Homer fails to come back at northernmost football field in America.

By Dayten Van Ostrand
Special to the Homer Independent Press

Ty Gibby attempting to tackle Barrow’s Malu Aunavae-Lauvao. (Photo courtesy of Lloyd Pikok Jr.)

The Homer Mariner football team lost for the second straight week, falling to the Barrow Whalers last weekend 38-22. The Mariners took an early lead, but fell behind in the second quarter and couldn’t catch up.

The Mariners will go on to play the Dimond Lynx this weekend. The Lynx are a Division l school, while the Mariners are Division lll. This should make for another tough match for the Mariners.

The Mariners traveled to Utqiagvik (Barrow) with a 0-1 record after losing to the Kenai Kardinals 52-6 in their first game of the season.. This was the season opener for the Whalers. 

The game on Barrow’s blue artificial turf started with the Whalers marching the ball to the Mariners’ 38 yard-line before being stopped on fourth down.

The Mariners were unsuccessful in getting a first-down and were forced to punt. The punt was blocked by the Whalers and resulted in a Whaler first down at the Mariner 16.

The Whalers ran the ball up the middle for a touchdown. There was a 10-yard penalty against Barrow on the 2-point conversion resulting in a second attempt from the 14 yard-line. The Mariners stopped them at the 5-yard line leaving them down 6-0 in the first quarter.

The Mariners received the kick at the 30-yard line to start the next drive. The Mariners chugged along, eventually getting the ball to the Whaler 7-yard line. Joaquin Jackson ran the ball up the middle for a Mariner touchdown and a successful 2-point conversion.

The quarter ended with the Mariners in the lead 8-6.

The second quarter started with a Whaler touchdown, followed by a missed 2-point conversion. This brought the score 12-8 at the half.

The Whalers scored twice in the start of the second half with one good 2-point conversion before the Mariners received the ball off kickoff and made a running touchdown by Jackson. The 2-point conversion was unsuccessful, leaving the score 26-14 after three quarters.

“I was proud at how the defense played the entirety of the game. They played with intensity.” – Head Coach Justin Zank

The Whalers scored twice off two runs in the fourth quarter. The Mariners’ Tristan Bridges got a sack to block one of the two  conversions.

Homer scored later in the fourth with quarterback Eli Weisser running the ball into the endzone. Jackson ran the ball up the middle for a successful 2-point conversion. 

Homer’s Ty Gibby and Talon Davidson setting up to tackle Barrow’s Leoni Taitaiu.  (Photo courtesy of Lloyd Pikok Jr.)

The Mariners had a total of 198 yards to Barrow’s 484 total yards.

“I think we played a better game than we did against Kenai. There’s a lot of improvement to be done,” said Homer running back Joaquin Jackson.

“We had an amazing time. It was good bonding time, you know. I feel like we could have executed better in the game and had more focus,” said Homer linebacker Ty Gibby.

“I was proud with how the offense came out in that first quarter and executed well. We had an 11-play 70-yard drive, and then a touchdown,” said head coach Justin Zank. “I thought we executed well there; however, we weren’t able to sustain that over the course of the game. I was proud at how the defense played the entirety of the game. They played with intensity. Unfortunately they were out there most of the game getting pushed on by guys much, much bigger than them, and we ran out of gas. That was evident in the second half when Barrow ran away with it, but we’ll use lessons learned in the Barrow game to compare to and get better for Dimond.”