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Posts Tagged ‘road trip’

Gridiron giants drop first road game

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on September 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Riley Lawless is a rampaging beast on defense. (Rebecca Eelkema photo)

The Ravens were feeling peckish.

Coming off a season-opening loss in which it was shut out, Raymond/South Bend rediscovered its mojo Friday night.

Unfortunately, that change came at the expense of the visiting Coupeville High School football team.

Having traveled 150 miles one-way for the non-league matchup, the young Wolves were unable to stop their hosts on the ground, as the Ravens rampaged for six rushing touchdowns en route to a lopsided 45-7 win.

The loss drops Coupeville to 0-2 on the season, but CHS will have a chance to bounce back next Saturday, September 19 when it hosts Ilwaco in another non-conference rumble.

That will be the first of three straight home games for the Wolves, with Bennett Richter’s squad hosting Friday Harbor and South Whidbey after that.

Friday’s long road trip to South Bend did produce a couple of highlight plays for Coupeville, but just not enough of them.

The Wolves huddle up in a faraway town. (RayLynn Ratcliff photo)

Freshman Wolf quarterback Kamden Ratcliff tossed his first high school touchdown pass, connecting with junior Nathan Coxsey on a scoring strike in the fourth quarter.

The young gunslinger scrambled away from the Ravens defense all night, picking up a fair number of yards on the ground as well, with Liam Blas, Davin Houston, and Richmond Bandong joining him.

Khyren Calhoun tacked on the PAT, his first in a CHS uniform, but Coupeville was trailing 37-0 before it finally hit paydirt.

Riley Lawless and Blas came up big with strong defensive plays, but Raymond/South Bend largely controlled things with a stellar rushing attack.

Two touchdown runs in the first quarter staked the Ravens to a 14-0 lead by the opening break, and the host team stretched the margin out to 24-0 at the half, and 37-0 through three quarters of play.

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Different uniform, same stellar results

Posted in Volleyball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , , on September 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Lyla Stuurmans prepares to unleash hot death on her rivals. (Photo courtesy Sarah Stuurmans)

They never saw her coming.

Wearing #7 instead of her usual #2 because of a uniform issue, Coupeville grad Lyla Stuurmans made her presence felt Wednesday, piling up some impressive stats to spark the Skagit Valley College volleyball squad to another win.

Powered by their incognito sniper from Cow Town, the Cardinals rallied to KO host Walla Walla 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-21, running their win streak to four matches and counting.

SVC, now 5-2 on the season, goes for a three-match sweep on the East side of the state Thursday, facing off with Yakima Valley.

Regardless of which uniform she wore, Stuurmans was dominant against Walla Walla, ripping off 11 kills and scraping the floor for 19 digs.

She also picked up both a solo block and a block assist on her way to recording 12.5 points on the day.

Having played in all seven matches, Stuurmans sits with 44 kills, two assists, 11 service aces, 72 digs, five solo blocks, seven block assists, and 63.5 points.

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“Time to dig deep”

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Chelsi Stevens dreams of big hits. (Aleksia Jump photo)

It was a little taste of their own medicine.

A Coupeville High School softball squad which has inflicted the 10-run mercy rule on 13 of its first 17 opponents had the tables flipped by Klahowya Tuesday afternoon.

In a rematch of former Olympic League rivals, the red-hot Wolves were largely stifled by Eagles hurler Bailey O’Brien, falling 12-2 in five innings while playing in Silverdale.

The non-conference loss snaps a five-game winning streak for The Smash Sisters, dropping them to 16-2 on the season.

Coupeville will have one more tune-up before heading to the district tourney, travelling to Port Townsend Friday to play East Jefferson, a team it routed 21-3 during the first week of April.

There was supposed to also be a trip to Langley Wednesday to play South Whidbey, but the Falcons bailed at the last second, perhaps still in shock after being routed 17-1 by the Wolves a week-and-a-half ago.

While he wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance, CHS coach Aaron Lucero had scheduled the game with Klahowya, a 1A school whose 9-11 record is a bit deceiving, intent on getting a challenge.

And like with Forks, the only other team to knock off the Wolves, and 3A Oak Harbor, which gave Coupeville an early-season extra-inning battle, mission accomplished.

“I think this is good for them in the long run to face a quality team,” Lucero said. “I have been telling them for a couple of weeks that Klahowya’s record does not tell the story.

“They are playing some very tough teams and getting very close. And talking with their coaches, that’s exactly how their season’s been.”

Tuesday’s tilt started as a nailbiter and remained close for 92% of the game.

Coupeville pushed a run across in the top of the first thanks to back-to-back base knocks from Teagan Calkins and Chelsi Stevens, before Klahowya answered back with a tally of its own in the bottom of the frame.

The game started to change in the second, however, when Eagle slugger Shyanne Kilmer bashed a two-run home run to right — the first of two taters for her on the afternoon — pushing the host team ahead 3-1.

CHS sliced the deficit to 3-2 on an RBI double off of Calkin’s always-electric bat in the third, but left runners stranded at second and third, unable to open their customary can of whup-ass.

Coupeville is deadly down its lineup from one through nine, but O’Brien whiffed 11 and walked just one Tuesday, and Klahowya never trailed again.

A run in the third made it 4-2, two more in the fourth stretched it to 6-2, and then a six-run rally in the fifth turned a close game into a romp.

For his part Lucero is already ready to get back at it, first with a couple of days of practice, then the regular season finale.

