Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Northwest League’

Gridiron playoff dream denied

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on November 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Hunter Bronec was one of five seniors on a Coupeville High School football team which finished 5-4. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

A strong season ended on a bit of a sour note.

Thanks to a 35-0 loss to Friday Harbor in a tiebreaker half-game played Monday on a neutral field in La Conner, the Coupeville High School football team is headed to the showers.

The Wolves finish 5-4 on the season, while the Wolverines, who are 3-5, advance to play Pe Ell-Willapa Valley (5-4) in a loser-out, winner-to-state game.

Monday’s rumble on a rain-slicked field didn’t change anyone’s win/loss record, but it did determine bragging rights and settle the chase for District 1’s lone postseason berth for 2B teams.

The clash consisted of two 12-minute halves and was necessary since Coupeville and Friday Harbor, the only Northwest 2B/1B League teams playing 11-man football, split their season series.

CHS won the first meeting 18-5 in Cow Town, while Friday Harbor bounced back to take the regular season finale 17-13 on its home turf on Halloween night.

While those two contests were close, Monday’s rubber match was not.

Friday Harbor came out with a simple plan – run, run, and run some more. And it worked.

The Wolverines chewed up five-plus minutes on the opening possession of the game before punching in a touchdown on a short run.

Then, after Coupeville went three-and-out, Friday Harbor went right back to operating a battering ram-style offense, scoring again with a hair over two minutes left in the “first half.”

The Wolf defense played with intensity all season.

Trailing 14-0 at the break, the Wolf offense never really got untracked on the slick La Conner field, and the score got lopsided in the second half.

CHS quarterback Chase Anderson scrambled every which way but loose, and also pegged a couple of successful passes, but Coupeville was ultimately shut out for the first time this season.

While things didn’t end the way they wanted, the Wolves still put together a strong campaign.

Wins over Annie Wright, Klahowya, Cedar Park Christian-Bothell, Friday Harbor, and Winlock give Coupeville its second winning season under third-year coach Bennett Richter.

Monday marked the end of the road for Wolf seniors Marcelo Gebhard, Zander Pulliam, Jack Porter, Hunter Bronec, Johnny Porter, and manager Matthew Campbell.

Coupeville can return five of the eight players who scored this season, however, led by Anderson and Davin Houston, who combined for 17 touchdowns.

Chase Anderson racked up 99 points as Coupeville’s quarterback/kicker.

 

Final season scoring stats:

 

Touchdowns:

Chase Anderson – 12
Jack Porter – 8
Davin Houston – 5
Johnny Porter – 4
Liam Blas – 2
Hunter Bronec – 2
Marquette Cunningham – 2
Richmond Bandong – 1

 

Conversions:

Anderson — 2
Blas — 1
Cunningham – 1
Houston – 1
Ja. Porter – 1

 

PATs:

Anderson — 17

 

Field Goals:

Anderson – 2

 

Points:

Anderson — 99
Ja. Porter – 50
Houston — 32
Jo. Porter – 24
Blas – 14
Cunningham — 14
Bronec – 12
Bandong – 6

Read Full Post »

Spotlight heats up, wins pile up

Posted in Cross Country, Football, soccer, standings, Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on November 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Mikayla Wagner and friends are running off to the state meet. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The calendar flips to November, and things get serious.

A new month brings with it the full crush of postseason action, with just a smidge of regular season play left to finish.

While Coupeville High School soccer saw its season end Saturday, with the Wolves barely missing out on a playoff berth, all of the other fall sports squads are still alive.

Cross country sends 11 runners to Pasco for the state meet, which goes down this coming Saturday, Nov. 9.

Meanwhile, Wolf football has a half-game tiebreaker with Friday Harbor — set for a neutral field in La Conner — going down Monday.

Win, and Coupeville is league champ and hosts a team from District 4, likely on Saturday, with a ticket to state at stake.

Meanwhile, the most successful Wolf program, volleyball, holds Senior Night Monday, with a non-conference match against Sultan.

After that comes the Bi-District tourney, with Coupeville as the #1 seed from District 1.

The Wolves play at home Thursday, then at La Conner Saturday, with two state tourney tickets up for grabs among six schools.

