The Homer football team celebrated homecoming and senior night by topping Houston 40-8 on Saturday in Mid Alaska Conference action.<\/p>\n
The Mariners move to 2-0 in the league and 5-0 overall, while the Hawks drop to 0-2 and 1-4.<\/p>\n
Homer grabbed a 26-0 lead after the first quarter and a 34-0 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n
“First half, I thought we came out fast and we were playing well,” Homer head coach Justin Zank said. “Second half, the offense was just kind of slow to get going again.<\/p>\n
“We had quite a few turnovers and that didn’t help.”<\/p>\n
In the first quarter, Nikifor Reutov opened the scoring with a rushing touchdown, then also ran in the two-point conversion.<\/p>\n
Thomas Martin then had a fumble return for touchdown.<\/p>\n
CJ Burns kept things going with a touchdown pass to Emelian Melkomukov, then Justus Grimes had an interception return to close the quarter.<\/p>\n
In the second quarter, Grimes had a punt return for touchdown and Reutov ran in the conversion.<\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, the Mariners defense gave up a touchdown after pitching shutouts in the previous three games. Homer has given up just 16 points in five games.<\/p>\n
“They played well, given the circumstance of having to be on the field so long with the offense turning the ball over and having quick three-and-outs and things like that,” Zank said.<\/p>\n
Burns closed the scoring for Homer with a rushing TD.<\/p>\n
Zank said the offensive line of Ellington Dudley, Maxwell Herndon, Timmy Cissney, Shea Yatchmeneff and Dimitri Hooks had a solid game.<\/p>\n
The coach said the problem is the offense is not firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n
“When the O line gets going, we’re throwing interceptions, we’re fumbling the ball, or we’re missing assignments with the wide receiving corps,” Zank said.<\/p>\n
On defense, Zank said Jackson Snaric and Jayden Sims played well in the secondary.<\/p>\n
Homer now travels to Barrow for a noon game on Saturday, Sept. 20. The Whalers are 2-0 and 3-2. Homer topped Barrow in nonconference play 34-0 in Week 2.<\/p>\n
“They’re upset with losing to us down here, so I expect them to play us tough,” Zank said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Homer football team celebrated homecoming and senior night by topping Houston 40-8 on Saturday in Mid Alaska Conference action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":90864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,811],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n