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Posts Tagged ‘Friday Harbor’

Booters get WIAA ranking love

Posted in soccer, tagged , , , , on September 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville soccer is ranked #9 among 2B/1B teams. (Ryan Blouin photo)

Get rid of the private schools and Coupeville is sitting pretty.

Ranked in the top 10 for the first time in years, the Wolf boys’ varsity soccer squad (and its female assassins) is currently slotted at #9 among 2B/1B pitch programs according to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

Toss out all the private schools, however, and CHS would jump to #2 in the RPI rankings, trailing just defending state champs Friday Harbor.

Of course, Washington state refuses to hold separate championships for public schools and private schools, even when private schools are able to offer “scholarships” and other incentives to steal athletes away from their rivals.

But that’s an argument for another day.

Today, according to the computers that rank teams in soccer, volleyball, and football, Coupeville’s booters (2-1) are #9, while Friday Harbor (3-0) is #2 and fellow Northwest 2B/1B League rival Mount Vernon Christian (5-0) is #3.

Auburn Adventist Academy (2-0) tops the list, while NWL heavyweight Orcas Island (2-2), which won the state title in 2021 and finished as runners-up in 2022, are #11 ahead of a trip to Whidbey this weekend.

The rest of Coupeville’s NWL foes sit in a bunch, with Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood (#13), Lopez Island (#14), La Conner (#15), Providence Classical Christian (#16), and Grace Academy (#19) lumped together in a field of 21 schools.

And what about the other sports using RPI?

Coupeville volleyball (1-2) is ranked #26 out of 53 schools in 2B, while Wolf football (0-3) finds itself at #33 of 43 after opening with losses to three 1A schools who are a combined 8-1.

Is RPI important? It can be, as it’s used when committees seed teams in the various state tournaments.

Is it correct?

Well, your computer may say Northwest Christian (Colbert) is the #1 football team in 2B and defending champ Napavine, which has won 16 straight games, is #2.

But that just means your computer, or the person programming it, is a moron.

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Milestone moment for Wolf soccer

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged , , , , , on September 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Nick Guay has scored in all four seasons he’s played soccer for Coupeville High School. (Cole White photo)

A soccer season like no other is upon us.

Playing as a joint team, Coupeville High School booters took the pitch at Mickey Clark Field Tuesday and fought hard against a top-level squad.

The visitors were the defending 2B/1B boys state champs, and Friday Harbor looked like little has changed from a season ago, raining down goals from multiple directions in a 7-1 victory.

The season-opening loss, while against a Northwest League foe, counts in the standings as a non-conference affair.

The Wolves, who open with seven of their first nine at home, play four non-league bouts, then eight which count in the conference standings as they chase a playoff berth.

Tuesday’s game was a milestone one in the two-decade history of CHS soccer, with girls and boys on the field at the same time.

Coupeville’s girls’ program was unable to field a full roster, forcing school officials to scrap the schedule, but eight female players made the jump to play with the boys, with two landing on the varsity roster.

Junior midfielder Bryley Gilbert and junior forward Ayden Wyman both saw extended time with Coupeville’s first squad, and more than held their own.

Bryley Gilbert was one of two CHS girls to play Tuesday in a boys’ varsity soccer game. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Friday Harbor was just too efficient, too opportunistic, and ultimately, too deadly for the Wolves.

“They play quick, one-touch ball,” said CHS coach Robert Wood. “They can score all night long.”

Coupeville senior Cole White ripped off the game’s first major shot, sending a zinger towards the net while on the move, only to see the visiting goalie poke the ball away at the last second.

Wolf junior goaltender Hurlee Bronec, making the jump to soccer after playing football the past two years, put together his own highlight reel, snuffing out several Friday Harbor shots.

The visitors finally cracked the CHS defense with a slap shot which slid into the far left corner of the net, eventually building a 3-0 lead midway through the first half.

Coupeville got on the board thanks to Nick Guay, who collected a sweet setup pass from White and slugged the ball to paydirt.

