The Lathrop football team defeated Soldotna 35-28 in Railbelt Conference play Saturday at Justin Maile Field in Soldotna.
The Malemutes grabbed a 28-7 lead at halftime and watched the Stars come back to tie it at 28 in the second half. Lathrop was able to score with 5:14 left in the game and stall out a Soldotna drive at the Malemutes 10-yard line to secure the victory.
In his 18th season, Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley Jr. lost for just the fourth time on his home field and is 163-10 overall. He is 5-4 against Lathrop head coach Luke Balash, with the two playing for the last four Division II state titles and each winning two.
Brantley Jr. also lost a regular season game to a conference opponent for the first time, and the Stars as a program lost a regular season game to a conference opponent for the first time since 2005.
“Programwise, people like to make a big deal out of it because we haven’t had a lot of them, but we can learn a lot from a loss,” Brantley Jr. said. “Hopefully, we’re sitting here three weeks from now, talking about how that was a turning point in the season for us.”
The Stars still have a chance to wrap up a 19th straight conference title (if the string of local games during the pandemic in 2020 is included) when they travel to face North Pole on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Patriots are 6-0 in the Railbelt and 7-1 overall, while the Stars are 5-1 and 7-1.
Brantley Jr. said it will be a long bus ride to play in frigid Fairbanks in the middle of October on a grass field.
“There’s a lot of reasons for us not to play well, except for the fact that everything is on the line,” he said. “All of our preseason goals, with winning the conference title being a part of it, we didn’t lose that with our play this week.”
What the Stars did lose was the chance to make it harder for the Malemutes to make the playoffs. Lathrop (3-3, 4-4), West Valley (3-3, 5-3) and Eagle River (3-3, 4-4) are all fighting for the Nos. 3 and 4 spots in the Division II playoffs.
The Malemutes and Wolfpack face each other to end the regular season, while Eagle River plays Wasilla (0-6, 1-7). Palmer (2-4, 3-5) and Chugiak (2-4, 3-5) also face off.
Lathrop took the opening kickoff, used two first downs via penalty and converted on fourth down to eventually score on a 33-yard pass from Devin Emmett to Oschaun Easaw.
Jaykob Kemp then answered right back with a 57-yard run.
SoHi would then fail to score on five straight possessions with two lost fumbles, an interception, a three-and-out and a drive in which a touchdown was called back on a penalty.
“We take a lot of pride in starting fast, coming out with a lot of energy, and it just didn’t happen,” Brantley Jr. said. “We made a lot of uncharacteristic errors and beat ourselves.
“At the same time, they’re a team we’ve watched get better and better and better over the course of the year, and we knew they’d be tough.”
Emmett threw touchdown passes to Luke Skinner and Devonte Hall, and Easaw broke free for another scoring run, as Lathrop led 28-7 at the half.
“We kind of pulled up on our bootstraps and took a deep breath and came out and gave it our best effort in the second half,” Brantley Jr. said.
The Stars didn’t score on the opening possession of the half, then Lokeni Wong turned the momentum with his second interception of the game.
Suddenly, two touchdown runs by Andon Wolverton and another by Wyatt Faircloth had the game tied with 8:42 to play.
Lathrop returned the kickoff to midfield when a returner wrapped up inside the 20 pitched the ball to another returner.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s a fumble when a kid starts doing that stuff,” Brantley Jr. said. “They were just the recipients of some crazy, wild stuff, and that’s the way the ball bounces.”
The Malemutes took advantage when Easaw punched in a 14-yard run with 5:14 to play.
Wolverton sat out the last drive for precautionary reasons on an injury, according to Brantley Jr., but the injury is not expected to be serious.
The coach gave credit to Wong and outside linebacker Trevor Michael for solid games. He also said linemen Kenai Lepule and Koda Lepule went both ways the entire game against the massive Malemutes and did a great job of holding up.
On senior night, the Stars football and cheerleading programs honored Dalton Armstrong, Landon Bauer, Wyatt Earll, Kayden Estremera, Faircloth, Marcus Hagedorn, Kellyn Hansen, Kemp, Elijah Lee, Kenai Lepule, Austin Lewis, Ryan McVey, Trevor Michael, Luke Miller, Valentino Rigutto, Ryatt Weed, Lokeni Wong, Adele Tacey, Hailey Stonecipher, Taylor Ruffner and Mazzy Bundy.
Saturday
Malemutes 35, Stars 28
Lat 7 21 0 7 —35
Sol 7 0 14 7 —28
1st Quarter
Lat — Easaw 33 pass from Emmett (Naber kick), 5:17.
Sol — Kemp 57 run (Hillyer kick), 3:59.
2nd Quarter
Lat — Skinner 22 pass from Emmett (Naber kick), 10:41.
Lat — Hall 56 pass from Emmett (Naber kick), 6:57.
Lat — Easaw 51 run (Naber kick), 0:24.
3rd Quarter
Sol — Wolverton 22 run (Hillyer kick), 5:11.
Sol — Wolverton 44 run (Hillyer kick), 1:08.
4th Quarter
Sol — Faircloth 13 run (Hillyer kick), 8:42.
Lat — Easaw 14 run (Naber kick), 5:14.
Lat Sol
First downs 11 15
Rushing yards 38-214 47-416
Passing yards 146 30
Comp-att-int 11-17-2 2-7-1
Return yards 4-140 1-28
Punts 2-30.0 2-27.0
Fumbles 1-0 4-2
Penalties 8-57 7-60
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing — Lathrop: Easaw 29-186, Emmett 4-15, Skinner 2-10, Brooks 1-5, Talo 1-3, Van Leeuwan 1-(-5). Soldotna: Wolverton 10-146, J. Kemp 12-139, Wong 6-57, Faircloth 10-53, Buckbee 9-21.
Passing — Lathrop: Emmett 11-17-2—146. Soldotna: Michael 1-1-0—25, Buckbee 1-6-1—5.
Receiving — Lathrop: Dev. Hall 1-56, Easaw 4-30, Skinner 1-22, Lawson 2-16, Guffey 1-15, Des. Hall 1-7, Brooks 1-0. Soldtna: Faircloth 1-25, J. Kemp 1-5.
