Soldotna keeps rolling against Chugiak

Published 9:01 pm Thursday, August 21, 2025

The Soldotna football team defeated Chugiak 64-7 in Railbelt Conference play Friday at Justin Maile Field in Soldotna.

The Stars move to 2-0 in the league, while the Mustangs fall to 0-2.

The game matched a well-prepared, two-time defending Division II state champion against a squad that’s had terrible injury luck, and it showed.

The Stars, who led 21-0 after the first quarter and 49-0 at the half, scored on all eight drives quarterback Owen Buckbee was on the field.

The offensive starters have now scored 18 touchdowns on 18 drives this season.

“I feel like we’re executing at a pretty high level for Week 2,” Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley Jr. said. “We’re not where we need to be, but we’re moving in the right direction.”

The Stars are famous for their rushing attack, but the offense becomes all the more lethal when the passing game also is a big threat.

Buckbee went 5 of 6 for 112 yards and three scores through the air. He also ran for a 56-yard touchdown.

Two of the passing touchdowns went to Matthew Schilling, who had four catches for 105 yards. Dax Walden caught the other scoring strike.

Andon Wolverton led the rushing attack with six carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns.

Wolverton got into the end zone for the first time since tearing his anterior cruciate ligament last season in the Division II title game.

“It took a long time, and I put a lot of effort into it,” he said. “I had to keep on grinding on that. Eventually, it worked out.”

Physically, Wolverton said he feels great. Mentally, he said it’s still hard to trust the knee with a brace on it.

“I don’t really feel like myself right now,” he said. “I have a hard time running still. I take too many stutter steps.

“I think in a game or two, I’ll probably be back.”

Eli Richards, Walden and Ethan Piscoya added rushing touchdowns for SoHi, while Luke Hillyer nailed all eight point-after attempts.

The Soldotna defensive starters, missing Zack Kemp at safety, gave up just one first down before leaving after Chugiak’s first drive of the second half.

“After giving up a bunch of points a week ago and scrambling in our secondary, I felt like this week was kind of to shore up our rotations and what our depth at backup was going to look like,” Brantley Jr. said. “It was nice to see those kids have a better game.”

The coach said linebacker Wyatt Williams and defensive end Theo Huff were the standouts on defense. Schilling and Liam Peck had the interceptions.

Chugiak head coach Roger Spackman said the Mustangs are going through the worst injury season he’s seen, sustaining five broken bones over a stretch of eight days at one point.

“Soldotna is so good and so tough, but we fought them as hard today as we’ve ever fought them,” Spackman said. “The result doesn’t really show it, just because we’re missing so much.”

Defensively, the Mustangs had two seniors and seven sophomores starting. Offensively, Chugiak was down to its fourth quarterback, bringing receiver Ahmir Walker to play the position.

Walker did not complete a pass and had two interceptions, but was able to execute the rushing attack.

“For the number of reps he’s had, and the experience he’s had, he did great today,” Spackman said.

Walker got in the end zone on a fourth-quarter run, while Morgan Robinson rushed 26 times for 71 yards.

“Morgan was terrific on both sides of the ball,” Spackman said of the captain. “He’s one of the stalwarts of the team.”

Brantley Jr. knew Chugiak would be hampered by injuries, but he appreciated the studious way the Stars prepared for the game by staying on top of film all week.

“That first day of school is usually miserable for high school football coaches, because your kids are just dragging,” Brantley Jr. said. “Our kids fought through and had a great practice.”

Soldotna travels to Dimond for a nonconference game at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29. The game matches the defending Division I and II champions.

The Lynx lost some firepower when quarterback Cayden Pili, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year last season, elected to play out of state.

Brantley Jr. said Dimond still has plenty of talent.

“We’ll definitely have our hands full,” he said. “There’s no question we’re stepping up to the semifinal-type of big school teams.

“It’ll be a really good challenge for us, without question.”

Brantley Jr. started as head coach for the Stars in 2007 and has only two losses to Anchorage teams — to West in 2009 and 2018.

Chugiak travels to California to take on the Encinal Jets on Thursday, Aug. 28, at 7 p.m.

Friday

Stars 64, Mustangs 7

Chu 0 0 0 7 —7

Sol 21 28 7 8 —64

1st Quarter

Sol — Wolverton 57 run (Lu. Hillyer kick), 11:01.

Sol — Schilling 35 pass from Buckbee (Lu. Hillyer kick), 8:47.

Sol — Walden 7 pass from Buckbee (Lu. Hillyer kick), 0:29.

2nd Quarter

Sol — Wolverton 27 run (Lu. Hillyer kick), 10:13.

Sol — Richards 32 run (Lu. Hillyer kick), 7:19.

Sol — Schilling 39 pass from Buckbee (Lu. Hillyer kick), 5:10.

Sol — Buckbee 56 run (Lu. Hillyer kick), 2:05.

3rd Quarter

Sol — Walden 1 run (Lu. Hillyer kick), 7:23.

4th Quarter

Chu — Walker 5 run (Bobo kick), 7:53.

Sol — Piscoya 14 run (Hughes run), 5:29.

Sol Chu

First downs 10 8

Rushing yards 32-395 42-99

Passing yards 122 0

Comp-att-int 5-6-0 0-5-2

Return yards 46 59

Punts 0-0 6-31.5

Fumbles 0-0 1-0

Penalties 5-50 4-40

INDIVIDUAL STATS

Rushing — Soldotna: Wolverton 6-108, Hall 11-80, Buckbee 2-57, Walden 5-41, Richards 1-32, Piscoya 3-32, Hughes 1-29, Innes 1-18, Fielden 2-(-2). Chugiak: Robinson 26-71, Walker 10-25, Benning 3-7, Johnson 1-1, O’Loughlin 1-1, Santiago 1-(-6).

Passing — Soldotna: Buckbee 5-6-0—112. Chugiak: Walker 0-5-2—0.

Receiving — Soldotna: Schilling 4-105, Walden 1-7.