Coupeville Sports

Rough road trip for booters

October 14, 2022 by David Svien

“Not the face!!” (Morgan White photo)

Second time, not as much fun as the first time.

Friday Harbor, a legitimate state title contender, exacted a bit of revenge on the Coupeville High School boys soccer squad Friday afternoon.

Winning 6-0 on their home pitch, the Wolverines earned a split in the season series while making the playoff chase a bit tougher for the Wolves.

“That team was amazing,” said Coupeville coach Robert Wood, who then went to contemplate the mysteries of the soccer world while enjoying a long ferry ride home.

The loss drops CHS to 1-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-6 overall, with four games left on the schedule.

Coupeville has three straight conference tilts at home coming up, with Providence Classical Christian (Oct. 18), Lopez Island (Oct. 22), and La Conner (Oct. 25) all visiting Whidbey.

The Wolves wrap the regular season with a trip to Orcas Island Oct. 27 to square off with the defending 2B/1B state champs.

Five of the nine schools playing boys soccer in the NWL make the district playoffs, joined by four teams from District 2.

Friday’s loss ultimately means more than the first time Friday Harbor and Coupeville met, when the Wolves won 3-1 at Mickey Clark Field.

For complicated scheduling reasons, that first game was against a league foe, but not counted as a league game.

Friday’s loss, however, is reflected in the conference standings.

Grant Steller holds off a pesky Wolverine. (Morgan White photo)

Posted in Boys Soccer | Tagged boys soccer, CHS Wolves, Friday Harbor, Northwest League, revenge | Leave a Comment »

Wolf football cracks AP poll

October 14, 2022 by David Svien

Scott Hilborn streaks for the end zone. (Bailey Thule photo)

The world has gone topsy-turvy.

The Coupeville High School football team, off to its best start in a very-long time at 5-1, has gotten some computer love this season.

Newman, the diabolical collection of nuts and bolts doing the heavy work at Evans Rankings, likes the Wolves, mostly.

As does the RPI system employed by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

But real live humans?

Especially big-city newspaper prep sports reporters dreaming about making the jump to getting press box access (and free food) at Mariners or Seahawks games?

Safe to say, 98.4% of them don’t know their Coupeville from their Colville.

Except…

This week, when the Associated Press released its weekly football rankings, the Wolves made the poll for the first time since former Wolf coach Ron Bagby was rockin’ the short shorts.

Oh, it’s true.

Coupeville (not Colville) snagged seven points in the poll, placing the Wolves at #10 among all 2B schools in the state.

They sorta, kinda, know our name. Bout dang time.

Associated Press 2B poll for week 7:

1. Napavine – (6-0) – 80 poll points
2. Okanogan – (6-0) – 70
3. Raymond – (6-0) – 64
4. Liberty (Spangle) – (5-1) – 47
5. Lind-Ritzville/Sprague – (5-1) – 46
6. Toledo – (5-1) – 38
7. Columbia (Burbank) – (5-1) – 30
8. Lake Roosevelt – (6-1) – 25
9. Adna – (4-2) – 8
10. Coupeville – (5-1) – 7

Posted in Football | Tagged Associated Press, CHS Wolves, football, polls, rankings | Leave a Comment »

Look, it’s a big pile of steaming hot stats!

October 14, 2022 by David Svien

Wolf sophomore Hunter Bronec has the most receiving yards of any non-senior this season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Tim Ursu is money in the bank. (Brenn Sugatan photo)

Roll on, Wolves.

The Coupeville High School football team is off to a 5-1 start after bashing 2A Bellingham 48-6 last week, and the stat sheet reflects a balanced attack on both side of the ball.

From fab frosh to seasoned seniors, 26 different Wolves appear in the numbers compiled by CHS coaches.