It was the ninth career goal for the Wolf senior, who has beaten rival netminders in each of his four seasons.

He leads all active CHS boys in scoring and is one goal shy of becoming the 11th male player to crack double digits.

Friday Harbor, showcasing its depth and explosive offensive attack, rattled the net for two more goals right before the halftime break, before topping things off with another pair late in the game.

Even trailing, Coupeville’s defense was chippy, with Cael Wilson earning props for chasing down and hip-checking a runaway Wolverine to deny him a chance to score.

There are multiple soccer players in this photo, if you know where to look. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

While the Wolves lost, CHS coaches Kimberly Kisch and Wood came away happy with the level of fitness they saw from their players, and the team’s ability to mesh as one unit, regardless of the lineup.

Squaring off with the state champs in game one was never going to be easy, and a loss is a loss, even if it’s not a ding on the league record — but the lessons learned will benefit the Wolves moving forward.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had an easy game for our opening game, ever,” Wood said with a chuckle. “We always get Friday Harbor, or Orcas, or one of the really good private schools.

“But overall, we played well,” he added.

“We’ll go back to working on what we need to practice on and look forward to Friday.”

Coupeville soccer gets a chance to claim the Friday Night Lights phenomenon for itself, with Wolf football hitting the road to travel to Sultan this week.

The booters host Providence Classical Christian (0-1), with the game set to kickoff at 6:00 PM.

Admission is free, and there may be a JV game after the varsity clash, though Coupeville officials are waiting for confirmation on that.

 

JV makes its debut:

Angel Partida punched home his first goal in a CHS uniform, Josh Lujan made some inspired saves in goal for the Wolves, and five girls played with their male counterparts in a 4-1 loss.

The game was shortened to two 20-minute halves to allow Friday Harbor time to make it back to the ferry.

Lujan deflected several point-bank shots, went to the ground to snuff out a potential goal during a mad scramble in front of the net, and did his best to blunt the Wolverines attack.

He got help from Ava Mitten and Sophia Broderick, who brought intensity while disrupting Friday Harbor’s pinpoint passing attack.

Frankie Tenore, Lydia Price, and Brynn Parker also saw action for the Wolves.

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Wolf baseball punches state ticket

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on May 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville High School seniors Jonathan Valenzuela (left) and Scott Hilborn were nine-year-olds the last time Wolf baseball went to state. (Morgan White photo)

Party like it’s 2014.

Thrashing Friday Harbor 11-0 Saturday in Arlington in a game mercy-ruled after five innings, the Coupeville High School baseball squad continues to rack up honors.

With the victory, the Wolves, now 16-5 on the season, add the District 1/2 title to their Northwest 2B/1B League crown, while earning a trip to the big dance for the first time in nine seasons.

The last time a CHS hardball squad went to the state tourney, Willie Smith was still head coach, current assistant coach Morgan Payne was in the starting lineup, and Coupeville was nipped 2-1 by Rochester in a first-round loss.

This time around, the Wolves are one of 12 teams still alive in the hunt for the 2B crown.

They will learn their opening opponent and the location of the game Sunday when the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association seeding committee releases its bracket.

First round and quarterfinal games will be played May 20 at various sites, with the semifinals May 26 and the title game and 3rd/4th place game May 27.

The May 26 and 27 games are set for Johnson-O’Brien Stadium at Ephrata High School.

The first two rounds of state are single elimination, with the top four seeds earning a first-round bye.

To see the bracket — without teams in place yet — pop over to:

http://www.nw1a2bathletics.com/m2/tourn.php?act=vt&tid=3930

Wolf coach Steve Hilborn strolls off with the hardware. (Shannon Hamilton photo)

Coupeville baseball had to wait a bit longer than expected to earn its tenth trip to state, with bi-districts delayed thanks to Friday Harbor having issues with the state ferry system.

Once the Wolverines, the #2 seed from District 1, arrived in Arlington, they jumped all over District 2’s Northwest Christian (Lacey), running them off the field 16-0 in a loser-out game.

