All share the same town. On Friday night, they\u2019ll share same football field, too.<\/p>\n
The first of two regular season games between the Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain High School football teams is tonight.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 11 months since the two teams last squared off against one another: a five touchdown Falcons\u2019 blowout of the Crimson Bears. It\u2019s been even longer \u2014 almost three years \u2014 since JDHS last topped TMHS: a 43-6 October 2014 win on the Falcons\u2019 turf.<\/p>\n
JDHS has been the underdog ever since then, twice failing to record as much as a field goal in three head-to-head matchups.<\/p>\n
The rise of the Falcons football team matches what TMHS head coach Randy Quinto envisioned for the program four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the little brother to Juneau-Douglas and none of the kids wanted to come here,\u201d Quinto said earlier this season. \u201cI used to teach at Dzantik\u2019i Heeni, the middle school, and this senior group right now, they were a bunch of eighth graders back then. I was telling them, \u2018Go to Thunder, go to Thunder.\u2019 And they were saying, \u2018No, no, JD\u2019s the powerhouse.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yes, they are, but that\u2019ll change,\u2019 and now they see.\u201d<\/p>\n
While TMHS may be the favored team to win tonight, both teams have a lot left to prove this year. With conference play beginning in two weeks, one is led to wonder: Can TMHS defend its home field all season? Repeat as conference champions? Is North Pole as good as their 3-0 record indicates? Will JDHS\u2019 freshmen and sophomores spoil another season sweep by TMHS?<\/p>\n
The question that\u2019s on the minds of all 34 JDHS players is a different one, however: \u201cWhat just happened in the game against Kenai?\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior playmakers Bubba Stults and Lance Galletes-Fenumiai both left Week 3\u2019s loss to the Kardinals with season-ending injuries.<\/p>\n
Galletes-Fenumiai was yanked after tearing his medial collateral ligament (MCL) on a punt return in the second quarter. Stults was rushed by Kenai\u2019s defense on the final play of the first half, leading to a separated left shoulder.<\/p>\n
When asked about having hope for the rest of the season, Hamrick said unequivocally: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good senior class, we\u2019ve got seniors we can put in to replace (Stults and Galletes-Fenumiai),\u201d he said. \u201cWe have some underclassmen I need to get reps too, so it\u2019s just who turns out better on film.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hesitate to put in a lot of time into a senior (Cody Galletes) at quarterback right now because we have to look to the future and Max (Wheat), a junior, and Cooper (Kriegmont), a freshman, they\u2019re doing pretty well,\u201d Hamrick said.<\/p>\n
Wheat, who played the second half in Kenai in place of Stults, was sacked four times by the feisty Kardinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a little gun shy, but getting all the reps this week will help him quite a bit,\u201d Hamrick said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a good ball, a good arm, and he\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
After this weekend\u2019s game, TMHS travels to Ketchikan for a non-conference game. They then play North Pole (9\/15), Ketchikan again (9\/22) and JDHS (9\/30) in the weeks that follow.<\/p>\n
JDHS has a bye week after this weekend, before facing Ketchikan (9\/15), North Pole (9\/23) and Thunder Mountain (9\/30).<\/p>\n
Know &Go<\/strong><\/p>\n What: JDHS (2-1) at TMHS (1-1)<\/p>\n Where: TMHS field<\/p>\n When: 7 p.m.<\/p>\n Cost: $8 adults\/$5 students, seniors<\/p>\n Forecast: Scattered showers, mostly cloudy, low around 47<\/p>\n ASBN Division II\/III Poll*<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Soldotna (3-0)<\/p>\n 2. North Pole (3-0)<\/p>\n 3. Homer (2-1)<\/p>\n 4. Eielson (2-1)<\/p>\n 5. Kenai (2-1)<\/p>\n *poll released every Monday regular season<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All share the same town. On Friday night, they\u2019ll share same football field, too. The first of two regular season games between the Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain High School football teams is tonight. It\u2019s been 11 months since the two teams last squared off against one another: a five touchdown Falcons\u2019 blowout of the Crimson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":28378,"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-28377","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\/28377","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=28377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28377"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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