“We did not play the ball we are capable of,” he said. “We didn’t get the timely hits, and we did not play well defensively to back up our pitcher.

“I think this was a good gut check game for the team and definitely needed. Soooo, time to dig deep, get our minds right, and get ready to play the next game.”

 

Tuesday stats:

Haylee Armstrong — Two singles
Teagan Calkins — One single, one double
Chelsi Stevens — One single
Cami Van Dyke — One walk

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Wolves rally, Vikings escape

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule gets his bench riled up. (Jackie Saia photo)

The Wolves dug themselves a hole, twice, yet almost made it all the way back.

Unfortunately for the Coupeville High School baseball squad, a late rally fell just short for the second straight game, with Steve Hilborn’s team nipped 14-11 Monday afternoon on Orcas Island.

The loss drops CHS to 7-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-6 overall, with a rematch against the Vikings set for Wednesday in Cow Town.

With three conference clashes left to play, the Wolves sit in second place in the NWL, a game-and-a-half back of Mount Vernon Christian (8-0) and a game-and-a-half up on Orcas (6-4).

Monday’s royal rumble was a fairly close affair, with Coupeville winning the hit battle 8-5, Orcas edging the Wolves 14-12 in drawing walks, and both teams committing three errors apiece.

But the Vikings spent most of the day out in front on the scoreboard, forcing their visitors to play catch-up.

Carson Grove got CHS on the board first in the top of the first, sacrificing his body by being plunked by a pitch before coming around to score on an RBI single to left off the bat of Chase Anderson.

Orcas responded quickly, however, plating four runs in the bottom half of the opening frame, before pushing across three more in the second to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Coupeville’s pitchers clamped down after that, tossing three consecutive scoreless innings, while the offense chipped away at the deficit.

Chris Zenz (left) and Chase Anderson combined to smack four hits on Orcas Island Monday. (Julie Wheat photo)

Anderson, having reached base on catcher’s interference in the third, scored on a passed ball, while Leo Rodriguez zipped for the plate in the fourth thanks to an Orcas error.

The Wolves sliced the margin to 7-5 in the fifth, capitalizing on big hits from Anderson and Riley Lawless, but then things went wrong in the bottom of the sixth.

Using a string of walks and two well-placed hits, the Vikings suddenly relit the pilot light on their offense, scoring seven runs to turn a tense tilt into a potential blowout at 14-5.

CHS was not ready to go down easily, though, and launched its own run-scoring barrage while facing its final at-bats in the top of the seventh.

Anderson smacked a leadoff double, followed by four walks — with Aiden O’Neill and Coop Cooper being drilled — before Chris Zenz and Rodriguez popped back-to-back RBI singles to pull Coupeville within 14-9.

The Wolves weren’t done, forcing home two more runs thanks to bases-loaded walks to Grove and Anderson, and had the bases juiced with just one out.

Orcas needed a hero to stop the bleeding and found it, though, with Joe Stephens coming out of the bullpen to whiff both of the batters he faced, ending Coupeville’s rally a few runs short of a complete celebration.

Four pitchers combined to toss six innings for CHS, with Anderson, Cooper, Glover, and Grove sharing mound duties.

Cooper emerged as top dog, whiffing eight Vikings across 4.1 frames.

 

Monday stats:

Chase Anderson — Two singles, one double, one walk
Coop Cooper — One single, two walks
Camden Glover — One single, one walk
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One walk
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One walk
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One single

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Long trip, rough day

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule whiffed four while pitching in Forks Saturday afternoon. (Melanie Wolfe photo)

Some days very little seems to work.

That was sort of the feeling Saturday as the Coupeville High School baseball squad struggled in all aspects of the game far away from home, absorbing its most lopsided loss of the season.

Falling 12-2 to non-conference foe Forks in a game mercy-ruled after five innings, the Wolves drop to 7-4 but will quickly turn their attention back to more pressing matters.

Steve Hilborn’s squad returns to action with Northwest 2B/1B League clashes against Concrete next Tuesday and Thursday, as they chase a conference crown.

When it squares off with the Lions, Coupeville will look to put Saturday’s performance in the rear-view mirror and not dwell on a day when its defensive errors (7) outnumbered its hits (2) and walks (2) combined.

CHS actually got on the board first in Forks, with Carson Grove using nimble base-running to slap a run on the board in the top of the first.

After reaching on a fielder’s choice, the Wolf sophomore stole second, skittered to third on an error by the Forks catcher, then scooted home on a wild pitch.

The Spartans responded almost immediately, pushing two runs across in the bottom half of the frame, before Coupeville briefly knotted things up at 2-2 in the top of the second.

Senior speed demon Aiden O’Neill led off the inning by belting a triple to left field, before later bolting for home on yet another wild pitch.

Unfortunately for Coupeville, that was about it for offense as the Wolves only got two more runners aboard across the game’s final three-plus innings, with both runners being left stranded.

Forks blew the game wide open in the bottom half of the second, piling on seven runs thanks to a motley mix of walks and CHS errors, before tacking on three more in the fifth to bring an early end to things.

Young Wolf pitchers Trent Thule (4) and Carson Grove (2) combined to rack up six strikeouts in the game, partially balancing things.

 

Saturday stats:

Coop Cooper — One single
Carson Grove — One walk
Aiden O’Neill — One triple
Leo Rodriguez — One walk

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