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Photo by Johnny Wagner

NORTH POLE — After 24 minutes of scoreless gridlock with the West Anchorage Eagles, the North Pole Patriots came out of halftime with a refreshed swagger about them.

From then on, the teams didn’t look so evenly matched.

North Pole’s second-half surge propelled it to a 28-7 nonconference high school football win over Anchorage West in a turf war between two ground-based offenses and stout defenses.

Patriots head coach Richard Henert said the turnaround came from cooler heads on North Pole’s offensive line.

“We just calmed them down a bit,” Henert said. “They were just a little bit overwhelmed by Anchorage’s size in the first half, and that was kind of tough to bounce back. It hasn’t been since Colony that we’ve had to face that kind of defense.”

At first, it seemed that West Anchorage would break the draw, riding the powerful running of Justin Kauffman to a first-and-goal at the 5-yard line on the opening drive of the second half.

But the Patriots defense stuffed two running attempts for no gain, foiled a screen pass with a tackle for a loss and forced an incomplete pass for a turnover on downs at their own 9.

“The defense — they’ve been playing great all year and saving our butts,” Henert said.

With 91 yards to the end zone, North Pole turned to running backs Dane Ebanez and Eric Antesberger.

The duo ran for 85 of those yards en route to a 2-yard touchdown run by Ebanez with 2 minutes, 8 seconds left in the third.

“We were trying to figure out what would work on offense, and in the second half we found it — bingo,” Ebanez said. “Their line wasn’t adjusting, and our line kept firing off.”

The Patriots didn’t wait for West Anchorage to answer. Instead, they recovered an onside kick and resumed sending Ebanez (96 yards, one touchdown) and Antesberger (88 yards, one touchdown) between the tackles.

Henert said he noticed the Eagles players weren’t “up” and didn’t have “hands guys” near midfield, so the conditions were right for an onside attempt.

“It’s a nonconference game,” Henert said. “ We’re going to try some different things that we may not try in a normal game just so we know we have it down the stretch when it comes to be playoffs time.”

The ensuing offensive series ended with an interception by quarterback Lee Jones, but Ebanez said the onside kick gave the Patriots momentum through the remainder of the game.

“It helped us turn the tide,” Ebanez said. “West Anchorage kept getting upset and chippy and started getting personal foul after personal foul, and it was all downhill from there (for the Eagles).”

Penalties certainly played a large role in the Eagles’ downfall.

Jones confused Eagles blitzers with a hard count. Encroachment penalties caused or led to three fourth-down conversions for the Patriots.

A late-hit call in the fourth quarter turned a 30-yard kickoff return by Steve Wright into a first-and goal at the 10 for North Pole, which it easily converted into a touchdown on a 2-yard run by Jones.

“We played stupid, absolutely stupid,” West Anchorage head coach Bob Garman said. “We had penalties and offsides at crucial times times that just killed us.”

And while penalties hampered the Eagles defense, their offense could not pick up the slack.

Patriots defensive coordinator Rusty Ham said the North Pole defense knew mostly where West Anchorage would run the ball because of clear communication from the players to the coaches.

“D-line coach (James) Watson always has the line ready to jam and read,” Ham said. “We knew the fullback took us to the play every time, which is where we took our reads.”

Causing further problems for the Eagles was defensive back Wright, who deflected several pass attempts and returned an interception 29 yards for a touchdown.

Still, there was the daunting task of penetrating West Anchorage’s massive offensive line. The Eagles have 10 blockers listed at 240 pound or more — including three at more than 300 pounds — who were able to throw their weight around to help Kauffman gain 99 yards on 19 carries.

“I wish I had 40 of him,” Garman said of Kauffman. “We’d beat (North Pole) by a hundred.”

To counter that, Ham said the Patriots utilized their linebackers' speed.

To take down the 190-pound Kauffman, Ebanez had a simple plan: aim low.

“We had to make sure we stayed low and hit low because those guys outsize us dramatically,” Ebanez said. “It was all about staying low and getting to the waist and the legs.”

It was all about staying low on offense, too.

Neither team found much success in the air. Jones connected with just one receiver, Ebanez, for 3 yards — though the original completion was for about 6 yards, Ebanez attempted to pitch the ball to Wright and fumbled it out of bounds.

The Patriots stayed perfect on the year at 5-0, while the Eagles fell to 2-3.