WASILLA, Alaska — The Alaska high school football season comes down to a familiar matchup Saturday as undefeated Lathrop takes on three-time defending Division II state champion Soldotna for the championship at Wasilla High School.
Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Alaska time (8 p.m. ET), with the Malemutes looking to complete a perfect season and the Stars aiming to extend their remarkable championship run. Lathrop enters at 9-0, while Soldotna is 7-2. The matchup pits the state's top-ranked team against the state's all-time football kings.
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Preview
Lathrop has already demonstrated it can solve the Soldotna puzzle. The Malemutes defeated the Stars 23-20 on Sept. 4, handing Soldotna one of its two losses this season.
In fact, since losing to West Anchorage in the 2018 season opener, Soldotna has only lost six games, and five of them have come against Lathrop, including that loss earlier this season. The Stars' only other loss in that span came against Star Valley of Wyoming earlier this season, meaning the Malemutes are also the only Alaskan team to defeat Soldotna in more than eight years.
Who: Lathrop (Fairbanks, Alaska) vs. Soldotna (Alaska)
When: 8 p.m. ET local
Where: Wasilla High School
Livestream: NFHS Network
Two of Lathrop's five wins in that span came in this Division II championship game in 2021 and 2022 — known as the Medium Schools championship at the time. To be clear, however, the Stars have still dominated the division, winning 11 of the 13 second-tier championships since Alaska expanded to three divisions. Prior to that, Soldotna also dominated during the final six years of the two-division era, winning four of the final six championships during that era.
It all adds up to a program that has won a state title in 14 of the past 18 seasons in a 19-year span (there was no championship staged in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic). No other Alaska team even comes close to matching Soldotna's domination on the gridiron since the state first staged the single-division state championship in 1990.
Lathrop, however, has been the team in recent years that could occasionally put a chink in Soldotna's armor. They've been the best team all year in Alaska, and they'll look to break the Stars' run of three straight championships with their own third title in the past six seasons — staking their own claim as the state's top program in that span.
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