Headline News, Sports

Mariners make history with playoff win

• 24-15 win over Nikiski sends Homer to next round

By Aaron Selbig
Homer Tribune

Considering the Homer Mariners (6-2 overall, 3-2 Northern Lights Conference) had just shrugged off three decades of post-season futility with their 24-15 first round knockout of the Nikiski Bulldogs (5-4 overall, 5-2 Great Land Conference), the post-game celebration went strangely quiet when Head Coach Camron Wyatt stepped forward to address the team.
“Gentlemen,” began Wyatt, his voice choked with emotion and eyes welling with tears, “that was awesome. That was hard work. I’m very proud of each and every one of you. We’re going to Anchorage.”
The Mariners, their uniforms dirty and their hearts swelling with pride, responded with a resounding whoop.
“Who’s got pride? We’ve got pride!” they shouted in unison.
When Homer’s high school football program began, Jimmy Carter was president and disco was not quite dead. And none of the current Mariner players had yet been born. But it was these kids, known as the “Midget Mafia” to their fans, who secured their place in history with a hard-fought playoff victory on the road.
The win sets up a second round rematch against three-time defending state champion Soldotna (7-2 overall, 5-0 NLC), scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Anchorage Football Stadium. A victory over the Stars – who trounced the Mariners 33-0 on Aug. 14 – would mean a berth in the state championship game the following week against either Kodiak (5-4 overall, 2-3 NLC) or Kenai (8-1 overall, 4-1 NLC).
For the Homer Mariners, it’s uncharted territory.
“I can’t even explain this feeling. It’s unlike any other,” said Homer quarterback Cole Jacobsen. “Tomorrow morning I’m going to wake up and feel like I’ve done something great. We just made history. We’re the first team ever to win in the playoffs and that just means so much to me and to the team.”
“Its incredible,” Coach Wyatt said. “For me, it’s been 12 years at this school and eight years with these kids. They work so hard and for them to achieve what they’ve achieved, it’s awesome. It’s immeasurable.
“They’re the first group from this school to ever take it this far … and they did it with style, they did it with integrity and they did it with courage. It wasn’t given to them. They worked for every single yard.”
Although they had shut them out 27-0 in the season-opener Aug. 7, the M’s knew to expect a different Nikiski team. After going 1-3 to start their season, the Bulldogs revamped their entire offense, turning the reins over to senior quarterback Brando Wik. Wik then led the team on a five-game winning streak while throwing for 616 yards and 11 touchdowns.
On Saturday, Wik was sensational, throwing and rushing for Nikiski’s two touchdowns, while going 16 of 24 for 191 yards passing. The Bulldog defense, however, could not stop Homer’s single wing offense, which struck first when Jacobsen scampered in from the 2-yard line halfway through the first quarter.
When Jacobsen lobbed a 35-yard pass – his only completed pass of the game – to Jeremiah Carr for a touchdown early in the second quarter, it looked like the M’s – leading 14-0 – might be on their way to another rout.
However, the Bulldogs – on the heels of running back Kaden Spurgeon – had other plans. Using short slant passes and power running to work the middle of the field, Nikiski fought its way upfield. Helped by a couple of ill-timed Homer penalties, the Bulldogs found the end zone with 2:21 left in the first half on an 8-yard pass from Wik to Spurgeon. A successful two-point conversion – with Wik as the receiver – cut the score to 14-8 going into the half.
By half-time, Nikiski had reclaimed the momentum.
“We’ve got one more half to play like champions,” said running back Anthony Resetarits to his team at the break. “Let’s do it. This is history right here.”
Homer came out motivated to start the third quarter.
Led by running backs Jeremiah Carr and David Craig, the M’s embarked on a 13-play, 76-yard drive that chewed up more than half the quarter and got the sizable contingent of Mariner fans back into the game. When Craig, who led all rushers in the game with 103 yards, broke free for a 35-yard scamper to the Nikiski 33-yard line, the crowd grew louder, stomping on the metal bleachers and yelling, “Let’s go, Homer, let’s go!”
With 4:39 left in the third, Carr scored on a 6-yard run, giving Homer a 21-8 lead.
But the Bulldogs came right back, riding Spurgeon all the way down the field and inside the Homer 30-yard line. There, another series of Mariner penalties helped Nikiski get close enough for Wik to run in a 2-yard touchdown.
After another long, sustained Homer drive ended with kicker Mark Walsworth missing a 42-yard field goal attempt, Nikiski – down 15-21 with less than five minutes left in the game – had one more shot.
On a fourth down play with four yards to go, however, Wik bobbled the snap and was quickly sacked for a loss by linebacker Matt Tyrell.
A couple of plays later, facing fourth down and 10 from the Nikiski 15-yard line, Wyatt sent Walsworth out on the field to take a 33-yard shot at redemption.
“I was a little nervous because I missed the first one,” said Walsworth after the game. “When it went up into the air, I got a little scared because it was really high and not very long.”
Walsworth’s kick sailed into the air and came down straight on top of the crossbar with a cartoonish “boink.” Seemingly in slow motion, it bounced over the back of the uprights – good for three points and a game-icing 24-15 Homer lead with just two minutes left.
A fourth-quarter interception by Dyllan Day successfully thwarted any further attempt at scoring by the Bulldogs, and when the final second ticked off the game clock, it was time to celebrate.
“It was a worthy playoff game,” said Jacobsen. “We need to go back to practice and focus more than ever now. Soldotna will not be an easy win. We have to grow and get better. We need to come together as a team.”
At the beginning of the year, some coaches thought Soldotna – which lost eight starters to graduation – might be a team in decline. That has not been the case, however, as the Stars have rolled through NLC competition on their way to yet another conference title and No. 1 ranking.
“They have tradition and a great program,” Wyatt said of the Soldotna program. “(Head Coach) Galen (Brantley, Jr.) and his staff are great coaches … they get more from their kids than any other program on the peninsula or in the state. The State Championship goes through SoHi. We knew it would.”
The biggest difference between the Mariner team that got shutout by the Stars two months ago and the team that has beaten Kodiak and Nikiski in consecutive weeks, said Wyatt, is confidence.
They believe in themselves and believe they can be State champions, said Wyatt.
“I think we can beat them,” said Jacobsen. “We have the heart.”

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Posted by Newsroom on Oct 7th, 2009 and filed under Headline News, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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