East High football erases double-digit deficit to defeat reigning state champ West

With a furious second-half rally Friday night, the Bettye Davis East Anchorage football team notched a 36-29 victory over defending Division I state champions West, marking the program’s first non-forfeit loss to an in-state opponent since the 2022 postseason.

Before they could get their bearings in Friday night’s game, the Thunderbirds found themselves down by two scores after the first quarter of their Week 2 road matchup against their crosstown rivals.

The hosting Eagles had marched down the field on their first two possessions of the game and came away with touchdowns as the Nest on Hillcrest was rocking on one side of the bleachers and dead silent on the other.

“I think because the emotions were high because it was West, getting down like that, they were pretty shell-shocked,” East head coach Jeff Trotter said of his players. “You could hear anything on (our) sideline because it got real quiet really fast.”

Even though they were able to score a pair of touchdowns of their own in the second quarter, the Thunderbirds still trailed by double digits at halftime. It would’ve been worse if not for a clutch defensive stop on an untimed down that prevented the Eagles from being up by three scores at the end of the second.

“We got out of there with our butts alive, and thank God because I think that could’ve been a bad turning point for us,” Trotter said.

Instead, it wound up being just the spark they needed to mount their second-half comeback.

“They were up two (scores) on us early, so we had to come back at half and shut them down,” senior fullback Aaron Lotu-Muaava said. “We had to go back and evaluate what we had to change and adapt to how they were because they were moving (the ball) on us in the first half.”

In the locker room at halftime, Trotter said there was a lot of “tough talk” about how they were getting “flat-out” outplayed in the first half.

“That lit a fire, and the (offensive) line really asserted themselves, and the running backs were running really hard and were good about ball control, and then (quarterback) Toa (Samoa) just played awesome,” Trotter said.

With 8:50 left on the clock in the second quarter, the score was 21-6 in West’s favor. But then, using stout defense and an offensive attack that was both potent and balanced, East scored 24 points that went unanswered until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“We talked about it right after we kind of got rallied in that first quarter,” Trotter said. “I told them, ‘Hey, if you want to win a championship ever, you have to learn how to fight through adversity,’ and we started to do that before halftime.”

The player who made the clutch defensive play on the untimed down to keep the Thunderbirds within reasonable striking distance was junior cornerback Prince Siliato, who broke up a pass in the end zone that could’ve been an interception had the ball not slipped through his fingers.

“In the first half, we just couldn’t keep up with the tempo,” he said. “That’s a good team, but I’m glad we were able to stop them.”

Siliato made up for his dropped interception by giving his offense the ball back and keeping the momentum with East by picking off a pass in the third quarter on the ensuing drive after the Thunderbirds cut the game to 21-20.

“That play was supposed to change the game, but I was glad I got that other interception to pay it off,” Siliato said.

Samoa led the offensive effort by making plays with both his arm and his legs as he scored the team’s first two touchdowns on a 1-yard rush and a 12-yard pass to senior receiver Brandon Young. He also completed several clutch passes and ran in all three of the Thunderbirds’ successful two-point conversions after going 0-2 on those tries in the first half.

“I think Toa is coming into his own,” Trotter said. “We were going to put him in at quarterback in the state semifinals (last year) if we had made it. Unfortunately, we didn’t, and from that point on he just started training to be our quarterback.”

Lotu-Muaava joined forces with fellow senior Roshae Olaes Rivas to spearhead East’s dominant running game: They accounted for 123 of the team’s nearly 200 yards on the ground. Olaes Rivas helped march the offense down the field and Lotu-Muaava punched the ball across the goal line three times in the second half on scoring runs of 3, 17 and 4 yards.

“We got a pretty good stable of running backs,” Trotter said. “It’s not like last year when we had 1A and 1B. We got about four or five that we trust with the ball, and those guys had the hot hand today.”

The Eagles were able to finally get on the board in the second half with a swift five-play touchdown drive that made it a one-score game with 1:05 left on the clock, and all three of their timeouts left on the board.

“They just out-schemed us on that last drive,” Trotter said. “We should’ve called a timeout, but that was on me. But I couldn’t be happier with how those guys played. They didn’t let down, they could’ve completely rolled over and they just kept fighting. That’s the kind of team we were looking for and I think we found it.”

After an unsuccessful onside kick recovery attempt, the Thunderbirds turned to Lotu-Muaava, who picked up the first down his team needed to ice the game.

“It feels great, I had to come out and show out for my brothers,” he said. “I know this game meant a lot to us to come back and secure that (win).”

Last season, West handed East its most lopsided loss to an in-state opponent, 41-22. While the Thunderbirds were glad they were able to avenge that defeat — which took place on their home turf — by returning the favor this time around, their eyes are locked on a bigger prize.

“We tried to keep it not bigger than it was because, at the end of the day, all that we are and all that we got out of this is that we’re 2-0 in the conference,” Trotter said. “What we want is that ring at the end.”