T-Birds football team pays tribute to fallen alum after marathon 6-OT game to preserve ‘The Boot’
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - East Anchorage and Bartlett High School have battled on the field for Eastside supremacy for decades.
The rivalry became about more than just the scoreboard in 2002 when East’s all-state defensive end Aanooalii “Aano” Filaoialii died in a car crash the summer heading into his senior season.
In each year since, the two teams play for a trophy called “The Boot,” which features one of Filaoialii’s game-worn cleats pedestaled at the top.
“It is huge for Aano and his family, we always take it personal when we win it and keep it, when we lose it, it really hurts,” East Anchorage head coach Jeff Trotter said. “It has a little bit bigger meaning to us I think because of that.”
As the two teams met at midfield to shake hands prior to this year’s game, they may not have expected what was in store when the ball kicked off.
“From what I understand, it was the longest game ever, I think,” Trotter added.
Tied 12-12 after four quarters, the game went into overtime where each team gets alternating possessions from the 10-yard line until one team outscores the other.
Each team scored a touchdown and converted a two-point possession in the first overtime, leading to a second OT, where the same result transpired.
In the third overtime, neither team was able to find the end zone, sending it to a fourth overtime, where both teams scored a touchdown, but failed on the two-point attempt as neither team was going to attempt a kick.
A fifth overtime saw rushing scores with two-point conversions for each team, where it felt like the stadium lights may be used in a game that started at 2 p.m.
In the sixth overtime, East started with the ball, where Tenari Atisanoe-Harmon scored his third rushing touchdown of the game, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Bentley Stubbs to Brandon Young.
After Bartlett answered with yet another touchdown, it came down to the two-point attempt, where the Thunderbirds were finally able to stop the Golden Bears at the goal line to secure the 50-48 victory.
“It was just great, a great way to honor the boot, great way to honor Aano, couldn’t ask for a better game, couldn’t ask for a better outcome,” an emotional Young said after the game.
After 98 combined points, 14 touchdowns and six overtimes, East retained the boot, with both sides displaying the same heart as Filaoialii.
”The Bartlett teams and the East teams, I think what the heart that they showed was incredible,” Trotter added. ”He was a hard worker, exceptional athlete, led by example, and by how he acted and presented himself and his family did as well, it was a big loss for the Eastside community, not just East High, being able to represent him and honor him in this way is pretty awesome.”
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