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Posts Tagged ‘Northwest League’

Wolf booters chase playoff berth

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged boys soccer, Brian Thompson, CHS Wolves, Friday Harbor, Northwest League on October 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Shiloh Sandlin leads the charge. (Julie Wheat photo)

Growth and improvement, yes. A win, not on this day.

Facing off Wednesday afternoon with Friday Harbor, which has been a powerhouse in boys’ soccer in recent years, Coupeville’s young booters continued to jell as a team, but were unable to topple the high-powered Wolverines.

Still, the 5-1 home loss was a step forward from the season opener, when CHS was blanked 8-0 by the same foe.

“Much better than our first game of the season,” said Coupeville coach Jim Kunz. “Our Wolves made them work for it. We worked as a team.”

Kunz adjusted his normal defensive setup, with Wyatt Fitch-Marron, Shiloh Sandlin, Sage Arends, and Brian Thompson anchoring the back line in support of goaltender Sam Richards.

“They shut them down,” Kunz said. “A few small mistakes resulted in goals, but we definitely had the ability to win, which is very exciting.”

Coupeville’s goal came off the foot of Arends, who notched his team-high sixth score of the season.

The tally pushes the Wolf junior to nine goals for his prep pitch career, right on the cusp of becoming the 14th Wolf boy to reach double-digits in career scoring.

With the loss, CHS drops to 2-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-7 overall, and sits in fifth place in the nine-team conference with three games left to play.

The Wolves hit the road for their next two, playing Providence Classical Christian Oct. 24 and Lopez Island Oct. 28, before wrapping the regular season with a home clash against La Conner Oct. 30.

The top five teams from District 1 advance to the playoffs, which start Nov. 4.

Defending state champ Orcas Island (6-0), Mount Vernon Christian (6-1), Friday Harbor (4-2), Lopez (3-3), and Coupeville (2-3) currently hold down those slots, with Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood, Grace Academy, La Conner, and Providence all on the outside looking in at 1-4.

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Booters shine in prime-time performance

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged boys soccer, CHS Wolves, Edmund Kunz, Grace Academy, Northwest League, Sage Arends on October 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Edmund Kunz scored his first high school goal Friday night. (Julie Wheat photos)

The spotlight suits them.

Playing under Friday Night Lights, the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad rolled to a 4-1 win over visiting Grace Academy, sending their fans into a tizzy.

The victory is the third in the last five games for the Wolves and lifts them to 2-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-6 overall.

Playing on its home turf as the sun set over Mickey Clark Field on a fairly serene mid-October night, Coupeville’s pitch kings were in control of the game from start to finish.

Playing for the first time this season with a completely healthy roster, including the debut of Jacob Lujan after he battled back from a leg injury suffered during the first day of practice, Coupeville attacked in waves.

And the goals came, fast and furious, as Sage Arends put together a hat trick, in just one half of play.

His first score came on a charge up the middle barely three minutes into the game, as he dared the Grace goalie to stop him, then offered the netminder no chance.

The ball left Arends toe like a rocket, splashing into the back of the net, and the rout was on.

From there, the silky-smooth junior banged home shots while on the move at the 22-minute mark, then again at the 34-minute mark.

With those three goals, Arends has five on the season, moving him back to the top of the team scoring chart, and eight for his CHS career.

While spending most of the half on the retreat, Grace did manage to get a few shots of its own off, only to have Wolf goalie Sam Richards deny them.

His best move? A block where he went parallel to the ground to punch the incoming shot off to the side, where it rolled out of bounds harmlessly.

The visitors did break through in the second half, scoring their lone goal on a laser to the corner of the net with 18 minutes left to play.

But the Wolves, to the delight of a group of high school fans beating out a steady rhythm on the metal stands with their legs, had an almost immediate response.

A Coupeville player was sent sprawling to the turf during an ensuing scrum, earning a penalty kick for the Wolves, and CHS coach Jim Kunz sent his son, Edmund, to the line for the one-on-one play.

The move paid off, with Edmund Kunz hammering the crud out of the ball, spinning it past the flailing goalie, notching his first high school goal, and capping the night’s offensive performance.

Wyatt Fitch-Marron, man of many talents.

With the Wolves basking in the afterglow of a home victory, Jim Kunz praised his team’s play, while honoring Wyatt Fitch-Marron as his game MVP.

The sophomore helped anchor the team while playing as both a defender and midfielder and showed consistent bursts of speed and an ability to kick-start the Wolf attack.

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“Red Dragon” roars in tense tussle

Posted in Volleyball, tagged CHS Wolves, Haylee Armstrong, La Conner, Northwest League, Teagan Calkins, volleyball on October 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Teagan Calkins unleashes her full fury. (Jackie Saia photo)

Teagan Calkins may need a nap.

The lone senior on the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad was involved in seemingly every play Thursday night, stuffing the stat sheet and doing everything humanly possible to push her team to a win.

Unfortunately for “The Red Dragon,” not even her heroics could save the Wolves on this night, as a balanced La Conner unit led by sister snipers Maeve and Nora McCormick proved to be too much for their hosts.

Falling 25-22, 25-23, 25-19 on their home floor, the rebuilding Wolves slip to 1-7 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-8-1 overall, with three regular season matches left to play.

Coupeville has a week off, not playing again until it hosts Concrete Oct. 23 on what will be Senior Night for Calkins.

After playing a key role on last year’s Wolf squad, which went 18-2 and finished 4th at state, she is the lone veteran this time around, providing steady leadership for a very-young team still trying to find night-in, night-out consistency.

