Huskies narrowly miss chance to grab program’s first win

WASILLA — As members of a first-year varsity program, it’s been a season of lessons for the Redington Huskies.

During the first three weeks of the season, the Huskies had to learn how to deal with lopsided losses.

But Saturday, the Huskies may have faced their toughest lesson thus far.

Less than a minute away from the program’s first victory, the Huskies were forced to watch their historic moment disappear.

After rallying from a 24-point third-quarter deficit, Seward scored the go-ahead touchdown with 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and notched a 36-34 win over the Huskies in Seward.

“The whole group was real emotional after the game,” Redington head coach Tony Brooke said Monday afternoon. “It was a tough one for them to swallow.”

Redington, which entered the game with a combined 42 points scored during its first three weeks, jumped out to a quick 22-0 lead against Seward. The Huskies led 28-10 at halftime, and opened the third with a score on its first drive to take the 34-10 lead.

And then came the Seward rally.

“That’s kind of when the wheels fell off,” Brooke said.

Brooke said turnovers played the biggest factor in the second half, after the Huskies moved the ball at will during the first two quarters.

“It was tale of two halves,” Brooke said. “We turned the ball over way too many times.”

Moving forward, Brooke said holding onto the football is the biggest lesson to be learned.

“Ball security. We preach it,” Brooke said. “Coaches on any level of football will all tell you the same thing. You lose the turnover battle, you lose the game.”

On the positive side, Brooke said the Huskies learned another lesson Saturday

“We said, now you know you’re capable of winning a football game,” Brooke said of the Redington coaches’ speech to their players. “Now you have to take the next step to get over the hump to win a football game.”

Kyler Rumfelt and Brian Horne continued to spark the Redington offense. Rumfelt rushed for a pair of touchdowns. Horne hauled in a pair of Sam Reed touchdown passes.

Redington (0-4) now looks ahead to Friday when the Huskies host Peninsula Conference foe Nikiski (2-2) at 7 p.m. at Redington Jr./Sr. High.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.