Soldotna 56, Chugiak 0
The Soldotna Stars began their postseason campaign for a 2023 State Championship on Saturday, October 7 with a dominant win over the Chugiak Mustangs. Not many folks anticipated that this matchup would offer the Stars much of a challenge, considering the way they played throughout the regular season, not to mention how things went for the Mustangs when they came to Soldotna a few weeks ago. SOHI won that game 63-7.
Saturday’s game played out much the same way, with one notable exception: Gehret Medcoff. Apparently Medcoff had been keeping a cape in his locker this season, and decided to the playoffs seemed as good a time as any to break it out. The Stars up-the-gut guy put on an absolute show, racking up 4 touchdowns on 205 yards rushing. Soldotna’s team motto is “Pound the Rock,” and few players embody that more than Medcoff, who Head Coach Galen Brantley regularly calls on to bore through defensive lines.
From his first carry, Medcoff looked like he had something special up his sleeve, adding some fancy footwork to his normally bruising running style. One of his best moments came in the second quarter after breaking a big run through the left side of the line. Five yards shy of the goal line, Medcoff stutter-stepped to the right and watched two Mustangs fly by, leaving him all alone to dance his way into the end zone. A couple touchdowns and a hundred or so yards rushing later, Medcoff broke off a 95 yard TD run to eclipse the 200 yard mark.
Medcoff’s stand out display isn’t to say the rest of the Stars weren’t out to shine as well. Colin Peck ran for an impressive 32 yard score; Zac Buckbee had a handful of impressive scrambles, as well as a big 51 yard completion to Andrew Pieh; Wyatt Faircloth, who failed to find the end zone for perhaps the first time this year, showed up on defense, regularly flying through the offensive line to collect tackles for loss. Lokeni Wong cemented his place in the secondary as arguably the hardest hitting free safety in the state, dislodging at least two Chugiak near-completed passes with monster contact.
The Stars led 28-0 at halftime, but did encounter something new when they were held scoreless in the second quarter. Chugiak’s defense seemed to find some traction in the second stopping SOHI on fourth down once, and then on third down the following SOHI drive, which ended with a missed field goal attempt by Jace O’Reagan. Coach Brantley made the necessary adjustments at halftime, however, and his team resumed putting up impressive touchdown drives in the second half.
SOHI advances to the State Championship Semi-Finals with the win. They will play the North Pole Patriots at home at 12:00 p.m. Saturday, October 14th.
