The Juneau Huskies continued their winning ways Saturday in Anchorage.
The unified Juneau high school football time bested the Bartlett High School 27-14. The Huskies sit atop the Cook Inlet conference with a 5-1 record both overall and in the conference.
Winning ways
Both Juneau and Bartlett had strung together multiple wins before the head-to-head meeting in Anchorage. The Golden Bears’ three-game streak dated back to an Aug. 28 win against Palmer. The Huskies’ streak started a week later and included wins against Bettye Davis East Anchorage High School and Service.
“I feel good,” said Juneau coach Rich Sjoroos in a phone interview. “The team responded well. They were one of the hottest teams in the state.”
The Huskies will look to extend their winning streak to four games against South Anchorage High School on Saturday.
[7 points: Huskies bring heat against service]
Size of the fight in the dogs
Sjoroos said he was pleased with the way the Huskies played against Bartlett’s physically imposing rushing attack.
“They’re a big team,” Sjoroos said. “Their running backs and lineman and everybody are big, and there’s a lot of them.”
It was made more impressive because stemming the Golden Bears’ offense required solo tackles instead of the swarming style of defense that’s a point of pride for the Huskies.
Sjoroos said juniors Lucas White, Sam Sika, Jamal Johnson, Hunter Derr and seniors Wallace Adams Mathias Wiederspohn were among defenders who tackled well.
“I just think the kids did a tremendous job holding up to that level of football,” Sjoroos said.
Big stops and opportunistic offense
Sjoroos also identified a pair of goal-line stands as key moments in the game.
In one instance, that set up a 99-yard pass from senior quarterback Noah Chambers to speedy senior wide receiver James Connally.
It was one of three touchdown tosses for Chambers in the game. Another of the scores came on the heels of a fumble recovery.
Tough competition
After a pair of away games, Juneau will again take to Adair-Kennedy Memorial Field this week.
Sjoroos said the South Anchorage football team coming to town is both good and substantially different from Bartlett.
“They’re looking pretty impressive,” Sjoroos said of the visiting Wolverines. “They had our number a couple of years ago, so we definitely want to improve on that performance.”
However, he said the Huskies are doing what they hoped they’d be doing when the season began.
“We’re playing for a Cook Inlet Conference title,” Sjoroos said.
Celebrating seniors
Saturday’s game will be Juneau’s senior night.
Sjoroos said seniors will be recognized before the game, and he anticipated those festivities starting around 2:30 p.m.
Kickoff for the game will be at 3 p.m.
Non-dairy schedule
While some online schedules show the Huskies hosting Cambria-Friesland of Wisconsin in Week 8, Sjoroos said that’s not the case.
He said he had already received some text messages from out-of-state acquaintances asking how they could watch the game. Sjoroos said he’s not sure how the misunderstanding developed, but Juneau will have a bye week in Week 8.
Juneau, Wisconsin, is about 20 miles away from the villages of Friesland and Cambria.
It starts at home
Sjoroos said Juneau is taking it one week at a time, but it is known that after the bye, the Huskies will host at least one playoff game.
“There’s still a lot of games to be determined,” he said. “We do know we’ll be at home for at least the first round of the playoffs.”
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at (907)308-4895 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
