Kenai 21, Barrow 8
On Saturday, Sept. 23 the Kardinal football team demonstrated the kind of toughness that is necessary when matched against a team of its similar caliber. After an 84-0 romp against Redington the week before, the Barrow Whalers came to town. The Whalers had defeated Kenai with a late touchdown early in the season for an 8-6 two point loss. A similar close and low-scoring game was evident as the two teams played to a 0-0 tie at the end of the first half.
Both teams proved to possess stingy defenses: the Whalers penetrated quickly into the Kenai backfield over and over again, dropping the Kards running backs behind the line of scrimmage or sacking QB Zeke Yragui whenever he attempted to pass. The Kards could only manage first downs through Barrow penalties, which were frequent. Similarly, the Kards came up with big turnovers with fumble recoveries by Wyatt Cole and Logan Meyer and interceptions by Sawyer Vann and Cole Langham deep in their own territory at key moments that would stymie a Barrow drive.
The key play of the game occurred immediately at the start of the 2 nd half. In their two kickoffs during the game, the Whalers employed an obvious onside formation, using the “squibb-kick” method. Both times Kenai successfully fielded the ball. But in what appears to be a successfully repeated tactic, used the past 2 weeks against different opponents, the Kardinals kicked off with a high, end-over-end “pop-up” that bounced at the 35 yard line and was dived on for a successful Kenai possession. With a newfound momentum, the Kardinals ran the ball across the end zone in about 5 plays, capped with a 6-yard run by HB Bobby Hayes.
The Whalers lost the services of starting QB Dwight Unutoa and was replaced by their center Brewster Fields, who proved himself a capable replacement. But Barrow running backs Gabriel Ortilla, Lennox Dias and Angelo Reyes, who performed capably in the first half, were sufficiently contained by the Kenai defense in the 3 rd quarter. Just 2 minutes later, on the next Kardinals possession, a 16-yard TD run by Hayes gave Kenai a 14-0 lead and control of the game.
But nobody told the Whalers. A superbly smooth TD pass from Fields to receiver Alex Fruean, who took the ball at full stride along the left sideline, gave the Whalers a 34 yard TD. With a 2-point conversion, Barrow then held a psychological advantage should they be able to penetrate the Kenai defense on their next possession.
But the onside kick did not work, and Kenai took the ball inside Whaler territory, marched to the 16 when Hayes crossed for his 3rd TD of the game and a 21-8 Kenai lead early in the 4th quarter.
Barrow’s strength obviously ebbed during the remainder of the game as Kenai played a time-consuming ball control whenever they had possession and as the Whalers backs were successfully contained during their own possessions.
The Kardinals are now 5-2 overall, 3-1 in conference games, and appear ready for post-season play.
Soldotna 63, Chugiak 7
The Stars of Soldotna came out again Friday, and brought and old fashioned drubbing with them, beating the Chugiak Mustangs 63-7.
The score doesn’t accurately reflect the dominance we’ve become accustomed to from SOHI, who led 45-0 at halftime. It’s difficult to quantify what we’re seeing from Soldotna Highschool this football season. They’ve sat atop both the maxpreps.com and Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network rankings all season, save the first week (when no one had yet played a game). Arguably the toughest contest the Stars have faced this year was a preseason scrimmage against the West Anchorage Eagles (the highest ranked Division 1 school in Alaska – but still 2nd overall to SOHI), and anyone for that would tell you Soldotna appeared well in control there too.
Could this be a return to the string of dominance SOHI brought to the field between 2007 – 2017 when the Stars won 59 straight games, and racked up seven consecutive Div. II titles? Perhaps its too early to say, but one thing is for sure: Soldotna Highschool Football is playing a tier above every other program in the state.
As far the Chugiak game is concerned – copy and paste. Wyatt Faircloth: 4 touchdowns. Gehret Medcoff: 1 Touchdown. Colin Peck: 2 Touchdowns. Zac Buckbee more than 100 combined rushing and throwing yards. Andrew Pieh picked up his 3rd interception of the season.
SOHI is now 7-0 overall on the season, and 6-0 in conference play. Surprisingly, however, they don’t have the conference title locked up yet. With Eagle River at 5-1 in conference play, the Wolves still have a shot to unseat the Stars and capture the conference crown. They’ll have to do so this weekend when SOHI travels north to face Eagle River in the final game of the regular season for both teams. Winner takes the conference, and the #1 seed in the playoffs.
SOHI v. Eagle River is this Saturday, September 30th, at 4:00 p.m..
