Penalties hurt Juanita in loss to Mercer Island | Prep football

Published 11:12 pm Friday, September 16, 2011

Huddled together near the endzone following their game against Mercer Island, Juanita head coach Shaun Tarantola stressed the importance of not losing sight of the big picture.

“It’s not how you start, but how you finish,” he said to the team, which had just lost 47-24.

Penalty flags flew on the field throughout the game, sparking Mercer Island head coach Brett Ogata to say it is something the team plans to work on in practice this week, as did Tarantola of his team.

“Penalties hurt us throughout the game, we had two touchdowns called back because of penalties early in the game,” said the coach. “We just weren’t able to get in a rhythm. Penalties played a major role in us letting it get out of hand. It would have been nice if we could have not gotten penalized on those big plays – we had two 90 yard plays get called back, which is tough to withstand. I give our players credit for continuing to compete. We had a lot go wrong, we’ve got some young kids and some kids who are new to football playing. I was really proud of how they kept getting after it – they didn’t give up. They kept playing when it didn’t go their way.”

The Rebels had an advantage during the first half of the game at Mercer Island High School Friday. The team strung together a solid drive, earning the first points of the night with 6:06 left in the first quarter for a 6-0 lead.

Later in the first, Mercer Island quarterback Jeff Lindquist lodged the ball deep, finding Eric Stefanchik in the endzone for a 51-yard touchdown pass, followed by a kick from Alex Wood to give the Islanders a 7-6 edge after 12 minutes.

In the second quarter, Mercer Island held off the Juanita defensive line to allow Connor Bernal a run with 8:24 left in the quarter for a 14-6 ball game.

After repossessing the ball, Rebels continued to drive, connecting for a touchdown pass late in the quarter to change the score to 14-12. On the kickoff return, Mercer Island fumbled the ball and the Rebels regained possession at the 26 yard line. A quick drive to the goal line gave the Rebels another touchdown, just a minute after the one before, and giving the visiting team the lead 18-14.

To even things outs, kicker Alex Wood came out to make a field goal with four seconds on the clock, putting the score at 18-17 for Juanita.

“We were spreading the ball around I think,” said Tarantola. “We were able to mix it up and run it to multiple guys and throw it to multiple guys it was our game plan and it worked well. We got some bad breaks, we had some great opportunities early in the game to take advantage of some things, but we just weren’t able to make it happen. Overall we were able to spread the ball, but we gave Mercer Island credit, they came out second half – we had some opportunities early in the second half but we just didn’t capitalize on it and they made the most of their opportunities. “

After the break, Juanita began on their own 20 yard line, but Mercer Island intercepted the ball with 10:23 on the clock and took over at the 25. The Islanders drive was stymied by Juanita, who regained possession on the 40 and quickly burned through four downs to give the Islanders another chance.

This time Wood returned to the field, making a 29-yard field goal and giving the lead back to Mercer Island with a 20-18 score.

In the second half Mercer Island found its rhythm and slowed Juanita enough to find the endzone repeatedly.

Senior Phil Frazier ran for a touchdown at the end of the third quarter to make it 27-18, and Stefanchik caught another long pass from Lindquist, this time 55 yards, to score for a 34-18 game.

The Islanders scored again in the beginning of the fourth quarter, after Frazier ran the ball in, followed by an interception with 10:16 on the clock to set up another touchdown. This time Frazier ran it in, scoring the final points of the night for Mercer Island.

Juanita made moves to the endzone and scored with just under five minutes left to play for the 47-24 score.

“I think just the biggest thing for us, our players are hurting, it’s been a long time since we lost two games in a row, we’re hurting right now,” said the Rebels leader. “Our kids are hungry and had a great week of practice last week, but for us this week our main focus is sticking together and really learning to play for each other instead of for themselves individually.”

The Islanders will travel to Interlake next Friday, and the Rebels will host Sammamish. Both games begin at 7 p.m.