The day’s second game was also a blowout, but this time Friday Harbor was the one being battered senseless.

Coupeville hit the field hot and never relented, scoring in all four innings in which it sent batters to the plate.

The Wolves slapped three runs on the board in the first, netting all the runs starting pitcher Scott Hilborn would need.

Jonathan Valenzuela lashed a two-run double to center to get CHS going, then came around to score on a Friday Harbor wild pitch.

Hilborn, who struck out eight while limiting the Wolverines to just a pair of hits and a lone walk, was fairly flawless, while his defense removed one brief threat with a slickly turned double play.

From 3-0, Coupeville pushed its lead out to 7-0 through two, then made it 10-0 after three, and 11-0 coming out of the fourth frame.

The Wolves finished with 13 hits in four innings worth of at-bats, with seven different hitters racking up at least one base knock.

Chase Anderson drops a bunt for a hit. (Morgan White photo)

Aiden O’Neill and Peyton Caveness crunched RBI doubles in the second, then both came around later to swat RBI singles.

The last of O’Neill’s run-scoring hits plated courtesy runner Landon Roberts to close the scoring, before Hilborn ended the game with three straight strikeouts.

Coupeville’s stellar season has come courtesy of a young team, as seven of the 11 players sent into Saturday’s game by first-year CHS head coach Steve Hilborn are freshmen or sophomores.

Scott Hilborn and Valenzuela are the only seniors, while starters Chase Anderson, Coop Cooper, Camden Glover, and O’Neill are 9th graders.

 

Saturday stats:

Chase Anderson — Two singles
Peyton Caveness — Two singles, one double
Camden Glover — One walk
Scott Hilborn — Two singles
Aiden O’Neill — One single, one double
Jack Porter — One single
Johnny Porter — One walk
Jonathan Valenzuela — One single, one double, one walk
Cole White — One single

League champs. Bi-District champs. Ticket to the big dance punched. (Morgan White photo)

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Wolves, Wolverines finish in a dead heat

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville netters (l to r) Helen Strelow, Vivian Farris, and Hayley Fiedler are off to bi-districts next week. (Fred Farris photo)

You couldn’t ask for a closer rivalry.

Four times Coupeville and Friday Harbor’s girls’ tennis teams clashed this season, and all four matches ended with the same 3-2 score.

The Wolves won the first two, while the Wolverines rebounded to claim the second pair, including Friday’s regular-season finale on Whidbey Island.

In doing so, Friday Harbor earns a share of the Northwest 2B/1B League crown, while CHS coach Ken Stange still notches his 12th title with the girls’ program.

He has 17 titles at the school since taking over both the boys and girls tennis programs in 2005.

With the regular season done, Coupeville is off to the bi-district tourney next Friday, May 19 at the Amy Yee Tennis Center in Seattle.

That single-elimination royal rumble pits District 1’s Coupeville and Friday Harbor against District 4’s Three Rivers Christian, which hails from Longview.

Each team will send two singles players and two doubles teams to bi-districts, with the winners advancing to the state championships.

 

Friday’s results:

 

Varsity:

1st Singles — Helen Strelow beat Isabella VanderYacht 6-0, 6-3

2nd Singles — Djina Radenovic lost to Megan Mellinger 6-0, 6-0

1st Doubles — Hayley Fiedler/Vivian Farris beat Kira Clark/Betty Furber 6-4, 6-0

2nd Doubles — Skylar Parker/Lucy Tenore lost to Georgia Keune/Ava Martin 5-7, 6-4, 10-7

3rd Doubles — Kaitlyn Leavell/Brynn Parker lost to Lilli Turnbow/Sophia Ramirez 6-2, 6-2

 

JV:

4th Doubles — Karyme Castro/Emma Morano lost to Ava Gamez/Norah Leighton 6-0, 6-5

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Wolf sluggers denied playoff run

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

CHS softball coaches Katrina and Kevin McGranahan contemplate the state of things. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The season isn’t done, but any playoff hopes are gone.

