High School Sports

Ugly win over South has East sitting pretty in CIC football

Neither head coach was thrilled by what he saw Saturday night when the East Thunderbirds and South Wolverines faced off in a Cook Inlet Conference clash at South High. It was a sloppy game filled with mistakes that could’ve cost either team the game but it was the visiting T-Birds who came out on top, 36-21.

“Ugly win,” said East head coach Jeff Trotter. “We had drives where we looked really good on offense and defensive stands where we looked really good and then we would have a lapse. Special teams, defense, offense, they all had their hand in it.

"Overall, I can’t complain. We got the win and we got to move on.”

East racked up 20 points in the first quarter but was held scoreless for nearly the entire second half before sealling the victory in the game’s final minute when senior quarterback Gavin Oakley threw a 12-yard touchdown to junior receiver Jordan Holland.

The T-birds moved to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 in CIC play, and South dropped to 3-2, 1-1. East is the CIC’s only team with two wins -- South and Service both have one conference win and West and Dimond are still looking for their first.

“Offensively we didn’t execute,” said South head coach Walter Harmon. “We were killing ourselves. Over 100 yards in penalties yet again, missed plays, missed execution, missed communication, picks, majoring in a lot of bad behaviors that we have to fix, otherwise we’re going to continue to have close games that we give away to good teams.”

The Wolverines scored on the opening drive of the game when receiver Quincy Heartwell-McKoy made an adjustment to the ball from quarterback Jackson Harmon.

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Then came the T-birds, who reeled off 20 straight points to lead 20-7 at the end of the first quarter.

Holland had himself a day with more than 100 receiving yards, a pair of touchdowns and an interception.

He scored East’s first touchdown when he executed an excellent post route, split the two safeties and sprinted 68 yards to the end zone. On his interception, he jumped a telegraphed pass from Harmon to his intended receiver.

“I knew the corner was shading inside so I attacked his inside and I broke back outside to make him flip his hips and I cut back in,” said Holland. “I watched the film so I knew they were going to the seam so I just cut it and saw the ball was thrown up high so I jumped up for it.”

East grabbed a 14-7 lead after senior linebacker Bladen Stubbs made a terrific read to undercut a short pass from Harmon intended for his halfback and returned the interception 33 yards for a touchdown while dragging the quarterback across the goal line.

Harmon later fumbled a failed late pitch on a run up the right sideline that was recovered by East. While it didn’t result in points for East, it killed a promising drive for the Wolverines.

The T-Birds made it 20-7 when junior running back Georgia Mageo rumbled into the end zone from 17 yards out.

The Wolverines came out in the second quarter determined to make a comeback on Senior Night. They cut East’s lead to 20-14 on a perfectly executed hook-and-ladder play from Harmon to junior receiver Elijah Bowdon that resulted in an 18-yard scamper for senior running back Carter Weber-Thomas.

East responded with a short drive capped by a 4-yard touchdown run from senior running back Kalani Medeiros, who rushed for more than 100 yards in the game, 95 of them in the first half.

“Kalani is always a stud,” said Trotter. “He’s not super big but he’s just a beast out there so we lean on him a lot.”

The touchdown by Medeiros gave East a 28-14 halftime lead. The T-birds didn’t score again until the final minute of the game.

A 9-yard rushing touchdown coming on a Harmon on a scramble brought South within a touchdown heading into the fourth quarter, 28-21, but the Wolverines came no closer. East held them scoreless in the final quarter.

“Our defense the last few years has really been the heartbeat of the team,” said Trotter. “Offense has actually been scoring a lot lately but the defense is the driving force. When they excel, we all roll.”

Josh Reed

Josh Reed is a sports reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He's a graduate of West High School and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

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