{"id":14544,"date":"2017-08-17T17:55:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/home-sweet-home\/"},"modified":"2017-08-17T17:55:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T00:55:00","slug":"home-sweet-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/home-sweet-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Home, sweet home"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Crimson Bears came from behind<\/a> to defeat last year\u2019s small schools state runner-up; the Falcons limited a much-deeper South Anchorage<\/a> to three points.<\/p>\n

For both teams, there\u2019s room for improvement this weekend.<\/p>\n

The Thunder Mountain High School football team will try to secure its first win of the season tonight at TMHS field in the first home game of the season. The Kodiak Bears do battle with the Falcons at 7 p.m. The Bears, which share the Northern Lights Conference with Soldotna, Palmer, Kenai Central and Eagle River, failed to reach the playoffs last season at 4-4.<\/p>\n

They prevailed against Homer in Week 1 this season: 21-8.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played a good game,\u201d TMHS coach Randy Quinto said of Kodiak. \u201cThey have a quarterback who can throw the ball, they run a spread offense \u2026 they\u2019re a hard-nosed team and you can\u2019t take anybody for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-three hours later, on Saturday at 6 p.m., Juneau-Douglas High School hosts conference opponent Ketchikan.<\/p>\n

The Kings didn\u2019t make it to the postseason last year at 2-6.<\/p>\n

Only the top two teams from the Southeast Conference qualify for the state medium school playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to be physical up front, they are quick off the line, they have some speed, they have an experienced quarterback,\u201d JDHS coach Kevin Hamrick said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that much different (than Houston).\u201d<\/p>\n

JDHS beat Ketchikan twice last year, winning 25-22 in Week 4, and 24-20 in Week 7.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll rematch the Kings this season in three weeks in Ketchikan.<\/p>\n

Quarterback thoughts<\/span><\/p>\n

TMHS will get back its starting quarterback, Owen Mendoza, for tonight\u2019s showdown with Kodiak. The senior right-hander played baseball for Juneau Post 25 through the first week of football season. Now, with the mandated 10 days of practice behind him, Mendoza\u2019s ready to give it all he has.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident that if we all play like we should, and we play to our potential, we should end up doing well,\u201d Mendoza said earlier this season.<\/p>\n

As a backup quarterback last season to then-senior Cale Jenkins, Mendoza filled in against North Pole for Jenkins, who was out with an injury. The Falcons defeated the Patriots 22-20 that game.<\/p>\n

Mendoza, along with the rest of his offense, will put their endurance to the test in Quinto\u2019s up-tempo system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tempo is really quick and we get the ball out fast and we go for home runs more,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe go for the big play mostly, that\u2019s what its designed for.\u201d<\/p>\n

JDHS senior quarterback Bubba Stults said last weekend\u2019s Houston game, though a win, was a wake-up call for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can pull some good things out of that game, but most of it was bad,\u201d Stults said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working harder in practice, our linemen have been working harder. It\u2019s great to see. You feel good as a quarterback when they are trying as hard as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing personnel<\/span><\/p>\n

Like JDHS, the Falcons will be without several key linemen. Coach Quinto expects them back this season, but not in time for this week\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

With fewer players to rotate in on offense, Quinto says he may have to slow the pace of the game down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the South game, we were running both no-huddle offenses, so the speed and pace of the game were super fast,\u201d Quinto said. \u201cI actually had to slow it down because it was too fast \u2026 our guys were getting tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Crimson Bears, while losing some bigger players, will add two skilled seniors in Kasey Watts and Donavin McCurley. They will add experience and versatility for JDHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you get two quality players, that adds to your depth,\u201d Hamrick said. \u201cSo a couple of my younger guys have been pushed down to second string, but that\u2019s OK, because, with that kind of talent, you just have to put it on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the state<\/span><\/p>\n

Most teams in the state are in action this weekend, including Soldotna, who last Friday won their 50th straight victory, a 21-0 win over East Anchorage. The Stars play Dimond on Saturday. Other notable medium and large schools matchups Friday and Saturday include Kenai at North Pole and Eagle River at Wasilla.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Corner<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the keys to the game this weekend?<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying as a team and not getting down on each other; good blocking from the line and just solid defensive play.\u201d – Owen Mendoza<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely blocking. We got that win in Houston \u2014 barely \u2014 and it just came with the heart that we had the in the fourth quarter. – Bubba Stults<\/p>\n

Know & Go<\/span><\/p>\n

What: TMHS vs. Kodiak; JDHS vs. Ketchikan<\/p>\n

Where: TMHS field; Adair-Kennedy Memorial Field<\/p>\n

When: Friday 7 p.m.; Saturday 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Ticket prices<\/span><\/p>\n

TMHS \u2014 $8 adults\/$5 students, seniors<\/p>\n

JDHS \u2014 $10\/$5 students (Season passes available for $25)<\/p>\n

Friday night forecast: 80 percent chance of rain, low: 47 degrees<\/p>\n

Saturday night forecast: 90 percent chance of rain, low: 47 degrees<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u2022 Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crimson Bears came from behind to defeat last year\u2019s small schools state runner-up; the Falcons limited a much-deeper South Anchorage to three points. For both teams, there\u2019s room for improvement this weekend. The Thunder Mountain High School football team will try to secure its first win of the season tonight at TMHS field in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":14545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14544"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}