Crown the Kardinals

Sophomore quarterback A.J. Hull atoned for his worst game of the season, the defense came up with key stops and Kenai stunned Soldotna 21-10 to claim the small-schools state football championship in Saturday's First National Bowl at Anchorage Football Stadium.

"We knew we could do it. Every one of us believed we were going to win this thing," Kenai running back Billy Kiefer said. "We left everything we had out on the field."

Soldotna was the three-time defending state champion and had not lost to a small-schools opponent since a 37-0 loss to Kenai in the 2005 season.

"They showed up. They flat out showed up and outplayed us," Soldotna coach Galen Brantley Jr. said.

Kenai was in control of the game from the start, but the Stars made them sweat near the end. A 10-yard touchdown run by Tanner Fowler cut Kenai's lead to 13-10 with 2:58 left to play.

On the ensuing onside kick, Soldotna was called for delay of game just before kicking. On their second attempt, the Stars recovered the ball only to have the officials rule they had touched it before it traveled the necessary 10 yards.

"If you put yourself in a situation where you need an on-side kick and a referee's decision to keep you in the ball game, then you didn't work hard enough up to that point," Brantley said.

On the next play Kiefer ran 50 yards for a touchdown, setting off a celebration along the Kenai sideline. The Kardinals added a safety for the final score.

"I was a little nervous at the end, but I just had a feeling we were going to win," Kiefer said.

Before Soldotna's current run of three titles, Kenai had won the previous four state championships, including victories over the Stars in 2002 and 2004. Soldotna finished the season 8-3, with both prior losses coming against large schools.

Kenai finished the season 10-1. The only loss came three weeks ago, when the Stars routed the Kardinals 52-27. In that contest, Hull had a game to forget, completing only 12 of 37 passes and throwing four interceptions.

"I just had a bad day," Hull said. "It was the first time I'd ever been in something like that. This was Round 2."

And Hull delivered a pair of punches that sent Soldotna reeling.

The first punch came on Kenai's second drive of the game. The Kardinals had gone three-and-out on their first drive and were facing a third-and-five at their own 36. Hull rolled right and under heavy pressure lofted a pass to Bryson Lowe down the right sideline. Lowe was closely defended, but the pass hit him perfectly and he hauled it in for a 64-yard touchdown.

"Last game our confidence level wasn't very high. We couldn't figure out how to get the ball to our wide receivers," Hull said. "That play started with our linemen, they got a good block on Chase (Jenson), and Bryson got the step on his man that he needed for the score. A start like that and your confidence rockets."

The second punch came when Hull changed a play at the line, calling for a quick snap on a quarterback run up the middle that resulted in a 42-yard touchdown and a 13-3 lead in the second quarter.

Hull completed 6 of 12 passes for 147 yards and ran for 71 yards.

"A.J.was huge for us. The first game he played like a sophomore. Today he played like a veteran," Kenai assistant coach Jim Beeson said. "He saw an opening and made a check into that running play. He made great throws and he made all the plays that he had to."

It was a game of big plays. Kenai turned its big plays into touchdowns -- scoring on plays of 64, 42 and 50 yards -- and Soldotna didn't.The Stars had big gains of 27, 32, 40 and 50 yards, but after each long run the Kardinals defense stiffened and kept Soldotna from advancing any further down the field.

"We broke four nice long runs, but we got tracked down each time and we couldn't restart the engine once it got stopped," Brantley said.

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Find Richard Larson online at adn.com/contact/rlarson or call 257-4335.

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Kenai 21, Soldotna 10

Kenai 6 7 0 8 -- 21

Soldotna 0 3 0 7 -- 10

First Quarter

Kenai -- Bryson Lowe 64 pass from A.J. Hull (kick blocked), 5:15.

Soldotna -- Noah Fowler 33 FG, 9:58

Second Quarter

Kenai -- Hull 42 run (Logan Sutton kick), 4:06.

Third Quarter

No scoring.

Fourth Quarter

Soldotna -- Tanner Fowler 10 run (Noah Fowler kick), 2:58

Kenai -- Billy Kiefer 50 run (kick blocked) 2:49

Kenai -- safety, 1:38.

Kenai Soldotna

First downs 7 9

Rushes-yards 38-256 55-272

Passing yards 147 42

Return yards 69 30

Passes 6-13-0 3-7-1

Punts 6-25.6 4-41.1

Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-1

Penalties-yards 11-70 8-85

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Kenai: Billy Kiefer 21-125, A.J. Hull 11-71, Nick Rouswell 6-60. Soldotna: Braden Price 17-164, Philip Bennett 10-57, Chris Nolden 12-25, Robbie Smithwick 4-18, Tanner Fowler 12-8.

PASSING -- Kenai: Hull 6-13-1-147. Soldotna: Braden Price 0-2-1-0, Tanner Fowler 3-4-0-42, Robbie Smithwick 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING -- Kenai: Bryson Lowe 2-95, Billy Kiefer 3-48, Justin Herrmann 1-4. Soldotna: Braden Price 2-37, Garrett Bosick 1-5.