Jesse Brooks and Nile C. Kinnick travel to Kubasaki to face Jackson Nicolas, Jason Glade and the Division I regular-season champion Dragons on Friday. (Jim Mills/Special to Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan – Kubasaki ran the table in the DODEA-Pacific Division I football season, going 5-0 including a season-series sweep of arch-rival and defending Far East champion Kadena.
Forget out about that, Dragons coach Tony Alvarado said. That’s all in the past. Starting with Friday’s and Saturday’s Divisions I and II semifinals, all eight playoff teams now have a clean slate.
“That 5-0 means absolutely nothing if we don’t win on Friday,” Alvarado said of the Dragons’ home playoff contest against Nile C. Kinnick; kickoff is at 6 p.m. at Kubasaki’s Mike Petty Stadium.
“We’re back to Day 1. It’s all about going hard, focusing on fundamentals and the thing we’ve emphasized in practice is to limit our mistakes,” Alvarado said.
As part of DODEA-Pacific’s new playoff format, four of the five teams in each division qualified for the semifinals, with the winners to face off in the D-II final Oct. 25 and the D-I final Oct. 26.
The other D-I semifinal has Kadena (3-2) hosting Humphreys (2-3) at 6 p.m. Saturday; that is the only game slated for Saturday.
In the D-II semifinals, Matthew C. Perry (3-2) travels to Robert D. Edgren (3-2) and Yokota (2-3) visits regular-season champion Zama (3-2).
It’s a far cry from the first year of DODEA-Pacific football playoffs, which are now in their 20th season.
Back in 2005, teams played within district, with the four district large-school champions squaring off in semifinals followed by the D-I final, and the top small-schools teams in Japan and Korea playing for the D-II title.
Now, every team has had the luxury of having played each other. Even so, that doesn’t mean past results are an indication of what’s to come, Matthew C. Perry coach Daniel Burns said.
“We’ve seen everybody (and) we’re confident that we can compete, but we know that the other teams can beat us, too,” Burns said.
Kameron Ramos and Matthew C. Perry visit Robert D. Edgren on Friday in a Division II semifinal playoff. Samurai coach Daniel Burns calls the four-team field “pretty even.” (Kevin Rossiter/Special to Stripes)
The Dragons have worked hard on staying healthy, working on the little things in practice and, most importantly, staying eligible, Alvarado said. “We teach our kids that they have (to do schoolwork),” Alvarado said. “Football is a privilege. They have to earn that right.”
All teams should be equally motivated, Burns and Alvarado said.
“All four (D-II) teams are pretty even,” Burns said. Perhaps speaking for every team in the playoffs, he added: “We just have to be disciplined and play better football that day. We’re just happy to still be playing.”
