The Eagle River Wolves continued to impress in their temporary return to Division I football when they took a stunning 38-8 win Saturday over Service, the Division I state runner-up last season.
It was the second straight win over a Division I team from Anchorage for the Wolves, a Division II team since 2015. Due to travel restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, Eagle River is only permitted to play other teams in Anchorage, and every other team in Anchorage plays at the Division I level for Alaska’s biggest schools.
The Wolves are responding with victories. They beat Dimond 25-3 in their season-opener last week and moved to 2-0 with their win over the Cougars.
“We’ve been trying to improve over the years. That’s the goal,” said Eagle River coach Brad Meyers. “We’re having a little bit of a depth issue against the big teams. It’s going to be a challenge to keep it up through the whole year but I’m pretty confident that we’ll at least be competitive.”
The pandemic not only reshuffled Eagle River’s 2020 season, it inspired an early season Senior Night. The celebration of seniors is typically conducted late in the season, but many schools are scheduling them early this year in case there’s an early end to the season.
That provided a little extra motivation for senior quarterback Quentin Jackson II and senior wide receiver/defensive back Mickey Bundu, who helped lead the Wolves to a signature win.
“I think this win is probably one of the best ones we’ve had because we don’t play these schools, so this is a statement game, especially because it was Senior Night,” Bundu said.
Jackson left the game early in the first quarter and went through concussion protocol after taking a vicious blow from Service’s Damian Johnson, who was ejected for the illegal hit.
Once Jackson was cleared to return, he scored five touchdowns to ignite an Eagle River offense that never let up the rest of the way.
“After coming back from that it gave me the boost and I got mad so it gave me energy to really beat this team, and that’s when I went off,” he said.
Service’s offense was never really the same after Johnson was ejected for the hit on Jackson, because he’s also the team’s starting quarterback. Running backs Atlas Faafetai and Kedrick Smith-Thomas ran the ball effectively but the Cougars weren’t able to overcome the loss of Johnson as well as several mistakes.
A 42-34 winner over Bartlett last week, Service slipped to 1-1. Bartlett bounced back from that loss Saturday with a 47-8 victory over Dimond.
Eagle River steamrolled the Cougar defense with a balanced offense that used a punishing running game to set up explosive plays through the air off play-action. Jackson only dropped back to pass a handful of times but when he did, he made it count.
Jackson rushed for his first two touchdowns, the first coming on an 18-yard keeper to the left side of an unsuspecting Service defense and the second on a 12-yard scramble to the same left pylon.
The Wolves' longest scoring play came when Jackson and Bundu hooked up for a 68-yard catch-and-run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half.
If there was an award for best two-way player of this game, it’d go to Bundu. In addition to the long touchdown and a couple of other big catches on offense, he intercepted both Service quarterbacks and recovered a fumble.
While Meyers is a little concerned with his team’s depth going forward against Division I teams, his players believe they have put the large schools on notice.
“We aren’t to be doubted. We are going to come with fire, Jackson said. “... This is really big because ... beating these two big schools is showing that we aren’t be played with.''
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