The Coupeville High School varsity softball squad made some outstanding defensive plays Thursday but stranded 13 runners and fell 3-2 in eight innings to host Friday Harbor.

The Wolf sluggers, who went undefeated in their first two years back in the Northwest 2B/1B League, finish 10-2 in conference action this time around, and are 13-6 overall with a May 12 non-league tilt at South Whidbey left on the schedule.

Friday Harbor, which is 11-1 in league, 14-4 overall, won two of three against the Wolves and earns a league title and District 1’s lone playoff berth for 2B schools.

The difference between Coupeville and their closest rival was razor-thin this season, with both losses being one-run affairs on the road.

Friday Harbor won 13-12 back in March, in a game where CHS was up 6-0 early.

Then the Wolves bounced back, thrashing the Wolverines 8-1 in mid-April in a game played on Whidbey Island.

That set up Thursday’s league finale, which carried simple, but massive stakes.

And both teams met the moment, for the most part, alternating big-time plays as the pressure grew.

Coupeville struck first, pushing a run across in both the first and second innings, while Friday Harbor responded with two tallies in the bottom of the third to knot things back up.

Mia Farris, who walked, then went to second on a Taylor Brotemarkle single, nimbly dashed home on a wild pitch to stake CHS to a 1-0 lead.

Haylee Armstrong is locked and loaded.

The second run of the afternoon came courtesy of a couple of big hits from the bottom of the order, with 8th grader Haylee Armstrong lashing a leadoff triple to right-center in the top of the second.

Sailing into third without any hesitation, the middle school masher then came home two batters later when sophomore Jada Heaton hammered an RBI single into the gap.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, that would be the final run they scored, despite putting runners aboard in every inning.

CHS had Friday Harbor hurler Natalie Morton on the ropes, racking up six hits and 10 walks, but couldn’t land the knockout punch.

The Wolves stranded two runners in each of the first four innings, and left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh.

“We just couldn’t seem to string hits together tonight,” said Coupeville coach Kevin McGranahan.

Part of the problem was Friday Harbor playing spotless defense, seemingly gobbling up every liner or pop fly, and making every throw.

Coupeville countered with its own defensive gems, however, as the teams played four straight scoreless innings to send the game into extra frames.

Freshman catcher Teagan Calkins, playing through an injury suffered in her team’s last game, came up huge, gunning down a would-be base stealer at third base.

Her bullet, which slapped into Gwen Gustafson’s glove a millisecond before the incoming runner, was followed by Brotemarkle diving to rob Friday Harbor on a soft liner headed for paydirt.

Best buds Farris and Heaton also came up with huge catches in the outfield late in the game, running down balls which had extra-bases written all over them.

Mia Farris is a defensive dynamo, and a fashion icon.

“Jada had the game of her life,” McGranahan said. “Going back and snagging a long fly, and then catching a short fly to right and diving forward to catch one, and two hits with an RBI.”

Not to be outdone, Brotemarkle also snagged a hot shot on the ground while on the move, then spun and flipped the ball to Maya Lucero to beat an incoming runner.

But as strongly as both teams played on defense, even with the wind whistling past the phone livestreaming the game, a few balls were bound to find a place to drop back to Earth just out of reach.

Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Friday Harbor’s Audrey Allen bashed a ball which sliced between two defenders flying hard from opposite sides, then skipped away towards the fence.

It turned into a triple, and two walks — one intentional to avoid the Wolverines cleanup hitter — loaded the bases with no room for error.

CHS pitcher Allie Lucero whiffed a hitter to get her squad a third of the way to keeping the game alive, but a hard-hit grounder from the next batter was the difference maker.

The Wolves had a play at the plate, but the throw came in low and the runner came in hot, ending the game on a positive note for Friday Harbor.

 

Thursday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — One triple
Taylor Brotemarkle — Two singles, one walk
Mia Farris — Two walks
Gwen Gustafson — One walk
Jada Heaton — Two singles
Allie Lucero — Three walks
Maya Lucero — One single
Madison McMillan — Two walks
Sofia Peters — One walk

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