Jayden Johnson puts on super-hot show on frigid night as Huskies run over Colony 42-6

Jayden Johnson ran for five touchdowns and well over 150 yards — just in the first half — as the Juneau Huskies senior delivered a blazing hot performance on a frigid and windy evening, leading his team to a 42-6 victory against Colony High School in Palmer in the teams’ regular season finale.

Johnson, a wide receiver who has been Juneau’s primary playmaker the past two seasons, started his second straight game at quarterback and largely ran at will against the Knights’ defense. On bursts through the middle of the line with power and around the edges with speed he scored on touchdown runs of 51, 13, 1, 22 and 20 yards before halftime.

“We’ve been playing good first halves lately, I didn’t even think that first half against Dimond was that bad really,” Juneau coach Rich Sjoroos said at halftime. “We just have to come out in the second half and play good football. We haven’t done that on the road this year, we’ve been struggling with that at home this year. My message, and I’ve been telling them all night, is there is no scoreboard.”

“Our whole goal is just to get better, then we are ready to go when the playoffs start next week. And that is my whole focus tonight. They could turn the scoreboard off for all I care. I just want to play good football all four quarters tonight.

Juneau finishes the regular season as a near-certain sixth seed with a 2-5 Cook Inlet Conference record (3-5 overall) and will travel to Bartlett (4-2 CIC, 5-2 OA) or West Anchorage (4-2 CIC, 5-2 OA) to kick off the quarterfinals of the 2024 ASAA First National Bowl Series Football State Championships on Oct. 11-12.

The Bartlett Golden Bears play the West Eagles on Saturday for third place.

Also on Saturday, Dimond (6-0 CIC, 7-0 OA) plays at Service (2-4 CIC, 3-4 OA) and Bettye Davis East Anchorage (5-1 CIC, 5-2 OA) plays at South Anchorage (2-4 CIC, 3-4 OA).

However, if the football gods act crazy and Service and South win, then Juneau would finish in seventh place. If Service wins and South loses, Juneau would remain in seventh place having lost to South during the season. If Service and South lose, then a three-way tie will be decided by point differentials as Juneau defeated Service, but lost to South and Service lost to Juneau but defeated South.

The first half of the first quarter on Friday night was uneventful as Colony punted twice and Juneau once on their initial possessions. However, on the first play after the Knights’ second punt to the Juneau 49-yard line, Johnson burst through a hole up the middle to make the score 7-0 with 5:32 left in the quarter.

After a subsequent three-and-out by Colony, Juneau took over on its 48-yard line and scored four plays later on a slant run by Johnson, making the score 13-0 after a missed extra point with 2:22 remaining in the quarter.

The Huskies again took over at midfield after a Colony punt and embarked on a more sustained drive — with the big playing coming on a fourth-and-2 at the Knights’ 41-yard line when Johnson broke several tackles and gained 26 yards. He carried the ball four more times in a row after Juneau reached the 13-yard line, scoring on a one-yard run up the middle to make the score 19-0 with 6:03 left in the half when the extra-point try bounced off an upright.

Juneau got the ball back quickly when Huskies senior Caleb Ziegenfuss hit Colony senior Tegan Olson after a catch, causing a fumble recovered by Juneau Sage Schultz at the Colony 22-yard line. Johnson scored on the first play with a run toward and down the sideline to make the score 26-0.

Colony, taking over on its 32-yard line with 5:29 left in the half, put together its only scoring drive of the day through the air, connecting on a 36-yard pass and then hitting a second long completion a few plays later to narrow the gap to 26-6 after the extra point try was botched.

After a squib kickoff, the Huskies again started with the ball near midfield and, on another drive relying almost entirely on runs by Johnson, increased their lead to 32-6 when Johnson scored on a 20-yard run with 1:50 left in the second quarter.

But the Huskies weren’t done with their first-half show, as Ziegenfuss created his second turnover the half on an interception with just over a minute to go. Juneau drove to the Colony 5-yard line, but with only six seconds left in the half and no timeouts opted for a 22-yard field goal by Sammy Mazon to make the halftime score 35-6.

The second half was far more mundane as neither team scored in the third quarter and Johnson spent most of the fourth quarter on the sideline. Ziegenfuss, who has played a majority of this season’s games at quarterback, displayed his own running abilities while leading the Huskies on a final drive that ended with an easy four-yard touchdown run up the middle by him halfway through the fourth quarter to make the final score 42-6.

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