It all came down to fourth and goal on a Las Vegas Sunday.<\/p>\n
Down 32-36 with 10 seconds left in the National Youth Football Championship, the Juneau Raiders were stymied at the Camarillo Cougars\u2019 3-yard line with one last play to win the game.<\/p>\n
Offensive coordinator Rich Sjoroos called his final timeout. He had a dilemma: dial-up another direct snap for running back Gaby Soto \u2014 a play they ran seven times that day \u2014 or opt for something less obvious, a fake handoff with a pass option they called Pirate.<\/p>\n
Sjoroos called the kids to the sideline. Opting for the element of surprise, he wanted to run Pirate. His players would have none of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole team got together and said, \u201cNo, we\u2019ve been running this play the whole time and that\u2019s what got us most of our touchdowns,\u201d so we overruled the coach,\u201d center Jake Ferster said. \u201cWe trusted our team to make the blocks and we trusted Gabby to read the hole and make it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sjoroos had reservations about the call, but trusted his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids were really adamant: they said \u2018No, let\u2019s not do that one,\u2019 so they called the play,\u201d Sjoroos said. \u201cIt\u2019s very obvious in that formation who was getting the ball, it\u2019s a direct snap to Soto, and the only time we\u2019d been doing that, he was running around the end. \u2026 But I\u2019ve learned over the years to put trust in the kids. For as hard as they played in that game and all the others, they deserved to have input on that final play.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his coach\u2019s reluctant blessing, Ferster snapped the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment I did this, Gabby (Soto) came ripping to the sideline and got us the touchdown,\u201d Ferster said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey blocked like crazy, everybody did their job, kids just mashing down. Soto cuts back up the middle and trucks a kid at the goal line and scores,\u201d Sjoroos said.<\/p>\n
Soto\u2019s score gave the Raiders a 38-36 advantage. NYFC rules award two points for extra point kicks. Kicker Wallace Adams, a perfect 5-5 on the day, put the Raiders up 40-36 with just a desperation play left for the Cougars.<\/p>\n
Soto made the final tackle after the Cougars ripped off a 22-yard run at the end of the game. The Juneau Raiders had won a National Championship in the 13 Central Division.<\/p>\n
Ferster said he doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll ever play in a game like that again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just pure joy,\u201d he said. \u201cI was almost in tears, so happy for my teammates. I thought we were going to get a few wins in, but I didn\u2019t think we\u2019d win the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday marks the second time a Juneau Youth Football League team has won the yearly Las Vegas tournament, a 100-team affair that classes squads by average age and weight.<\/p>\n
With a 38-point fourth quarter capping a back-and-forth game, Sjoroos, a veteran youth coach who coached JYFL\u2019s 1999 National Championship team, said it was an \u201cinstant classic\u201d of a game, \u201cone that you can play over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Raiders fell behind early in the game, ceding a 16-0 lead before Soto scored a rushing touchdown from 11 yards out to narrow the gap 16-8.<\/p>\n
Camarillo received the second half kickoff and extended their lead to 22-8 early in the third quarter. That\u2019s when Juneau turned it around. Soto answered with a rushing score of his own, cutting the game to 22-16.<\/p>\n
The Raiders defense then got their first sack, stalling Camarillo\u2019s drive and forcing them to their first punt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got the ball back about midfield, moved down to around their 20, third quarter is over, we\u2019re down 22-16 but we have momentum, we\u2019re moving,\u201d Sjoroos said.<\/p>\n
The Raiders punched another one in to take the 22-24 lead early in the third. Defensive lineman Cody Morehouse then stripped Camarillo\u2019s quarterback for a turnover; Raiders possession at their own \u201830. Two plays later, Soto ripped a 60-yard run for a 22-32 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thinking, we have some momentum, we have the lead, we get one more stop and we can really put the nail in this thing,\u201d Sjoroos said. \u201cTo their credit, they have a running back of their own, I don\u2019t remember his name but he was #22, I\u2019ll remember that forever, he took off and hit a 60-yard run with about three-and-a-half minutes to go in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Camarillo missed another kick, Juneau clung to just a 28-32 lead. With just minutes left, the Raiders recovered an onside kick and held the ball at midfield with the opportunity to bleed the clock and ice the game.<\/p>\n
But it wouldn\u2019t be that easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids are kids, we had a couple of miscues and we went backwards. It was probably the worst thing we could do at that time,\u201d Sjoroos said.<\/p>\n
After a 46-yard punt, the Raiders had the Cougars pinned back in their own territory with a little over two minutes left. Camarillo\u2019s unnamed #22 then broke off another long score, this time a 75-yard touchdown that would give the Cougars a 36-32 lead.<\/p>\n
On the Raiders ensuing possession, Soto ripped off another long rush along the sideline. Sjoroos thought he scored, but the refs ruled him out at the 9-yard line with 37 seconds left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am running down the sideline like \u2018Woo hoo, we won,\u2019\u201d Sjoroos said.<\/p>\n
A couple stymied plays and a defensive penalty brought the Raiders to their fourth and goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFourth quarter, 45 seconds left, timeout, our star running back puking on the field. That was a crazy game,\u201d running back and linebacker Cooper Kriegmont said. \u201cWe were all jumping, lots of people crying. Our biggest, 245-pound player just sobbing,\u201d<\/p>\n
To get to the championship the Raiders (7-0 in JYFL play) beat Nevada\u2019s Anthem Cougars (8-2) 39-13 in the semifinals of the tournament Thanksgiving night. Previous to the National Championships, the Raiders played in the Southwest Bowl in Seattle to a 1-1 record (a 27-0 loss to Parkland Raiders and a 37-6 win over the Lakewood Lumberjacks).<\/p>\n
Their championship opponents, the Camarillo Cougars (11-0), were the champions of their 30-team league. The California team had played in the tournament eight years in a row.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact Sports and Outdoors reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It all came down to fourth and goal on a Las Vegas Sunday. Down 32-36 with 10 seconds left in the National Youth Football Championship, the Juneau Raiders were stymied at the Camarillo Cougars\u2019 3-yard line with one last play to win the game. Offensive coordinator Rich Sjoroos called his final timeout. He had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":4302,"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-4301","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\/4301","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\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4301"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}