Soldotna senior running back Andon Wolverton makes a play during a game Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, between Division II’s Soldotna and Division I’s Dimond High. Soldotna won, 56-7. (Photo by Stephanie Burgoon)
With high school football teams from both Division I and II playing out of state this past week, several matchups between the two levels took place and even one between Division II and III teams.
The most highly anticipated nonconference game of the Week 3 slate was between reigning Division I state champion Dimond and two-time defending Division II state champion Soldotna on Friday night. However, it turned out to be another lopsided victory for the visiting Stars as they steamrolled the Lynx 56-7 to remain undefeated while dropping their foes to 0-3 for the first time since 2021.
“We’re definitely off to a good start,” Soldotna head coach Galen Brantley said. “I feel like our kids are executing really well for where we are at this point in the season.”
Half of Soldotna’s touchdowns were scored by senior running back Andon Wolverton,who rushed for 101 yards and found the end zone four times from 1, 4, 10 and 32 yards out.
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“I’m glad we won, it was a battle and it was intense,” he said. I was really trying and at the end of the day, I’m glad I could get into the end zone.”
Wolverton would’ve most likely had a fifth touchdown had an official not made him leave the field after he came up limping a bit, after ripping off a 19-yard run and going down just shy of the goal line. The Stars still scored on the next play on a 2-yard touchdown from senior Ethan Piscoya.
The driving force behind Wolverton and the Soldotna offense’s overall prolific scoring was the Stars offensive line, which was perfectly aligned and executing for most of the night. On most of the scoring runs and large gains, ball carriers went untouched into the end zone or the second and third levels of the defense.
While Dimond’s defense struggled to keep Soldotna from marching up and down the field, the same couldn’t be said on the other side of the ball for both teams. The Stars pitched a shutout in the first half, posting a 42-0 advantage after two quarters of action. They held the Lynx scoreless until the 3:35 mark in the fourth quarter, when senior tight end Austin Young was able to drag a couple of backup defenders who subbed in across the goal line for a 32-yard score.
South Anchorage defeated Lathrop in their interdivisional matchup Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. (Josh Reed / ADN)
On Saturday, the top interdivisional matchup also took place in town as two-time Division II runner-up Lathrop came down from Fairbanks to take on South Anchorage. The Division I representative didn’t disappoint in this game, with the Wolverines successfully defending their home turf with a 31-7 victory over the Malemutes.
“It was all the team,” junior Ethan Yarrington said. “We pushed through together.”
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He led the charge for the Wolverines on both sides of the ball with a three-touchdown performance on offense and a defensive outing that included several tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
“It was all my offensive line,” Yarrington said. “On the two touchdowns where we just punched it up the middle, I put my nose in there right behind my offensive line, give all the credit to them.”
After establishing a 24-0 lead heading into halftime, South looked like it was poised to cruise to victory but Lathrop showed some promise courtesy of a pair of sparks provided by their special teams unit. A long kickoff return by junior Kenyon Pulgarin set up the offense with a short field, and it only took them three plays to find the end zone and cut into the Wolverines’ lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Lathrop caught South’s kick-return team off-guard with an onside kick attempt that was successfully recovered. With the Malemutes driving again, the Wolverines’ defense took the ball and momentum back on the second of three turnovers that senior Carsen Hawes came up with in the game. Just when it seemed like Pulgarin was streaking wide open over the middle for a touchdown, he came over the top and recorded the first of his two interceptions.
“We knew they were going to come back, so we pounced on them right when they did,” Yarrington said. “We were a little bit lackadaisical coming out (of halftime). We were up big and thought it was going to be a breeze, but I knew in the back of my mind that they were going to score no matter what.”
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After being held scoreless in the third quarter, he helped the Wolverines pull away for good by ripping off a 62-yard touchdown in which he broke tackles before erupting down the right sideline.
“It was a little toss-play right there, I cut it up and made a play, found green and got out of there,” Yarrington said.
Elsewhere in interdivision action from this past weekend, both West Anchorage and Service narrowly escaped Interior opponents with decisive victories that were decided by less than a field goal to remain undefeated. The Eagles came up with another clutch defensive stop to beat West Valley 28-27 while the Cougars prevailed 8-6 in a defensive battle with North Pole.
Colony pulled off a rally in the Mat-Su after initially falling behind 14-0 at home to Wasilla on Friday night. The Knights forced a pair of overtimes and came up with a defensive stand to complete the comeback 27-21. Emerging Division II contender Palmer’s offense continued to stay hot with a third straight game of scoring 40-plus points in a 41-20 blowout of Division I foe Juneau-Douglas on Saturday to wrap up the weekend’s action.
Outside of the state, Chugiak traveled down to Alameda, California, on Thursday to take on Encinal and returned home with a 45-6 victory. On Friday, Bettye Davis East Anchorage was nearly 500 miles south in the same state to face Southwest San Diego and fell to 0-3 after a 39-21 defeat.
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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