The visiting Soldotna football team held on for a 28-21 victory over West Valley on Friday in Railbelt Conference play.<\/p>\n
The Stars move to 4-0 in the league and 5-0 overall, while the Wolfpack are 1-3 in the league and 1-4 overall.<\/p>\n
West Valley got the ball on its 33 with 49 seconds left and trailing 28-21. Zack Kemp spoiled the Wolfpack’s homecoming with an interception on the first play.<\/p>\n
SoHi head coach Galen Brantley Jr. said the game shows how good West Valley is and how good the Railbelt Conference is.<\/p>\n
The previous two weeks, the Wolfpack lost to undefeated West by a point and to Palmer, which is 3-1 in the Railbelt and 4-1 overall, by a point.<\/p>\n
“It’s unbelievable, honestly, the transformation of that group of kids,” Brantley Jr. said of West Valley. “A couple of years ago, they were not good.<\/p>\n
“They were getting beat by everybody.”<\/p>\n
He said West Valley head coach David DeVaughn does a great job of putting players in the right spots and not letting them quit.<\/p>\n
“Just a class act all the way,” Brantley Jr. said. “There was actually a point in the game where the officials were trying to give him a fifth down, and he actually walked out on the field and told them no.”<\/p>\n
West Valley’s record shows how good the league is. SoHi is tied with Lathrop at 4-0 for the league lead.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be an interesting finish to this thing,” Brantley Jr. said. “We’re doing everything we can to hold it together, but we definitely feel it.<\/p>\n
“The other teams in the conference have closed the gap.”<\/p>\n
West Valley led 7-0 after the first quarter on a run by Jackson Reese.<\/p>\n
SoHi led 14-7 headed to the half on a 9-yard run by Chase Hall and a 32-yard run by Dax Walden.<\/p>\n
“After we got punched a little bit, we realized we were in a fight and ended up clawing back out of it,” Brantley Jr. said.<\/p>\n
Walden had the only score of the third quarter with a 4-yard run. That drive was extended when SoHi tried a fake punt and was stuffed, but West Valley had a facemask penalty to give the Stars a first down.<\/p>\n
“That was one of those breaking points in the game, for sure,” Brantley Jr. said.<\/p>\n
With 9 minutes, 13 seconds, left in the game, Hall scored on a 2-yard run for a 28-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Brantley Jr. said SoHi was having trouble running off tackle, so Hall’s internal runs were huge.<\/p>\n
“He was a little banged up and kind of battled through it,” Brantley Jr. said. “That was a bright spot for us.”<\/p>\n
West Valley quarterback Conner Wright hit 74- and 21-yard touchdown passes to Landon Wiedmaier, the second coming with 4:27 left to play to cut it to 28-21.<\/p>\n
Brantley Jr. said the Stars, led by interior lineman Koda Lepule, actually did a lot of good things against the run, but those two blown coverages were costly.<\/p>\n
“We got the ball and had a chance to ice the game,” Brantley Jr. said. “We needed a first down, and just couldn’t get it.<\/p>\n
“We sputtered and did not play well offensively.”<\/p>\n
SoHi hosts Railbelt foe Wasilla, which is 0-4 and 0-5, at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The visiting Soldotna football team held on for a 28-21 victory over West Valley on Friday in Railbelt Conference play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":90856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,811],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n