Alaska prep football roundup: Bartlett and East use second-half shutouts to rally in regular-season finales

Oct. 4—The only Division I high school football games that took place in the state on Friday night of Week 8 saw a pair of perennial powers from Anchorage's east side come from behind and clamp down on defense to win on the road to close out the regular season.

In town, Bettye Davis East Anchorage jumped out to a 17-0 lead over Dimond in the first quarter only to give up 20 unanswered points and trail by a field goal at halftime. After suffocating the reigning state champions' offense in the second half and finally getting some offense of their own going, the Thunderbirds were able to rally to claim their second victory of the season, 24-20.

"As the season has gone, there were good and bad stretches," East head coach Jeff Trotter said. "This has been a different team the second half of the season. We got some players back, including Joey Siulua, who had offseason knee surgery after a late-season injury last year, and our extremely young team started to mature into varsity football players."

East's first two touchdowns of the game came on a fumble return by junior Matthew Jackson and a blocked unorthodox punt out of field goal formation that was returned by Siulua, both of which happened within the span of less than three minutes. The Thunderbirds didn't find the end zone on offense until fourth quarter when sophomore Deevoh Pesseti punched the ball across the goal line from 3 yards out to complete the comeback.

"Defense has sparked this team," Trotter said. "Nice to get scores from all three phases. If we can clean up some errors, we could continue to be a tough matchup."

Out in the Mat-Su, Bartlett also found itself trailing by a field goal at halftime against Colony as a 30-yarder from junior Charles Figgins provided the only points in the first half by either team. The Golden Bears were able to get their offense off the ground and take flight with their passing attack in the second half to earn a 15-3 victory over the Knights, securing a home playoff game in the process.

"Last night's game was definitely a fun one for the defensive loving kind of guy," Bartlett head coach Traves Ramirez-Medeiros said. "Our defense was being tested several times from a well-coached Colony team. We managed to at least block two field goal attempts. Of course one by Deuce (Alailefaleula), who wore the number 42 last night to honor his dad, and the other from Grant (Togiola-Taimi)."

Both of the Golden Bears' touchdowns came through the air on connections from sophomore quarterback Tatum Pogtis to junior wide receiver Colt Jardine from 20 and 80-plus yards out. Jardine would've had a scoring hat trick had a 68-yard touchdown run not gotten called back for a block in the back penalty.

"Colony came out with a game plan defensively that (required) adjustments at halftime ... to be made in order for us to score and prosper," Ramirez-Medeiros said. "What a game it was indeed."

All the lower-level games on Friday featured lopsided blowouts, including a pair of shutouts, with the lone exception being the annual Battle of the Bridge at Division II between Chugiak and rival Eagle River. The Mustangs were able to successfully defend their home turf and narrowly bested the Wolves 17-14.

Results

Friday

Homer 48, Kodiak 8

Palmer 33, Wasilla 0

Bartlett 15, Colony 3

East 24, Dimond 20

Chugiak 17, Eagle River 14

Seward 66, Monroe Catholic 0