As we head into what is likely to be a wild week, a look at where things sit, win/loss style, through Nov. 3:

 

Northwest League boys’ soccer:

School League Overall
Orcas Island 8-0-0 15-1-0
Lopez Island 6-2-0 11-2-0
PC Christian 6-2-0 11-3-2
Coupeville 4-4-0 6-8-1
Friday Harbor 4-4-0 7-6-0
MV Christian 4-4-0 9-5-1
CPC-Lynnwood 2-6-0 5-9-0
La Conner 2-6-0 2-11-1
Grace Academy 0-8-0 2-12-0

 

Northwest League football — (11-Man):

School League Overall
Coupeville 1-1 5-4
Friday Harbor 1-1 3-5

 

Northwest League football — (8-Man):

School League Overall
Darrington 1-0 5-4
La Conner 0-0 3-4
Concrete 0-1 3-6

 

Northwest League volleyball:

School League Overall
Coupeville 10-0 13-0
Darrington 6-2 16-4
La Conner 6-3 9-7
Orcas Island 5-4 9-8
MV Christian 3-6 7-8
Concrete 1-7 9-11
Friday Harbor 0-9 2-12

Read Full Post »

Scrappy booters denied playoff berth

Posted in soccer, tagged , , , , on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Cael Wilson led Coupeville in scoring during his senior season. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Close, but no playoff berth.

Playing in the toughest 2B/1B boys’ soccer league in the state, the Coupeville High School co-ed pitch squad was in play for a postseason berth until the final day of the regular season.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, things came to an end Saturday at Mickey Clark Field, as they fell 5-0 to Orcas Island, the #1 team in statewide rankings.

The defeat brings Coupeville’s final record to 4-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 6-8-1 overall.

With the Wolf loss, the fourth and final playoff berth from the nine-team league will go to the winner of a late Saturday afternoon game between Mount Vernon Christian and Friday Harbor.

That team will join Orcas — which is 8-0 in league, 15-1 overall — Lopez Island, and Providence Classical Christian in advancing to the postseason.

Saturday’s finale pitted the Wolves against a rampaging Vikings team which has now outscored its foes 80-11 this season.

By contrast, no other NWL team has registered more than 48 goals.

Orcas, which has played in four of the last five 2B/1B state championship games, winning the crown in 2021, is fast, wily, experienced, and prone to capitalizing on every little mistake.

Even when the error would appear to be made by the refs, who awarded the Vikings a penalty kick after a nothing burger of a play less than seven minutes into play.

Orcas senior Kevin Ibarra Garcia slapped home the game’s opening goal via that freebie, then came back around less than five minutes later to crank in another shot from about 20 yards out to make it 2-0.

The visitors stretched the lead to 3-0 shortly before halftime when a ball slid just under the grasp of Wolf goaltender Hurlee Bronec, before tacking on two more scores in the second half.

Facing a stiff defense, Coupeville only managed to scratch out just a handful of shots on goal.

The best chance for the Wolves came very late in the game, when Preston Epp was awarded his own penalty kick after being roughed up.

The senior captain banged a wicked shot to the left, but it caught part of the bar, and part of the Orcas goalie’s arm, and was denied by a matter of inches.

Hurlee Bronec lays out to block a shot during an earlier game.

Saturday’s game marked the end of the road for a pack of Wolves, with 12th graders Ayden Wyman, Matthew Ward, Epp, Angel Partida, Mason Butler, Cael Wilson, Bronec, and Dane Hadsall playing their final game in the red and black.

Epp and Wilson were five-year players, both starting their runs as 8th graders.

 

Final season scoring stats:

 

Varsity:

Cael Wilson – 7
Angel Partida – 5
Sage Arends – 3
Preston Epp – 2
Brian Thompson – 2

 

JV:

Tamsin Ward – 3
Lillian Ketterling – 2
Frankie Tenore – 1

Angel Partida heads upfield.

Read Full Post »

Pitch playoff fever rages, finale approaches

Posted in soccer, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Wolf seniors (l to r) Cael Wilson, Preston Epp, and Ayden Wyman have their team in the thick of the playoff hunt. (Danica Strong photo)

Madness! Mayhem!! Panic on the pitch!!!

And we’re not done yet.

With the Northwest 2B/1B League boys’ soccer season coming to a furious finale, with four games Friday and four more Saturday, things are bonkers.

But looking good for Coupeville, to a point.

The Wolves, who are a co-ed team for the second straight season, pulled out a major 2-1 gut-check win at La Conner Friday to keep their playoff hopes alive.

The victory, which came in a shootout after two overtime periods, lifts CHS to 4-3 in league play, 6-7-1 overall.

Coupeville enters the last day of the regular season Saturday tied with Mount Vernon Christian (4-3) for the fourth and final NWL playoff berth, a game up on Friday Harbor (3-4).

Now, the Wolves just have to go slay the big, bad beast known as Orcas Island, which arrives on Whidbey Saturday for a 12:30 PM game.

