East’s Toa Samoa in celly mode. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
It was an ugly performance for the league-leading East High football team on Friday night, but Adonis Mamea was a thing of beauty in the fourth quarter.
The senior wide receiver came off the bench to make huge plays on each of his team’s two scoring drives at crunch time, including a go-ahead touchdown grab that propelled the T-birds to a 14-10 win over the winless Colony Knights in the Valley.
East quarterback Toa Samoa threw for two TDs inside the final eight minutes – a 41-yarder to Marad Wright and a 27-yarder to Mamea, who went over the middle and found a gap in the defense as the T-birds dodged Colony’s upset bid.
Mamea accounted for 44 of his 45 yards in the fourth quarter as he heated up at just the right time. He added a 16-yard run on the first scoring drive to set up his team in the red zone.
East racked up 181 yards in the final 12 minutes compared to 145 yards in the first 36 minutes to flip the script on a night when the T-birds looked cooked.
Colony outplayed East through three quarters and built a 10-0 lead thanks to a 1-yard TD run by Keoni Pili in the first quarter and a 39-yard field goal by Johnny Figgins in the third.
But everything changed in the fourth quarter. It was like the T-birds hit a switch – first to turn it on, and then to shut it down.
Just a few seconds after Mamea’s go-ahead TD the stadium lights turned off and the field was in total darkness for about 10 minutes except for when fans used the lights on their cell phones to create a concert atmosphere. After the lights came back on, the teams warmed up for a few minutes and the game resumed.
CIC Football Standings
| TEAM | CONF | OVERALL |
| East | 4-0 | 4-1 |
| Dimond | 3-0 | 4-0 |
| Bartlett | 2-1 | 3-1 |
| Juneau | 1-2 | 2-2 |
| Service | 1-2 | 2-2 |
| South | 1-2 | 2-2 |
| West | 1-2 | 2-2 |
| Colony | 0-4 | 0-5 |
FRIDAY
East 14, Colony 10
SATURDAY
West at Juneau
Service at Bartlett
Dimond at South
Samoa finished with 179 passing yards on nine completions. His favorite receiver Brandon Young had five receptions for 97 yards, including a 29-yard catch from East’s own 3-yard line on a drive that didn’t result in points but did change field position.
On East’s next drive, Samoa hit Wright on a 41-yard scoring strike to finally get the T-birds on the scoreboard after 40 minutes of play. Wright caught the ball at the 20-yard line and hit the defender with a spin move before reaching the end zone.
Three plays later, Wright picked off a Colony pass to give the ball right back to the T-birds near midfield. On 3rd-and-10 from the East 42, Samoa scampered around the left side and reached the end zone, but there was a flag and the play came back.
Marad Wright was a game changer in the fourth quarter. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Alaska Sports Report
East shot itself in the foot all night with 15 penalties for 95 yards, but this illegal procedure infraction cost the team a TD. On the very next play, however, Samoa scrambled for 16 yards on 3rd-and-15 to keep the drive going.
The T-birds went on to commit three more penalties on the final drive, yet their playmakers bailed them out. On 3rd-and-6, Samoa hit Young for another first down and two plays later connected with Mamea for the game winner.
For as good as East’s offense was in the fourth quarter, its defense was equally as impressive as the unit held Colony to just 18 yards in the final 12 minutes. Young had an interception and three pass breakups. He also executed an excellent leg tackle at the line of scrimmage on 4th-and-3 to get a turnover on downs in the first quarter.
The Knights were ready for battle and took it to East for much of the game, especially on defense. Colony held the T-birds to 23 yards in the first quarter and 78 through the first half. Pili and Clayton Baxter combined for half of the team’s eight tackles for loss while Asher Thomas had a pass breakup on fourth down and Ridge Spencer recovered a fumble.
Ever since former quarterback and Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year Jack Nash left for South Dakota State, Colony has used a revolving door of signal callers. Tyrus Fischer was under center Friday and looked solid, orchestrating drives of 62 and 51 yards in the first half and 64-yard drive in the third quarter.
Fischer threw for 157 yards and spread the ball around to six different receivers. Ridge Spencer and Tegan Olson each made five catches, and Spencer led the way with 66 receiving yards while Hayden Shafer had 39. Fischer completed passes of 10, 13 and 32 yards on the third-quarter scoring drive that was capped by Figgins’ 39-yard field goal that put Colony up 10-0.
East 0 0 0 14 – 14
Colony 0 7 3 0 – 10
FIRST QUARTER
No Scoring
SECOND QUARTER
Colony – Pili 1 run (Figgins kick)
THIRD QUARTER
Colony – Figgins 39 FG
FOURTH QUARTER
East – Wright 41 pass from Samoa (pass failed)
East – Mamea 27 pass from Samoa (pass good)