With three weeks left in the regular season, a look at where things sit:

OFFENSE:

Passing:

Logan Downes — 60-109 for 807 yards with 11 TDs
Chase Anderson — 4-10 for 31 yards with 1 TD

Receiving:

Tim Ursu — 21 receptions for 215 yards
Scott Hilborn — 16-205
Daylon Houston — 11-189
Dominic Coffman — 6-133
Hunter Bronec — 4-48
Aiden O’Neill — 1-25
Johnny Porter — 1-14
Cameron Breaux — 1-5
Marquette Cunningham — 1-(-3)

Rushing:

Coffman — 59 carries for 465 yards
Hilborn — 39-368
Jo. Porter — 30-135
Downes — 16-58
Ursu — 11-31
O’Neill — 5-17
Jack Porter — 1-8
Xander Stinnett — 2-5
Anderson — 3-4
Devinion Hill — 1-1
Mikey Robinett — 1-0

Total Yards (Rush/Pass/Rec):

Downes — 865
Coffman — 598
Hilborn — 573
Ursu — 246
Houston — 189
Jo. Porter — 149
Hun. Bronec — 48
O’Neill — 42
Anderson — 35
Ja. Porter — 8
Breaux — 5
Stinnett — 5
Hill — 1

All-Purpose Yards (Rush/Rec/KR/PR/IR):

Hilborn — 673
Coffman — 598
Ursu — 519
Houston — 360
Jo. Porter — 149
Downes — 83
O’Neill — 49
Hun. Bronec — 48
Ja. Porter — 8
Breaux — 5
Stinnett — 5
Anderson — 4
Hill — 1

Pancake blocks:

William Davidson — 1
Zane Oldenstadt — 1

Touchdowns:

Hilborn — 10
Coffman — 8
Ursu — 8
Jo. Porter — 3
Houston — 2
Downes — 1
O’Neill — 1

Conversions:

Ursu — 1

PATs:

Houston — 12
Anderson — 11

Field Goals:

Houston — 1

Points:

Hilborn — 60
Ursu — 50
Coffman — 48
Houston — 27
Jo. Porter — 18
Anderson — 11
Downes — 6
O’Neill — 6
Team — 2

DEFENSE:

Tackles:

Hilborn — 57
Ursu — 52
Coffman — 40
Kevin Partida — 40
Peyton Caveness — 30
Jonathan Valenzuela — 26
Davidson — 23
Downes — 18
Josh Upchurch — 17
Robinett — 16
Kai Wong — 10
Houston — 9
O’Neill — 7
Marcelo Gebhard — 6
Oldenstadt — 5
Hurlee Bronec — 2
Coen Killian — 2
Anderson — 1
Myca Clarkson — 1
Ja. Porter – 1

Tackles For Loss:

Hilborn — 10
Valenzuela — 6
Coffman — 5
Upchurch — 4
Caveness — 3
Ursu — 3
Robinett — 2
Downes — 1
Partida — 1

Interceptions:

Downes — 3
Coffman — 1
Hilborn — 1
O’Neill — 1
Ursu — 1

Passes Defensed:

Ursu — 8
Downes — 5
Hilborn — 3
Davidson — 2
O’Neill — 2
Ja. Porter — 1
Valenzuela — 1

Fumble recoveries:

Coffman — 3
Caveness — 2
Hilborn — 1
Partida — 1
Upchurch — 1
Ursu — 1
Valenzuela — 1

Sacks:

Coffman — 3
Hilborn — 2
Valenzuela — 2
Caveness — 1
Robinett — 1
Upchurch — 1

QB Hurries:

Coffman — 4
Davidson — 4
Oldenstadt — 3
Hilborn — 2
Robinett — 1
Wong — 1

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Punts:

Downes — 7-255

Kickoff returns:

Houston — 4-171
Ursu — 4-155
Hilborn — 3-97
O’Neill — 1-7

Punt returns:

Ursu — 6-118
Hilborn — 1-3

Posted in Football | Tagged CHS Wolves, Dominic Coffman, football, Stats, Tim Ursu | Leave a Comment »

Gridiron pics hit hard

October 14, 2022 by David Svien

CHS football manager Melanie Navarro enjoys her job. (Nikki Breaux photos)

Big hits, big pics.

