Juneau spoils Colony’s hopes of home field advantage in playoffs

PALMER — The Colony Knights had hoped Saturday night wouldn’t mark their final home game of the 2008 season.

But with a 22-19 victory, Juneau-Douglas pushed Colony south in the Railbelt standings and the Bears’ win will send the Knights north for the first round of the playoffs.

Colony (4-2) will now travel to North Pole to face the Railbelt regular season champs in the first round, while Palmer (4-2) will host Juneau (4-2) at Machetanz Field.

Juneau senior Alex Fagerstrom ran for a game-high 184 yards and two touchdowns during the win. Fagerstrom scored a pair o 4-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter to help the Bears take the 14-6 halftime lead.

Colony and Juneau combined for eight turnovers in the game — six fumbles and two interceptions — but the Bears were able to rebound from their mistakes.

“The mistakes hurt us tonight,” Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said. “We knew going into this game, even with Juneau’s record being what it was, they’re a good team. In case anybody’s forgotten, they’re still the defending state champions. We knew we couldn’t afford to make those mistakes against them.”

The Juneau defense intercepted a pair of Colony passes and recovered two Colony fumbles in the second half.

The Bears also took advantage of good field position in the game.

“You give a team like that a short field, they’re going to make you pay,” Mayo said.

A Cory Mahar interception set up Juneau’s first score, and when the Bears scored for a second time, Juneau started the scoring drive on Colony’s 36-yard line.

The Colony offense dominated the first quarter, using a 21-play, 11-minute drive to take the lead.

Senior Gino Paoletti capped the long drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

Collin Murphy, who completed 12-of-22 passes for 183 yards threw a pair of second-half touchdown passes to help the Knights stay in the game.

Murphy found a wide open Tim Jaronik to combine for a 67 yard score in the third. Murphy connected with flanker Matt Swan in the fourth for a 41-yard score.

With Juneau’s win, the Bears, Knights and Palmer Moose — who beat Wasilla 42-14 in the Potato Bowl on Friday — all finished with identical 4-2 records in conference play and a series of tiebreakers was needed to sort out the playoff race.

Points allowed gave Palmer the second seed and right to host Juneau next week. Palmer allowed only 81 points to conference foes.

Juneau earned the third seed due to the win over Colony.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.

Juneau-Douglas 22, Colony 19

Saturday, Colony High School

First quarter

Colony — Paoletti 2 run (kick failed) 1:04.

Second quarter

Juneau — A. Fagerstrom 4 run (Slagle kick) 6:16.

Juneau — A. Fagerstrom 4 run (Smith run) 00:24.

Third quarter

Juneau — E. Fagerstrom 3 run (Slagle kick) 4:57.

Colony — T. Jaronik 67 pass from Murphy (run failed) 2:35.

Fourth quarter

Colony — Swan 41 pass from Murphy (Murphy kick) 1:28.

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Juneau: A. Fagerstrom 29-184, Smith 11-(-2), E. Fagerstrom 1-5, Fronimos 1-4; Colony: Murphy 22-97, Paoletti 16-79, M. Jaronik 4-2.

PASSING: Juneau: none; Colony: Murphy 12-22-2—183.

RECEIVING: Juneau: none; Colony: M. Jaronik 5-27, T. Jaronik 2-71, Swan 2-52, McGraw 2-25, Summers 1-8.