Bears win title

JUNEAU — During a senior-night matchup with pre-game hype worthy of a championship game and conference bragging rights, the battle for the Railbelt title lived up to its billing as the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears shut down the Colony Knights’ bid for a perfect season.

The Knights still have never beaten the Crimson Bears, as defense was the game changer Friday night in Juneau. Both sides slugged it out in a battle of field position. The Bears (6-2, 5-1 Railbelt) defense delivered a championship-cailber performance, holding the Colony (7-1, 5-1 Railbelt) shotgun spread offensive attack to 118 total yards and handing Colony its first defeat of the season, 11-0.

While the Knights defense held strong, the offense couldn’t generate any momentum, Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said.

“It was a defensive slugfest,” he said. “They scored one touchdown. You could very easily say they could have — should have — scored a couple more, because they did have some good field position. I think that’s probably, more than anything else, the difference in the game.”

With the Railbelt title on the line and two talented teams on the field, Mayo said he expected the Crimson Bears to be pumped up.

“You give a good team — and they are a very good team — you give them that many opportunities in close (and) they’re going to score,” he said. “Quite honestly, I’m surprised it was 11-0, that it was a shutout. I thought our offense would generate some and score, and I knew they would.”

While the defense held strong, the Juneau-Douglas offense failed to capitalize on good field position for most of the night due to turnovers and excellent Colony defense. The Crimson Bears failed to reach the end zone until 1:47 left in the third quarter when Justin Brooks, who earlier replaced an injured Matthew Maka, took the exchange in the backfield and ran off-tackle to the right for a two-yard touchdown plunge. Brooks filled in nicely with 60 yards on 22 carries. He had the game’s only touchdown.

Maka, who had 117 yards rushing before exiting the game early in the third quarter with an apparent leg injury, said he was happy with his team’s performance, especially after his exit.

“The team did very well today, especially with Jack (Perkins) and me injured,” Maka said. “I got to thank my team for that.”

After the score, the momentum began to swing toward JDHS, which capitalized on bad field position for Colony and sacked Knights’ quarterback Matt Jaronik for a safety before the end of the third quarter. That score would put the game out of reach and secure the shutout.

Juneau-Douglas interim head coach Rich Sjoroos said winning the conference title was a great accomplishment, but the Bears would need to improve upon capitalizing on missed opportunities and limit turnovers.

The first drive of the game for the Crimson Bears was promising after the defense forced a three-and-out from the Knights on their opening possession.

On Juneau-Douglas’ first play from scrimmage, Maka took a stretch hand-off 27 yards down the right side of the field. The Bears would eventually give the ball away on a fumble deep in Colony territory.

With three turnovers in the first half, the Crimson Bears managed only a safety when Colony punter Hayden Summers watched a deep snap sail over his head and out the back of the end zone.

The score at half was 2-0, with each team completing only one pass through the first 24 minutes.

Colony quarterback Jaronik was active for the Knights, but the harassing defense of the Crimson Bears held him to 74 total yards and he was sacked four times.

Although the Knights enter the playoffs with their first loss of the season, coach Mayo said the Knights shouldn’t be overly concerned, especially with a strong defensive performance on Friday.

“The heart and soul of this team is defense,” he said. “All year long, this defense has performed at exceptional levels. … My biggest disappointment tonight (is) those kids are walking out of here thinking they didn’t play well. … The reality of it is, if we’re going to lose a game, it’s better to lose it now than next week, two weeks, three weeks (from now).”

Colony, the Railbelt’s No. 2 seed, will begin state playoff action Friday, hosting Bartlett at 7 p.m. Bartlett beat Chugiak 35-3 to claim the third seed from the Cook Inlet Conference.