Champions: 56th Engineers take flag football crown

  • Published
  • By John Pennell
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Throughout the intramural flag football season, when 56th Engineer Company coach Lou Keemer wanted to scrimmage another team for practice, he could always count on Troy Johnson and his team from A Company, 307th Integrated Theater Signal Battalion to show up.

As the two teams played through the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson tournament on the field by Buckner Physical Fitness Center, it seemed they were destined to meet at least one more time.

The engineers rolled through to the championship game undefeated.

A/307th met them there after overcoming a second-round loss to the 95th Chemical Company team and fighting their way out of the loser's bracket. The signal Soldiers would need two wins to claim the championship.

Keemer said meeting a familiar foe with the title on the line was different.

"It was kind of odd for us," he said. "We had scrimmaged each other so much we knew each other's plays. It was like a game of chess, we had to match each other."

Johnson said the familiarity didn't give him any reason to make major adjustments to his playbook.

"I kept the same basic game plan; we're faster than them," he explained. "I threw in a couple more trick plays, however, it didn't really affect us.

"We scrimmaged them like five times and beat them four of the scrimmages, so why would I change my entire game plan if I can keep beating you in the scrimmage?"
A/307th scored first in the first championship game, but failed on their extra point attempt. The engineers responded with a touchdown and extra point to take a 7-6 edge into halftime.

The signal Soldiers started the second half with a scoring run by quarterback Gerald Brayboy and an extra point pass from Brayboy to Jamell McKinney to retake the lead at 13-6 with 6:16 to play in the game.

A/307th's defense withstood two more 56th Engineer possessions without allowing a score, and held on to force the "if necessary" championship game.

Keemer said his players rallied between the two games with determination to succeed.
"A lot of the guys on the team, they've been up here for two years," he explained. "So they were here in '09 when we made it to the game right before the championship game, and again last year the game right before the championship game.

"We didn't come this far to lose again. We knew in order to win the championship we had to win once and to lose it we had to get beat twice, and we weren't going to let that happen," Keemer said.

The engineer coach said he decided to go back to his team's strength in the second game.

"Pretty much all year nobody's been able to stop our run game," he said. "We learned from the first game that they couldn't stop the run, so I told them to run the ball until they stopped us.

"Our run got stopped toward the end, and so we just started throwing the lobs up to our big guys and just let them make the plays."

Early on it was defense that earned points for the engineers, as Durrell Hurst intercepted a Brayboy pass and returned it for a touchdown. An extra point pass from quarterback Louie Jaramillo to Okeefee Robinson gave the engineers a 7-0 edge.

A/307th couldn't move the ball against the engineer defense and turned the ball over on downs on their next possession. Another Jaramillo touchdown pass and extra point gave the engineers a 14-0 lead going into halftime.

Brayboy opened the second half quickly moving the signal team down the field before tossing another scoring pass. The extra point attempt was thwarted, leaving A/307th with a 14-6 deficit.

The engineers took possession with just under six minutes to play and proceeded to pound the signal Soldiers with a series of runs by Xavier Chance to grind down the clock and hold on for a final 14-6 win and the 2011 flag football championship.
Johnson said the season had proven to be a good one for his A/307th team and predicted a rematch for next season.

"I had fun coaching my guys," he said. "This is the first time they actually went to a championship, and most of my guys are coming back; so we'll win it next year."