The Soldotna football team defeated host Chugiak 47-7 on Friday in Railbelt Conference action.
The Stars move to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the league, while the Mustangs fall to 1-1 in the league and 1-1 overall.
Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley Jr. is now 158-9 overall and just one game from equaling former Palmer coach Rod Christiansen for the most wins in state history.
“We were certainly far from flawless,” Brantley Jr. said. “We made our share of mistakes, but the kids played hard.
“We certainly had some bright moments from individual kids that stood out.”
The coach said Wyatt Faircloth broke out at running back. Faircloth had touchdown runs of 12, 36 and 44 yards.
Brantley Jr. also said Andon Wolverton stood out at running back, scoring from 29 yards out.
Owen Buckbee also excelled at quarterback, hitting a 20-yard scoring strike to Matthew Schilling and a 3-yard touchdown pass to Trevor Michael.
The coach added the Stars had a pair of drives stopped in the first half due to a penalty and a jump-ball interception near the end of the half.
“I think the bright spot for me was defensively,” Brantley Jr. said. “I thought our kids played really well defensively. Our ones didn’t bend much at all.”
Chugiak did not score until 16 seconds remained in the third quarter. By that time, the Stars had their second unit in the game and were ahead 41-7.
Lokeni Wong completed the scoring for Soldotna in the fourth quarter by leading a drive at quarterback and finishing that drive with a 5-yard run.
Brantley Jr. said the Mustangs had a hard time dealing with defensive end Elijah Lee.
“We just feel like when he is on and he’s making good decisions and block reading, that he is pretty tough for high school kids to handle,” the coach said.
Brantley Jr. also was happy to welcome tight end Luke Miller back to the field. Miller had not played in almost a year due to a knee injury. He was limited to 20 plays and Brantley Jr. said the knee did just fine.
The coach now has a chance to tie Christiansen on Saturday, Aug. 31, in a 2:30 p.m. AKDT game against Teton High School of Driggs, Idaho, at Holt Arena on the campus of Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho.
The game is part of the Rocky Mountain Rumble, during which three Idaho teams play three teams from out of state.
The Stars fly out Tuesday night and will be in Salt Lake City through Thursday, when they will watch the University of Utah football team host Southern Utah.
“I feel like it’s a new adventure for the kids, and they worked really hard to fundraise for it,” Brantley Jr. said. “They put the time and effort into it. They’re the ones that made this happen.”
Although Teton lost its season opener, the Timberwolves were the runner-up for the Idaho High School Activities Association Class 3A last season. The school has about 600 students, making it about the same size as SoHi.
Brantley Jr. said Teton High School coach David Joyce has rebuilt numerous programs and does a great job of coaching the team. Jack Joyce, David’s son, led the state in rushing last season and in the spring ran the 100-meter dash at 10.98 seconds. The Alaska state meet record is 10.81 seconds.
“There’s just athletes,” Brantley Jr. said. “Their skill positions are better than anything we’ll see in the state of Alaska.”
The Timberwolves run the spread offense, very different from the power-T formation of the Stars. Brantley Jr. won out of state games in 2017 and 2019 and said the power-T can be an advantage.
“We’ve gone out and we’re so awkward for people because of what we do,” Brantley Jr. said. “These spread teams, it’s hard to build real grit and toughness when you’re running 5-yard outs for practice.
“And sometimes guys really struggle with us when they first see us.”
The coach added that Joyce has been to so many places that he will have a plan.
“At some point, we’re going to go out and someone’s going to have a pretty good plan for us,” Brantley Jr. said.
He said other concerns are playing indoors and at 4,500 feet above sea level. The Stars will seek to slow the game down because they have to many players going both ways.
Due to the big trip, Brantley Jr. said he isn’t thinking about catching Christiansen.
“That’s so far off my radar right now,” he said. “I’m just worried about whether every kid has their AK club card so they don’t have to pay for bags.”
Homer 32, Redington 8
The visiting Mariners bounced back from a loss to Kenai Central by notching a nonconference victory over the Huskies.
Both Homer and Redington are in the Mid Alaska Conference, but their conference matchup won’t come until Sept. 27 in Homer. The Huskies are 0-2 overall.
The Mariners led 24-8 at halftime, then got the ball to begin the second half and scored again. After that, head coach Justin Zank said his squad began working the clock.
After getting shut out against Kenai, quarterback Preston Stanislaw led the Mariners as Homer rolled up 435 yards on offense.
Stanislaw rushed 21 times for 210 yards and also hit 6 of 6 passes for 57 yards. He rushed for three touchdowns and passed for one.
Nikifor Reutov had 10 rushes for 56 yards for Homer, while Joaquin Jackson was 4 for 48, Justus Grimes was 7 for 43 and CJ Burns was 2 for 21.
Irimey Reutov led Homer with 27 receiving yards and a touchdown, while Burns had 13 receiving yards and Nikifor Reutov had 7. On defense, Nikifor Reutov led with seven tackles.
Zank said the biggest different came from the offensive line of Adgel Chandler, Timmy Cisney, Eli Stodola, John Dudley and Shea Yatchmeneff.
The coach said all the linemen were the same as against Kenai, except Cisney. Zank said the difference was the group didn’t play on defense to focus on offense.
Zank also was happy with the way his defense looked, led by linebackers Nikifor Reutov and Grimes, who had three tackles.
“It’s a completely different offense to prepare for here,” Zank said. “Kenai is power run, then Redington slings it all over the place.
“But I was happy with how we controlled the line of scrimmage, both on offense and defense.”
Zank said the Huskies scored in the first quarter, then the Mariners pitched a shutout the rest of the game.
Homer completes its nonconference schedule, and opens its home slate, Friday, Aug. 30, at 6 p.m. against West Valley. The Wolfpack are Division II, while the Mariners are Division III.
West Valley is led by David DeVaughn. Zank coached against DeVaughn when DeVaughn was at Eielson, and Zank was at Nikolaevsk.
The Wolfpack are 2-0 after defeating Barrow and Eagle River.
“We’ve seen the film,” Zank said. “We saw them at camp. They’re gonna be tough. They’ve done a good job there.”
