ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - For the 13th time under head coach Galen Brantley, the Soldotna Stars are the kings of Division II football in Alaska. Defeating the Lathrop Malamutes 49-28 in the 2024 DII First National Bowl at Colony High School.

“This never gets old, and it gets harder and harder,” said Brantley. “That’s a really well coached football team with a lot of talent and we’re very lucky to have gotten out of here with a win.”

Saturday’s meeting between the two DII powers was the second of the season. Lathrop got the better of Soldotna in week eight, winning 35-28.

“It’s just one of those weird things,” said Brantley. “We didn’t start very well. We actually were down 28-7 at halftime. When we walked in at half and we’re only down by a point, it was kind of like ‘Hey guys, great news. We’re only down by one.’ We didn’t have to spend the whole second half clawing out of a hole. We knew that we just needed to continue to play ball.”

This meeting was the fifth straight time Soldotna and Lathrop had met in the Championship game. The two squads were 2-2 in that span until this weekend.