The Coupeville High School football season has been filled with plenty of both.

The Wolves have roared out to a 5-1 record as they head to Leavenworth for a Friday Night Lights matchup with Cascade.

Things started strongly back in the waning moments of summer, when the CHS gridiron squad excelled at a jamboree in Sultan.

The photos above and below, which come to us courtesy Wolf Mom Nikki Breaux, are from that event.

Posted in Football | Tagged CHS Wolves, Daylon Houston, football, jamboree, Josh Upchurch, Nikki Breaux | Leave a Comment »

Kill-happy Wolves crunch MVC

October 13, 2022 by David Svien

Mia Farris was one of three Wolves to hammer 10 or more kills in a win Thursday night. (Jackie Saia photo)

The snipers were hitting their targets.

Three different players recorded 10+ kills Thursday night, with another two notching five apiece, as the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad surged to its sixth win in its last seven matches.

Bouncing back from a tentative start, the Wolf spikers unloaded on host Mount Vernon Christian to the tune of 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-14.

With the victory, CHS moves to 6-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 7-3 overall.

The Wolves, who host non-conference foe Neah Bay Saturday, sit alone atop the NWL standings, a half-game up on three-time defending 2B state champs La Conner (5-0), and a game ahead of MVC (6-2).

Coupeville has three league matches left, travelling to La Conner Oct. 18, before closing with home matches Oct. 20 against Darrington (3-5) and Oct. 25 against La Conner.

Win, lose, or draw the rest of the way, the Wolves are playoff-bound after that. All that’s left to decide is the draw.

Of the three 2B schools in the NWL, two teams advance to the postseason and Friday Harbor (1-8) is eliminated.

The District 1/2 tourney is Nov. 2 in La Conner, with the #2 team from District 1 playing District 2’s Auburn Adventist Academy in a loser-out match.

The winner then faces off with the NWL champ in a winner-to-state, loser-out rumble.

The battle to unseat La Conner will become the primary mission in the coming days, but Thursday night was about holding off the Hurricanes, who have been on a torrid run.

Mission accomplished.

“A good win tonight against a much-improved Mt. Vernon Christian team,” said Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore.

“We knew they would be tough and I’m proud of the way the girls shook off a little bit of a flat first set and turned it on moving forward.

“The girls got rid of the hesitation on defense and returned to our unified culture and play.”

Coupeville misfired a bit at the service stripe in the early going, but successfully righted things.

“Took a bit to find a groove on serves but once we did, our defense was strong behind the block,” Whitmore said.

“Madison McMillan went on a run of serves in the fourth (set), which opened things up.”

With Grey Peabody (13 kills), Ryanne Knoblich (10), and Mia Farris (10) pounding the rock, Coupeville’s attack kept the Hurricanes on their toes.

“All our hitters hit positive on the attack and (setter) Maddie (Georges) did a great job keeping everyone involved but pushing points when needed,” Whitmore said.

“I was very happy with our passers, and it took stamina to finish the game strong on serve receive.”

“Dang! We’re good!!” (Jackie Saia photo)

Thursday stats:

Alita Blouin — 27 digs, 2 assists, 1 ace
Mia Farris — 10 kills, 1 dig, 1 solo block
Maddie Georges — 1 kill, 7 digs, 39 assists
Taygin Jump — 4 digs, 1 ace
Ryanne Knoblich — 10 kills, 8 digs, 3 aces
Katie Marti — 1 dig, 2 aces
Madison McMillan — 9 digs, 4 aces
Grey Peabody — 13 kills, 3 digs
Jill Prince — 5 kills, 1 dig, 1 ace
Lyla Stuurmans — 5 kills