who won’t return next year including Kestel as a receiving threat, Aube who was one of the team’s top tacklers and Ziegenfuss who played at multiple positions including quarterback a majority of the season after opening-day starter Noah Ault (a junior) was injured.

“It’s my first year playing this year out of my whole football career,” JDHS senior linebacker Stefano Rivera said. “I think I played pretty well and I had fun, but I understand why people are sad because this is their last year. I can see the satisfaction of the game, but also the tragedy. It is really good when everyone is connected and making plays, it is just satisfying.”

What’s next for the Huskies who are returning next year is to get past Saturday’s loss.

“This… is rough,” an emotional junior lineman Jonah Mahle said. “A hard game… unfortunate… we didn’t come out on top… our juniors, sophomores and freshmen have to start focusing on next year and getting better and coming back.”

For Sjoroos — who never had a losing season in his 30 years as a Juneau football coach until last year — battling a higher-ranked team to a near-even outcome on the road is an indicator of the team’s ability to return to the form that had it playing in the state title game two years ago.

He said afterward he couldn’t single out one player on offense or defense as more deserving than others for the team’s showing on Saturday.

“Whether it was big blocks, I mean there were times Jayden would hit the edge and just watching that wall set up between our left tackle and our slot and Hayden coming around the end and Sam Sarof…I just thought the blocking was excellent all night,” Sjoroos said. “There were just some big dudes over there that we were trying to block and they don’t like to be blocked. So you’re trying to do something that they don’t like and it’s a challenge all night. And they are very well coached, he has been there longer than me, they know what they’re doing. They’re scheming things up and it’s a big chess match. First half we kind of won that part, but second half they got us.”

“All around though I couldn’t be more proud. It will sting for a while, but I told them at the beginning of the year the goal was always to be a tough team to beat and we obviously checked that box.”

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com. Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.