Owen Drumm returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and the South defense pitched a shutout for the final three quarters to fuel a 16-6 victory over Juneau-Douglas in a rare Sunday high school football game.

The game was supposed be played on Saturday afternoon but was pushed back after the airplane the Crimson Bears were going to use to fly to Anchorage had mechanical issues, forcing them to take a later flight.

The Wolverines must have been chopping at the bit to play because they scored 16 seconds into the game after Drumm made a 91-yard house call. South’s defense made it stick, scoring a safety in the second quarter and holding the Crimson Bears off the scoreboard for the final 38 minutes to deliver head coach John Lewis his 100th career win.

Lewis – who was South’s original bench boss when the school opened in 2004 – became the third Cook Inlet Conference football coach to reach the century club.

Former East and Chugiak coach Bruce Shearer was the first to reach triple digits in 1996, followed by West’s Tim Davis in 2023.

The next highest active wins leader in the CIC is East’s Jeff Trotter with 85.

Lewis isn’t just one of the most successful coaches in CIC history, but the entire state. His four ASAA Division I state titles are tied for the most in Alaska, equaled only by Davis, Shearer and Byron Wilson of Service.

Prep Football

Cook Inlet Conference Coaches
Most Wins
114 – Tim Davis, West
112 – Bruce Shearer, East & Chugiak
100 – John Lewis, South
99 – John Jessen, Bartlett
89 – Duncan Shackelford, Dimond & Chugiak
85 – Jeff Trotter, East

Lewis stepped down in 2017 before coming back in 2022, taking over a program that had gone 0-9 the season before he assumed command. Three years later, he turned South back into state champs.

The Wolverines are loaded once again this year and wasted no time jumping on Juneau in Sunday’s season opener after Drumm took the opening kickoff back for a TD, hitting the hole and outsprinting would-be tacklers for the final 55 yards.

In the second quarter, South capitalized on several Juneau miscues to break away from a 6-6 tie. The Crimson Bears nearly lost the ball on a rushed handoff exchange, got sacked, got stuffed at the line of scrimmage on an inside run and then snapped the ball over the head of quarterback Krew Ridle, who recovered the ball in the end zone for a South safety.

Three plays later, South signal caller Kyler Jensen took a bootleg 40 yards for his first career TD. A state champion baseball player, Jensen faked an inside handoff and beat the defense down the left sideline. Bryson Jackson converted the two-point conversion to push South’s advantage to 16-6.

Jensen led the Wolverines with 54 yards on the ground, which was a surprise given that he shares the backfield with 220-pound bellwether back Ethan Yarrington, a two-way star who made more of an impact at linebacker. He got to the quarterback twice, once for a sack and the second time for an incomplete pass after hitting Ridle while he was in a throwing motion.

Offensively, though, Yarrington struggled to stay on the field. He was battered and bruised but never busted, leaving and returning several times. Late in the second quarter he went to the bench with a lower-body injury. In the third quarter, his helmet was knocked off his head after he absorbed a big hit on a 2-yard run. In the fourth quarter, he limped off the field.

He finished with just 34 yards on eight carries but did pick up a key first down on a 4th-and-2 play late in the fourth quarter.

South also got a sack from Timothy Edmondson in the second quarter, two tackles for loss by Frederick Lefano in the third and an interception by Austin Duffus in the fourth.

Juneau’s defense was also noteworthy and pitched its own second-half shutout, limiting the Wolverines to 36 total yards across the final two quarters. The Crimson Bears also picked off Jensen’s only pass attempt after Avei Tuvaifale grabbed an interception along the sideline in the third quarter.

The capital city club scored its lone TD in the first quarter on Sylvion Washington’s 5-yard sprint to the right pylon.

The scoring drive was keyed by Ridle’s 29-yard pass to Andrew Sanders for the game’s only completion. Two snaps later, South was whistled for an offsides penalty on a field-goal attempt, giving Juneau a second chance at six and the Bears cashed in.

Juneau-Douglas 6 0 0 0 – 6
South Anchorage 6 10 0 0 – 16
FIRST QUARTER
South – Drumm 91 kickoff return (kick missed), 11:44
Juneau – Washington 5 run (kick missed), 2:27
SECOND QUARTER
South – Safety, Ridle tackled in end zone, 8:01
South – Jensen 40 run (Jackson run), 6:57
THIRD QUARTER
No scoring
FOURTH QUARTER
No scoring
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Juneau – Jim 6-38, Ridle 8-32, Washington 9-27, Van Kirk 7-6. South – Jensen 4-54, Yarrington 8-35, Jackson 4-30, Coleman Arroyo 6-26, Lealaisalanoa 2-5, Lefano 1-5, Souhala-Tuinei 1-4.
PASSING
Juneau – Ridle 1-7-29. South – Jensen 0-1-0.
RECEIVING
Juneau – Sanders 1-29. South – None.