On a day when four of Alaska's most successful football programs convened at Dimond Alumni Field for a pair of First National Bowl state championship games, the Soldotna Stars pulled off a four-peat and the Eielson Ravens enjoyed a repeat.
Soldotna broke open a tight game in the fourth quarter to beat the rival Kenai Kardinals 33-18 to capture a fourth straight medium-school title.
And Eielson didn't allow a point after halftime while pulling away from the Nikiski Bulldogs 49-14 to win a second straight small-school title.
For Soldotna, the win extended its state-record winning streak to 39 – a record that included a 10-0 campaign this season that featured four victories over large-school teams.
The Stars scored 20 straight points in the fourth quarter to take command of a game they led 13-12 after three quarters.
Soldotna's three straight touchdowns that quarter – a Dylan Simons pass to Kristian Palaniuk, a Simons keeper and Palaniuk's third rushing TD of the game – gave the Stars a 33-12 lead.
The third touchdown afforded the Stars an emotional, special way to celebrate.
As they lined up for the point-after attempt, senior Drew Gibbs, a running back who was last season's Player of the Year but went down with a season-ending ACL tear in the first game this season, returned to the gridiron for the last time in a Soldotna uniform.
Soldotna took a knee on the PAT, ensuring Gibbs a safe return.
"Amazing feeling," Gibbs said via Twitter. "Never been more happy in my life. Something I will cherish for the rest of my life.
"And so proud of my boys in blue to get that 4th ring."
The four-peat didn't come easily.
The game was scoreless in the first quarter. Palaniuk scored twice in the second half to give the Stars a 13-0 lead, but Kenai made it 13-6 at the half when Chase Gillies threw a touchdown pass to Zack Tuttle with 31 seconds left on the clock.
The Stars fumbled the ball away on the second-half kickoff, helping to set up a short touchdown run by Gillies that cut Soldotna's lead to 13-12 early in the third quarter.
"Kenai gave us absolutely everything and then some," Brantley said. "(They) hung around until the very end. It's a testament to their coaching staff and the character of their kids. They're as good a team as we played this year."
Soldotna and Kenai are no strangers to title games.
In the 16 years since Alaska created multiple football classifications based on school enrollments, Soldotna has played in 12 championship games and won eight of them. Kenai has played in eight and won six. Five times the Kenai Peninsula teams have met for the state title, with Kenai winning three of those games.
In 2011, another classification was added in Alaska football. When that happened, Soldotna and Kenai moved into the new medium-school division, which paved the way for the small-school dominance of Nikiski and Eielson.
Nikiski, another Peninsula team, has advanced to the small-school title game every year since 2011, winning it all in 2011 and 2013.
Eielson, long a power in Fairbanks, has been in the small-school championship game three times, winning everytime. The last two seasons have produced an Eielson-Nikiski finale.
"Tradition never graduates," Eielson coach David DeVaughn told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "The guys that came before laid the foundation for what we're doing. And when guys come in, they already understand what we do."
What the Ravens did Saturday was run wild.
Three running backs rushed for more than 100 yards. Kaleb Dunlap rushed 18 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns, Andrew North rushed four times for 141 yards and two touchdowns and Antonio Griffin carried the ball nine times for 108 yards and three touchdowns.
Nikiski used touchdowns from Dennis Anderson and Corin Cooper to trail 21-14 at the half, but didn't reach the end zone in the second half. The Ravens outscored the Bulldogs 28-0 in the final two quarters.
"In big games this season, we've played a tight first half, and in the second, we've loosened up," DeVaughn told the News-Miner.
The Eielson-Nikiski game was the first game of a damp doubleheader at Dimond. But when the action ended, faces on the Soldotna sideline were wet from tears, not rain. Winning a fourth straight championships evoked strong emotions, but what really triggered the tears was the return of Gibbs, who watched Soldotna's previous eight games in street clothes.
"There were a lot of tears up and down our sideline, knowing what he's meant to us," Brantley said.
"We never said a word to him because we wanted it to be a surprise if we had the chance to actually get him on the field. His father actually called and asked me if Drew could dress out for this last game. We took it back to our staff and bounced it around, and thought what an awesome opportunity it would be to include him.
"It just felt awesome. He had been trying to help us out in a coaching capacity, and we kept him involved as much as we could. As much as he has put into our program, to be able to get him out there was important."