The Vikings, ranked #1 in the state among 2B/1B teams, are 7-0 in conference action, 14-1 overall, and have reeled off 14 straight wins since losing their opener to St. Georges of Spokane.

Lopez Island (5-2), which fell 1-0 to MVC Friday, and Providence Classical Christian (5-2) are playoff-bound, while Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood (2-5), La Conner (2-6), and Grace Academy (0-7) are not.

Which leaves three teams scrapping for the last playoff berth.

MVC and Friday Harbor play Saturday at 3:00, so they’ll both know Coupeville’s fate before kickoff.

League guidelines use head-to-head results to break ties, so here’s the likely scenario for the #4 playoff berth:

Coupeville beats Orcas = Coupeville is in at 5-3 since they beat MVC, while Friday Harbor can’t finish better than 4-4.

Coupeville loses, MVC wins = MVC is in at 5-3.

Coupeville loses, Friday Harbor wins = All three teams finish 4-4, and Friday Harbor is in, since they would have beaten both MVC and the Wolves.

Sage Arends (left), Sam Richards and company play their biggest game of the season Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Coupeville High School yearbook staff)

While everything comes down to Saturday’s finale, Coupeville’s scrappy booters deserve plenty of props for how they got to this point.

Trailing 1-0 at the half against La Conner, the Wolves rallied to knot things on a goal from Cael Wilson.

The fifth-year varsity player beat the Braves goalkeeper for his team-leading seventh score of the season, and the 13th of his prep career.

That ties him with big brother Aidan for #7 on the all-time CHS boys’ soccer scoring chart.

After battling through two scoreless five-minute overtime periods, the teams finally settled their rumble in a penalty kick shootout.

Even that went to the extreme, as it took eight shooters, and not the normal five, for Coupeville to pull out a 3-2 advantage.

“This season has been one wild game after another,” said CHS coach Kimberly Kisch.

“We went shot for shot with them for eight shooters. Some were blocked by both keepers; some went wide and some hit crossbars.”

Cael Wilson, Matthew Ward, and Sage Arends found the back of the net for the Wolves, with Arends popping in the game-winner after CHS goalie Hurlee Bronec blocked what would prove to be La Conner’s final shot.

 

JV scraps:

Coupeville and La Conner fought to a 3-3 tie to open the night.

Wolf 8th grade ace Tamsin Ward netted all three scores for the Wolves, notching her first high school goals.

Read Full Post »

Halloween loss haunts gridiron giants

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on October 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Chase Anderson ran for a touchdown Thursday and threw for another one in a narrow road loss. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

It’s not over just yet.

The battle between Coupeville and Friday Harbor to decide the Northwest 2B/1B League football crown, and claim a playoff berth, will go to overtime.

Or a tiebreaker, more to the point.

That’s thanks to Friday Harbor rallying from a touchdown down Thursday to claim a 17-13 Halloween win on its home turf.

The loss drops Coupeville to 1-1 in league play, 5-4 overall, while the Wolverines get to 1-1, 3-5.

CHS had the edge going in Thursday, having won 18-5 when the teams squared off in Cow Town four weeks ago.

With another victory, the Wolves would have collected a season sweep, claimed the NWL crown, and punched their playoff ticket to face a team from District 4 with a state tourney berth at stake.

Instead, Coupeville and Friday Harbor will both travel this coming Monday, Nov. 4 to a neutral field at La Conner for a tiebreaker to decide things.

A 5:30 PM kickoff has been confirmed by CHS Athletic Director Brad Sherman.

The plan is to play two 12-minute “halves,” so essentially a half game. Winner claims District 1’s playoff spot, and loser does not.

Thursday’s regular season finale, which was moved up by a day because of the possibility of a tiebreaker needing to be played, broke in favor of Coupeville early.

Junior quarterback Chase Anderson scampered in for his team-leading twelfth touchdown in the first quarter, then mashed the PAT kick to put the Wolves up 7-0.

That lead held up until midway through the second quarter, when Friday Harbor rammed home a score to knot things up.

Tied at 7-7 at the half, the two squads played a scoreless third quarter, before suddenly getting offensive in the fourth.

Friday Harbor claimed the lead at 10-7 on a Victor Valasquez field goal, before pushing the lead out to 17-7 with just under three minutes to play.

Anderson gave Coupeville a fighting chance, lofting a TD pass to Jack Porter, who broke into the end zone for the eighth time during his senior campaign.

The Wolves failed to convert the PAT however, and time ran out on them, denying them a chance to claim the league title outright.

Instead, they will regroup and get ready to rumble one more time with everything on the line.

Coupeville’s seniors will pull on their helmets again Monday night.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »