The visiting Soldotna football team defeated Eagle River 44-27 on Saturday in Railbelt Conference play behind four rushing touchdowns from Andon Wolverton.
The Stars move to 3-0 in the league and 4-0 overall, while the Wolves are 1-2 and 2-2.
Wolverton tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the Division II state title game last season.
Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley Jr. said Wolverton is starting to look like himself more each week.
“I still feel like there’s a little bit of a hitch he’s working through,” Brantley Jr. said. “He’s figuring out how to manage some of the inflammation and swelling he gets.
“But he’s doing really well. He certainly carried us today when we were struggling.”
Wolverton gave the Stars the lead in the first quarter on a 7-yard run.
Early in the second quarter, Michael Roschi ran 48 yards to score the first of his three rushing touchdowns for Eagle River.
“The running back they have is the real deal,” Brantley Jr. said of Roschi. “That’s first and foremost. As much as we struggled, he’s really talented.”
Wolverton answered with a 71-yard run, with a conversion from Owen Buckbee to Bryan Berg, and a 19-yard run to put SoHi up 22-6 with 6:21 left until halftime.
With 1:44 left, the Wolves’ David Shipley caught an 18-yard pass from Mac Steeves.
Eagle River got the ball coming out of the half, and Roschi scored on a 7-yard run. When Miguel Marrero caught the conversion from Steeves, suddenly it was 22-20 SoHi.
The Stars restored order before the end of the quarter. Chase Hall scored on a 24-yard run, then caught the conversion from Buckbee, and Wolverton ripped off an 85-yarder for a 37-20 lead.
Brantley Jr. said Hall was a little frustrated after the game last week after making a few mistakes.
“Today, I thought offensively he kind of gave us another dimension to go with Andon,” the coach said. “We were very happy with his play.”
Brantley Jr. said the emergence of rushing weapons is important because star pass-catching tight end Matthew Schilling is out with an injury.
“Without him there, they’re able to crowd the ball and put more guys in the box,” the coach said.
Offensively, the lack of Schilling showed.
“It wasn’t as clean as what we’d seen the first three games,” Brantley Jr. said. “We felt like it was a little bit of a step back. We certainly have some work to do.”
In the fourth quarter, Hall scored on a 30-yard run before a 4-yarder completed the scoring for Roschi.
The Stars now travel to face West Valley at 7:30 p.m Friday. The Wolfpack are 1-2 in the league and 1-3 overall, but their last two losses have been 28-27 to West and 34-31 to Palmer.
Brantley Jr. said West Valley went for a two-point conversion to beat West and didn’t make it, then had some late interceptions that were costly against Palmer.
“They’re not going to be afraid of anybody,” Brantley Jr. said. “They’re not going to be intimidated just because we roll into town.”
