The Juneau Huskies expected a tough road game against the conference leaders and that’s exactly what they got, as Dimond High School star quarterback Cayden Pili had a huge afternoon Saturday in a 45-8 win for the Lynx over the visiting Huskies.
The outnumbered and overmatched Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé squad (2-4 overall, 1-4 in the Cook Inlet Conference), was able to move the ball at times while fending off some of the attacks by Dimond (6-0 overall, 5-0 conference). But the Huskies’ best opportunity came when a touchdown run by senior Jayden Johnson on a 24-yard reverse made the score 20-8 with 1:28 left in the second quarter, only to see the Lynx strike back in four plays and make the score 28-8 on a pass by Pili and a two-point conversion just before halftime.
“Making it 20-8 right before half kind of felt like ‘Hey, we’re back in the ballgame here,’” Head Coach Rich Sjoroos said. “And we just couldn’t them out of the end zone…and that definitely was a momentum killer going into halftime because then they started (the third quarter) with the ball.”
The Huskies’ run defense, which has been strong much of the season, contained the Lynx enough to put the home team consistently in long third- and four-down situations, he said. But that meant Pili had to go to the air and he consistently had success finding open receivers downfield.
“That Pili family has been a traditional powerhouse name in the state of Alaska for football for 20-plus years,” Sjoroos said. Currently, Brandon Pili is playing defensive tackle for the Miami Dolphins and Alissa Pili — who played as a lineman until the eighth grade — plays basketball for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.
There were bright spots for the Juneau, including two sacks of Pili by Huskies’ lineman Ricky Tupou in what Sjoroos called the junior’s best game of the year. Caleb Ziegenfuss, who’s played most of the season at quarterback in place of injured starter Noah Ault, had his best passing game of the year, appearing more comfortable both throwing and moving in the pocket, in addition to continuing to be a strong presence as a runner.
And with the final Huskies’ home game coming up next week — and a Senior Night that will feature only nine players who are graduating since a lot of team is returning next year — Sjoroos said the second half against the Lynx was a chance to get some of the younger players involved in the hope they can contribute to an end-of-season run.
“Obviously we still have week seven, eight and the playoffs coming up,” he said. “So we want to still try and find a little more depth, whether it be from some guys that maybe haven’t seen a lot of action this year so far, or kids from the JV squad, or whatever it may be, but we’re going to need to get some depth built up in here down the home stretch.”
The Huskies’s final home game against Bartlett High School is scheduled at 3 p.m. at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park. Sjoroos said he expects all of his team’s playoff games to be on the road due to its record.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
