Best Kept Secret In Alaska, Soldotna Shooting ‘Stars’ For Win #50 In A Row

(7-30-17) – The Soldotna Stars won their fifth straight Alaska Medium School football state title in 2016 with a 49-13 win over Palmer. The win gives the Stars nine overall state titles.

In a ‘Hoosiers” type run for the state title in 2016, it wouls all start in the final regular season game (October 1) when Junior Quarterback Brandon Crowder had his season end going down with a broken foot.

Two games later the state title win over Palmer would come with a freshman QB, Jersey Truesdell, who was making his first ever varsity start in the state title game (heplayed the majority season on the JV team) and saw just limited action the week before in the Stars win over the North Pole. The freshman did his part as he would pass for 66 yards and a touchdown in the State title win over Palmer 49-13. Truesdell had some help, Soldotna fullback Brenner Furlong (Alaska’s 2016-17 Gatorade Player of the Year) rushed for 269 of the Stars’ 400 total yards and five touchdowns.

“I was a little nervous, but the guys around me picked me up and I knew they had my back. I just had to follow in their footsteps.”

The Stars, not shying away from a tough schedule, will start the 2017 season on August 11th when they travel to West Anchorage to start the season. West lost in the Alaska Large School State Title game to East Anchorage 13-7, both of them lost to Soldotna during the 2016 10-0 perfect season. The Stars will play conference rival Palmer on September 8th in a rematch of last year’s state title game.

Head Coach (doubles as the offensive coordinator) Galen Brantley, Jr, a 1993 Soldtna grad, has 95 players listed on his MaxPreps roster, big numbers at any level in any state is the strong foundation for a vibrant program.

A favorite Brantley saying–

“Do the right thing” — in the classroom, in the community, on the football field.

Those around the country also need to know that the Stars have the third longest consecutive winning streak in the US with 49 straight. A win against West moves them to #50. Currently the longest consecutive winning streak belongs to Kimberly (Wisconsin) at 56, followed by Bishop Gorman with 54. The last time the Stars lost a game was in the 2012 season opener against Palmer 27-7.