Soldotna 62, Bartlett
The Soldotna stars kept up their winning ways Friday evening at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, defeating a very capable Golden Bears squad in typical fashion, 62-19.
The Stars, now 4-0, found themselves behind in the game for the first time this season. With 4th and short yardage from the Stars 46 yard line early in the 1st quarter, QB Tevita Lauvale did a classic quarterback sneak … only to find himself bursting free from the packed-in Soldotna defense. He scampered all the way for a 6-0 Bartlett lead. The extra point was no good.
The Stars then proceeded to demolish the Golden Bears. Three TDs by Gehret Medcoff during the game were all that was necessary. However, Zac Buckbee also accounted for 3 more, which included an 8-yard TD pass against a ferocious wind to Wyatt Faircloth, a fumble recovery and TD run while playing defense, and an 8-yard run as QB.
Faircloth and Jaykob Kemp also added TDs. Trenton Ohnemus capably spelled Buckbee at QB in the 4th quarter.
Homer 8, Kenai 29
In conference shaping fashion, the Kenai Central Kardinals knocked off the Homer Mariners by a score of 29-14, catapulting themselves from fourth to first place in the Mid-Alaska Conference.
Both schools stood to gain a lot from a victory, but a loss for Kenai proffered a grim outlook for the second half of the season. Coming into the game, Kenai sat in 4th place in the conference at 2-1. Houston and Barrow also had 2-1 records, but sat ahead of Kenai om tiebreakers, which put heavy implications on the Kenai, Homer matchup. A win by Homer would have put the school in control of the conference at 4-0. With the Kenai victory, however, the Kardinals are now the conference leaders, but the race remains tight with Kenai, Homer, and Houston all at 3-1.
As for the game itself, Kenai’s homecoming saw plenty of drama. The Mariners nearly carried an 8-7 into halftime, but late heroics from Kardinal’s quarterback Zeke Yragui, and player of the game, Bobby Hayes, combined with an ill-timed Homer timeout allowed Kenai to score on a last second touchdown. With no timeouts and less than 20 seconds in the half, a 17 yard scramble by Yragui was stopped about a half yard shy of the goal line. Then, despite appearing as though they’d be unable to get the following play off before the clock ran out, Kenai was saved with 1 second to go when the lifeline timeout came from the Mariners, who were unprepared for the play as well and feared giving up an easy score.
The Kardinals opened the scoring on their opening drive of the game with a 5 play, 80 yard drive, capped off by a Yragui pass to Hayes in the flat from the Homer 47 yard line. Hayes did the rest, dodging a couple would-be tacklers before breaking up the sideline for a 47 yard score. The Mariners answered a couple drives later, scoring and taking the lad with a 2-point conversion.
Kenai carried the momentum of their thunderous end to the first half into the third quarter, engineering a short field drive from the Mariners 49 which ended in another Yragui-Hayes TD connection through the air.
In the fourth quarter Kenai added Hayes’s third score of the game – a 70 yard touchdown scamper up the near sideline – and a Sawyer Vann field goal with under 5 minutes to play.
William Wilson served as the reliable workhorse he’s been all year, pounding the ball up the middle, forcing Homer to keep their secondary in tight. Yragui collected another interception in addition to throwing a pair of touchdown passes – the pick came at a critical point in the 3rd quarter with Homer in Kardinal territory and only down by one score.
Valdez 14, Nikiski 48
Nikiski’s home game against Valdez ended under unusual circumstances last Friday when the roster-shallow Valdez Buccaneers were forced to forfeit in the fourth quarter due to an insufficient number of players available to continue. With just over 9 minutes to play in the game, a Valdez player went down with an injury – the 4th of the game – which left the Buccaneers with only 8 eligible players.
By that time the game was very nearly a foregone conclusion, with Nikiski leading by 34 points against a Buccaneers anemic offense, which hadn’t scored a touchdown all night. The only 2 Valdez scores came on kickoff returns.
Nikiski freshman running back, Kaiden Parrish, stole the show for the Bulldogs, scoring 3 times, and breaking several runs for over 10 yards. The slight of frame ball carrier showed no fear running between the tackles time and again, moving tenaciously downhill, and dropping his shoulder into one hit after another.
Wyatt McGuire caught an Ethan Ellis touchdown pass, and also ran for a score in the third quarter.