Typically when a defending state championship team opens its season with a win by double digits, they’re elated and don’t have much to complain about.
However, the Bettye Davis East High Thunderbirds weren’t satisfied with winning a game in commanding fashion on Friday.
“Being satisfied is the death knell of being great,” East coach Jeff Trotter said.
Despite beating the Service Cougars 39-18 on Friday night to kick off the 2022 season, Trotter said the team can’t continue to make the kind of mental mistakes they made in their first game if they intend to repeat as Alaska Division I champions.
“It wasn’t really physical stuff, it was mental,” Trotter said. “I can’t really complain about the physical side of it.”
East had several instances of blown coverages and missed assignments on defense that allowed Service to keep the game within striking distance well into the second half.
“When it came to regular downs, it was fine,” Trotter said. “We just gave up explosive plays and they capitalized.”
[Consistency and coaching have been key in keeping the East High football pipeline flowing]
The Thunderbirds quickly jumped out to a lead after scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions in the opening quarter. They added a score on their first possession of the second quarter and despite a couple blocked extra point attempts, they led 19-0 with just over eight minutes until halftime.
Senior Puni Pa’u scored the first points of the game when he bulldozed his way into the end zone from four yards out. On East’s next offensive possession, junior quarterback Azariah Atonio hit junior wide receiver Austin Johnson for a 30-yard strike for the first of his two touchdown passes in the game.
His second came early in the second quarter when he connected on a four-yard pass with sophomore receiver Brandon Young, who managed to tap both of his feet down inbounds before his momentum carried him out.
After missing a few long passes to receivers deep down the field to start the game, Cougars quarterback Jonathon Tautua capitalized on one of the Thunderbirds’ lapses in coverage for a 50-yard gain. It set their offense up in the red zone and three plays later the Cougars cut the deficit to just 19-6 heading into halftime.
“I feel like we got too comfortable,” Atonio said. “You can never get too comfortable playing this game. You’ve always got to stay focused and stay humble.”
Service nearly made it a one-score game after picking up 60 yards on the first play of the second half. But East junior John Cervana made a leaping interception in the end zone for a touchback to keep Service from getting closer.
The East offense responded by marching nearly the length of the field only to turn the ball over on downs a couple yards shy of the goal line. The Thunderbirds special teams unit found the end zone to finally break the game open at the 3:32 mark in the third quarter.
Junior JT Bautista scored on an electrifying punt return in which he started running to the left and reversed field to the right where he had a convoy of red jerseys pave his way for a 65-yard touchdown with senior Jerrish Toa making the final block that allowed him to take it to the house.
“I got the punt and saw the whole left side covered up, looked to my right and it was open field so I just took it,” Bautista said.
It was his first game back on varsity since suffering a broken collarbone two games into the 2021 season that forced him to miss the remainder of the year and he wanted to make up for an earlier mistake.
“I was down because I gave up a deep ball and told myself I had to do something on this punt,” he said.
He got into the action on the point-after attempt as well, completing a pass to put East up 27-6.
“He has been doing that in practice and coming close,” Trotter said. “When he slipped that one tackle I said ‘I think he’s gone’ so that’s why I let him throw the two-point too.”
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The sequence of plays energized East and gave the Thunderbirds some breathing room heading into the fourth quarter.
“That gave us a little energy boost and got us hype,” Atonio said.
The Thunderbirds tacked on two more rushing touchdowns to start the final period on a seven-yard rumble from junior Andrew Montenegro and a 22-yard sprint from Keyshawn Chickalusion. Service would score 12 unanswered points inside the final seven minutes of the game on a pair of rushing scores of their own from two and three yards out.
“We had a lot of mistakes in the first half and after the second half we had a talk and turned it up,” Atonio said. “Passes came in, runs kept going, and blocks came in.”