The Eagle River Wolves continued their impressive march through the high school football season Saturday night with a 32-0 rout of the archrival Chugiak Mustangs in the 15th annual Battle of the Bridge.
“It feels great,” said Wolves senior quarterback Quentin Jackson II. “Just knowing that we beat our rivals and that we’re the best team in Eagle River.”
In moving to 3-0, the Wolves took their second win in program history over the Mustangs but their second in the last three seasons.
“It’s huge for the community,” said Eagle River coach Brad Myers. “No one ever respects Eagle River but maybe now they will.”
Many of this year’s players were on the 2018 team that beat Chugiak 34-21 for Eagle River’s first on-field victory in a rivalry that began in 2006. In 2011, Eagle River lost to Chugiak 35-14 but was awarded a win by forfeit because the Mustangs used an ineligible player.
The Mustangs lead the all-time series 12-3 but weren’t able to put up much of a fight on Senior Night at Tom Huffer Sr. Stadium in Chugiak.
Eagle River was powered by an explosive rushing attack, an improvisational passing game, and a dominant defensive performance that resulted in a second straight shutout.
Jackson, a dynamic dual-threat quarterback, threw three touchdown passes and junior running back Chashiez Reaves ran hard between the tackles all night long for 171 yards and two long touchdown runs.
Reaves scored the first points of the game on a 39-yard gallop up the right sideline after he broke through to the second level of the Mustangs defense and outran everyone.
“He’s like a machine,” said Myers. “When he gets his mind set on something, he’s going to go do it.”
Jackson found a wide-open Elliott Wilson on the left side of the field on a broken play for a 36-yard catch-and-run touchdown for a 14-0 lead. Eagle River carried that lead into halftime.
Reaves ripped off his second touchdown on a 29-yard run late in the third quarter. The Wolves tacked on 12 more points in the fourth quarter on a pair of Jackson touchdown passes, both of them coming on broken plays.
The first was a 19-yard strike to wide receiver Rickey Flaggs, who managed to keep his feet in bounds in the back of the end zone, and the second was a 4-yard toss to halfback Kolton Carlson in the final minute.
“Since I am smaller, when the pocket collapses, I can’t really see over my linemen, so then I roll out and look down the field,” Jackson, who stands about 5-foot-7, said about scrambling when plays break down.
“We practice a lot of throws on the run and a lot of escaping, so that if somebody is coming from the outside we escape up and if some one is coming from the inside we escape out.”
Through three games, the Eagle River defense has given up three points -- a field goal in the season opener against Dimond. The Wolves have outscored their last two opponents a staggering 70-0 behind a potent offense and a defense that swarms to the ball on ever play, generates a lot of pressure and comes up with turnovers.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for years. We can bend but we’re not breaking,” Myers said.
Chugiak, meanwhile, has been outscored 122-0 and is 0-3.
The Mustangs squandered an opportunity to score their first points of the season early in the first quarter after a Jackson fumble put them at the 6-yard line.
They were pushed back to the 8 after losing two yards on consecutive rushing attempts and stayed there after throwing an incomplete pass.
They were well within field goal range for strong-legged and nationally ranked senior kicker Josh Rolston, but a fumbled snap resulted in a turnover on downs and zero points on the board for the home team.
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