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ANCHORAGE—A historic performance by Barrow’s Albert Gerke wasn’t enough to get the Whalers a championship berth, as they fell to the Kodiak Bears 19-13 in a high school football small schools semifinal Friday at Anchorage Football Stadium.

Gerke earned the all-time record in season passing yards with a 60-yard touchdown pass to Justin Sanders, who plucked a jump ball away from a defender and ran through 30 yards of open field with 6 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

He finished the game with 163 yards passing, upping his season total to 1,785.

Gerke, however, cared little for the record as he walked back to the sideline after the team handshakes. It was the game that mattered to him at that moment. When asked if he was OK, he was too choked up to speak and slowly shook his head.

“He’s a fine athlete,” said Barrow coach Mark Voss said. “If you saw how upset he was after the game, you’d know what a competitor he is.”

Later, with a cool head, Gerke said he wished the Whalers could have gone deep more to expose the Bears safeties.

Sanders also had a 73-yard punt return with 5:21 left in the second quarter, speeding along Kodiak’s sideline and slipping a few tackles before cutting back to the center of the field, where there was nothing but the end zone awaiting him.

“It wasn’t my plan to do a little shake-and-bake,” he said.

With just under eight minutes left in the first quarter Kodiak put the first points on the board with a 16-yard strike from quarterback Kevin Lepola Jr. to his backup Zach Bailor. Raphael Matauita supplied Kodiak’s other two touchdowns with a 17-yard run with 9:53 to go in the third quarter and an 8-yard run with 54 seconds left in the third.

Barrow had a chance to respond to Kodiak’s opening strike immediately, when the Bears attempted an onside kick and the Whalers recovered. Strong ground gains from running back Anthony Edwards and Gerke brought the Whalers to the 5-yard line, but an incomplete pass by Gerke on fourth and goal from the 2-yard line ended the drive.

“We couldn’t put the ball in on that one drive,” Voss said. “Very uncharacteristic for us.”

Another scoring opportunity was halted when Gerke was picked off inside Kodiak’s 20-yard line.

But big mistakes weren’t all made by the Whalers. Barrow was able to stay in the game with untimely penalties and fumbles from Kodiak.

Bears coach Todd Cook said special teams saved the day, and was oddly underwhelmed by a semifinal victory.

“I guess it should feel better than it does,” Cook said. “I’m kind of disappointed in the way we played. Not to take anything away from Barrow. That’s a great team we faced.”

Sanders and Kodiak running back Alex Woodell were named players of the game. Woodell had 157 yards on 32 carries and a touchdown in just his second game at halfback.