The visiting Soldotna football team defeated North Pole 30-6 on Friday night to secure the Railbelt Conference title and the No. 1 seed in the Division II playoffs.
The Stars (6-1 in the league, 8-1 overall) will host No. 4 Chugiak (4-5, 3-4) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, in the semifinals of the playoffs. The Stars defeated the Mustangs 47-7 on Aug. 23.
Soldotna bounced back from its lone loss of the season by steadily pulling away from the Patriots on about as pleasant of an evening as one will find in the Interior in mid-October.
“No one likes to lose a football game, but I felt our kids responded well,” Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley Jr. said. “We put in a great week of prep, came up and played a pretty good football team and we executed pretty well in all three phases.”
The Soldotna program has now won conference titles in 19 straight years, while Brantley Jr. has won one in each of his 18 seasons.
“With everybody thrown together the last few years, we’ve fortunately been able to take care of business and continue, but it’s a lot tougher conference than it was in the early years,” Brantley Jr. said.
The Stars got a 1-yard run from Owen Buckbee in the first quarter and a 60-yard burst from Jaykob Kemp in the second quarter to take a 14-0 lead at the half.
Luke Hillyer nailed a field goal in the third quarter for a 17-0 lead headed to the final quarter.
Lokeni Wong put SoHi up 24-0 with a 5-yard run before the Patriots struck for a 24-6 lead with 6:47 to play. Chase Hall finished the scoring for SoHi with a 16-yard scamper.
Brantley Jr. said SoHi’s defense, led by middle linebacker Wyatt Faircloth, did a great job of keeping North Pole’s athletes contained.
“Faircloth had a great game again,” Brantley Jr. said. “Controlling the box, making all our checks, getting us aligned and everything.”
On offense, Brantley Jr. said the Patriots had a good defensive scheme and were making the Stars run 12 to 14 plays to score, which opened the door to some mistakes stalling drives.
The coach said Wong and Dax Walden did a good job filling in for Andon Wolverton, who missed the game due to injury. Brantley Jr. also liked what Hall did in a reserve role.
On the offensive and defensive lines, the coach said Theo Huff and Kenai Lepule both did a lot of outstanding things.
