West High’s Manny Maga runs down the sideline during the Eagles’ 27-6 win over Colony in the Division I playoff semifinals on Friday, Oct. 16, 2016 at West High. (Photo by Stephanie Burgoon)
The biggest upset in last year’s Division I high school football playoffs saw a top-seeded West Anchorage squad fall to a No. 4 seed at home in the semifinal round.
Through the first two quarters of Friday’s second-round matchup between the No. 1-ranked Eagles and No. 4 Colony, it felt like there might be a chance history could repeat itself.
After battling to a 6-6 stalemate at halftime, West came out in the second half firing on all cylinders on both sides of the ball. Not only did the Eagles shut out the Knights over the final two quarters, but they outscored Colony 21-0 during that span to advance to the finals with a 27-6 victory.
“I’m just super proud of how our guys came back and put that second half together,” West head coach Brown Faaaliga said. “Colony came out and we knew they were going to do some things defensively that we weren’t ready for right off the bat but our guys buckled in.”
West had a couple of starting offensive linemen go down and leave the game with injuries and had junior varsity call-ups step in and rise to the occasion as the ground game didn’t miss a beat to the tune of over 160 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“They stepped up when their number was called,” senior running back Manny Maga said.
Maga led the team with 140 rushing yards on 12 carries and recorded half of the team’s touchdown total on a pair of long explosive scoring runs that immediately followed a big stop by the defense.
“We were just feeding off each other’s energy,” Maga said. “We all just have a great bond and team chemistry.”
West High’s Manny Maga sprints toward the end zone in the Eagles’ 27-6 win over Colony in the Division I playoff semifinals on Friday, Oct. 16, 2016 at West High. (Photo by Stephanie Burgoon)
His first touchdown came on a 39-yard burst up the middle one play after West’s special teams prevented a fake punt attempt from being converted in the second quarter. The second was a 70-yard sprint on the first play of the fourth quarter after the defense forced a turnover on downs on the final play of the third.
“It feels great, we’ve been here before,” Maga said. “As a leader of this team, that’s just something I got to do.”
The West defense forced four turnovers in the fourth quarter, including a trio of interceptions and a recovery of a backwards pass.
“Our guys, they’re mentally strong, they’re physically strong and defense has been strong all year,” Faaaliga said. “They did it week in and week out. I’m just super proud of them.
Two of the interceptions came from senior defensive back Jayciano Cabesas, who also forced other incompletions on pass breakups.
“It felt amazing but it also felt normal,” he said. “It’s just what I’ve been doing. I’ve been doing my job all year so I’m used to it.”
West High’s Jayciano Cabesas reaches up for an interception during the Eagles’ 27-6 win over Colony in the Division I playoff semifinals on Friday, Oct. 16, 2016 at West High. (Photo by Stephanie Burgoon)
The Eagles will face reigning state champion South in next weekend’s title game. South advanced to the finals with a 42-12 blowout of Juneau-Douglas.
In a rematch of the regular-season opener between the two teams, the Wolverines were fueled by a touchdown hat trick from senior two-way star Ethan Yarrington in topping Juneau-Douglas.
He threw for a touchdown and ran for a pair of long scores to lead his team to a runaway victory after only being up by a single score at halftime.
“First half, we knew we could’ve done a little better and in the second half, we turned it up,” Yarrington said. “We fixed our mistakes, we got better and did it as a team.”
The Eagles and Wolverines will face off for the second time this season Friday night at Colony High School with a kickoff time of 7 p.m. This will mark the two teams’ second time meeting in the finals in the last five years and just the third ever.