At times Thursday, Scout Smith’s spikers looked very strong, pushing the Braves to the limit.

At others, one error snowballed into a string of mistakes, hurting Coupeville’s ability to keep a more-seasoned La Conner team at bay.

The night got off to a splendid start, with Calkins connecting on back-to-back winners and sophomore setter Tenley Stuurmans scorching the Braves from the service stripe.

But a 4-0 lead evaporated quickly, with the two teams swapping one-point leads most of the way through the frame.

Coupeville’s final lead in the set came at 12-11, and the final tie at 15-15, and once La Conner edged ahead, the visitors held on to the advantage all the way until the end of the set.

The Wolves went down swinging, however, with Haylee Armstrong roaring in on the left side to deliver a thunderous spike and Calkins constantly making the defense guess (usually wrongly) which direction her shots were headed.

Ari Cunningham is part of a talented group of young spikers who show great promise. (Danica Strong photo)

Set #2 featured Ari Cunningham bounding high to deliver several tip winners, and a whole lot more of Calkins mashing the air out of the ball, as the Wolves clung to a 13-11 lead at the midway point.

But just as the Wolves seemed to be making their move, they got derailed, with La Conner using an 11-1 surge to reclaim control.

Adeline Maynes stopped the bleeding with a four-point run on her serve — with Stuurmans catching the Braves by surprise twice with artful flip winners — and CHS later held off four straight set points.

Enter the McCormick sisters however and exit Coupeville’s chances of finding a complete answer.

Down two sets to none, the Wolves fell behind 20-9 in the third but refused to go away easy.

CHS closed the night on a 10-5 surge, with Calkins and Armstrong elevating and thumping, but the lead was too much to fully erase.

Thursday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — 7 kills, 18 digs, 4 assists
Teagan Calkins — 16 kills, 32 digs, 1 assist, 2 block assists, 2 aces
Ari Cunningham — 4 kills, 3 digs
Lexis Drake — 7 digs, 1 solo block, 1 block assist
Adeline Maynes — 9 digs, 2 assists, 1 ace
Kennedy O’Neill — 1 assist
Dakota Strong — 2 kills, 1 dig
Tenley Stuurmans — 4 kills, 11 digs, 25 assists, 4 aces
Sydney Van Dyke — 1 ace

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“We made them work for it”

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged boys soccer, CHS Wolves, Mount Vernon Christian, Northwest League, Sage Arends on October 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Sage Arends and Co. are learning under fire. (Jackie Saia photos)

Gotta stare down the big dogs.

Mount Vernon Christian has a rich tradition on the soccer pitch and is annually one of the best in the region.

But that doesn’t mean a young, scrappy Coupeville High School boys’ squad has to give in easily to the Hurricanes.

So, while CHS fell 8-1 at MVC Wednesday, the game was much more hotly contested than the score might have indicated.

“In the first half we held them off,” said Wolf coach Jim Kunz. “MVC let us and the refs know that they were annoyed.

“It seemed like they thought it would be an easy win. We made them work for it.”

The Hurricanes “pumped up their physicality and scoring efforts” in the second half, pulling away a bit, which caused “a frustrated CHS (to) start reverting to old tactics of double teaming and booting the ball.”

But even in a loss, Jim Kunz saw positives.

“Despite the score I’m happy with the progression I’m seeing out of this young team,” he said. “They had a change in coaching, a number of seniors graduated, and no seniors this year.

“Considering that we’re playing much better than I assumed.”

Now sitting at 1-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-6 overall, Coupeville got its lone goal off the foot of Edmund Wilson, with an assist going to Edmund Kunz.

It was Wilson’s team-leading fourth score of the campaign, and the 30th scored by his family, as older bothers Aidan and Cael tallied 13 goals apiece during their days in red and black.

The Wolves return to action this Friday, playing under the lights at Coupeville’s Mickey Clark Field.

Grace Academy is the foe, kickoff is set for 6:00 PM, and admission is free.

Sam Richards will defend his home goal Friday night.

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Gritty Wolves win shootout thriller

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged CHS Wolves, boys soccer, Cedar Park Christian, Northwest League, Solomon Rudat, shootout on October 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Solomon Rudat battles for a ball in an earlier game. (Julie Wheat photos)

Never count them out.

Rallying twice from a deficit Friday night, the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad forced extra time, then toppled visiting Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood in a penalty kicks shootout to nab a big win on its home turf.

With the 3-2 victory, the Wolves get to 1-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-5 overall.

The conference clash, played out under the lights at Mickey Clark Field, came on a night when CHS also held its annual cancer awareness event.

The Wolves, battling questionable reffing, fell behind 1-0 at the half, before Edmund Wilson notched the tying goal after halftime.

CPC regained the advantage, but Wilson, following in the proud goal-scoring tradition of older brothers Aidan and Cael, buried another shot into the back of the net for his team-leading third score of the season.

After a tense, and scoreless overtime, the game was decided on penalty kicks, with several Wolves stepping up big in the spotlight.

Sage Arends and Brian Thompson converted successfully on their shots, while Coupeville goaltender Sam Richards blocked a pair of CPC attempts, setting up Wolf gunner Mal Chapa for the winner.

CHS coach Jim Kunz praised his players for overcoming some “very one-sided” calls, while noting the work of his man in the net.

“Sam made so many saves to solidify the win. Absolutely the MVP for the game. He was amazing.”

The Wolves hope to carry the momentum from the win into a road game next Wednesday, Oct. 15 at Mount Vernon Christian, before returning home for contests against Grace Academy (Oct. 17) and Friday Harbor (Oct. 22).