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Posts Tagged ‘Toledo’

Tough Toledo tips wily Wolves

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Haylee Armstrong knocks down another bucket. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Early tipoff times never scared them.

With the ref tossing the ball skyward at 8:59 AM Saturday morning at Central Washington University, it made for a quick turnaround for the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball team.

Back on the court about 15 hours after their last game, the Wolves responded well, playing a tough Toledo squad even until the third quarter.

While the Riverhawks eventually pulled out a 36-29 win, the scrappy Wolves closed their Eastern Washington holiday road trip in style.

Now 3-6 on the season, Coupeville is off until Jan. 4, when it travels to Wahkiakum for another stern non-conference test.

Squaring off with a Toledo squad which claimed its fourth straight win to get to 6-3, the Wolves kept things close.

Senior gunner Katie Marti outscored the Riverhawks by herself in a defensive-minded first quarter, staking CHS to a 5-4 lead.

Toledo evened things up at 13-13 heading into the halftime break, before using an 11-6 run in the third quarter to slightly pull away.

Ryah Stanley was the difference down the stretch, as the Riverhawk junior tallied nine of her game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter.

Toledo clanked many a free throw, netting just 5-15 at the line to open the door a bit, but the refs were little help, as Coupeville barely got to the charity stripe, finishing just 1-4 once there.

Madison McMillan (left) and Lyla Stuurmans get ready to rumble.

Marti paced the Wolves with nine points, moving from #44 to #41 on the CHS girls’ career scoring chart.

She sits with 263 points heading into 2025 and passed all-timers Madeline Strasburg (261), Carly Guillory (260), and Sarah Mouw (259) Saturday morning.

Madison McMillan and Haylee Armstrong both banked in six to back Marti, with Teagan Calkins (4), Mia Farris (2), and Jada Heaton (2) also keeping the scorekeeper busy.

Lyla Stuurmans, Danica Strong, Tenley Stuurmans, and Capri Anter rounded out Megan Richter’s roster on the holiday weekend road trip to Ellensburg.

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Road warriors run into fierce foe

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Malachi Somes crashes to the hoop. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sometimes you’re the chainsaw, and sometimes you’re the log.

Playing at Central Washington University Friday, the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team ended up on the wrong end of that example.

Squaring off with a top-level Toledo squad which put four players into double-digit scoring, the Wolves were swept off the floor 76-30.

The non-conference loss drops Coupeville to 2-6 on the season, but Brad Sherman’s team gets a chance to bounce right back Saturday with a rumble against Kittitas.

The two-game holiday road trip to Eastern Washington is part of an ongoing stretch where the Wolves play seven of nine away from Whidbey.

Toledo, which hails from the rough-and-tumble Central 2B League, jumped out to a quick 16-5 lead Friday, then turned up the heat with a 24-11 tear through the second quarter.

The Riverhawks, who stretched the advantage to 59-23 by the end of the third, dominated in every facet of the game.

Toledo won the three-ball battle 9-3 and hit a crisp 9-10 at the free throw line, while Coupeville finished just 5-14 at the charity stripe.

Hurlee Bronec and Chase Anderson led the way for the Wolves, both rattling the rim for six points, while Hunter Bronec knocked down five.

Malachi Somes (4), Jack Porter (4), Camden Glover (3), and Johnny Porter (2) rounded out the offensive attack, with Carson Field, Davin Houston, Easton Green, and Landon Roberts also seeing floor time.

It was Houston’s varsity basketball debut.

Davin Houston prepares to lose his defender.

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Young guns scrap to the final batter

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , on May 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Part of a Wolf softball squad which went 14-5 and can return everyone next spring. (Michelle Armstrong photo)

Coupeville won the battle, but Toledo won the war.

A very-young Wolf softball squad played the first inning to precision Saturday night at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.

Unfortunately, the winner-to-state, loser-out playoff game went a full seven frames, and the Riverhawks rebounded from a 3-0 deficit to eventually claim an 11-4 victory.

With the win, Toledo, which is 19-6 after going 3-2 in the District 1/4 tourney, is off to the big dance.

Meanwhile, Coupeville, which was required to pop in at the very tail end of another district’s tourney, instead of being fully rewarded for being the #1 team from their own area, finishes 14-5.

The Wolves, who regularly started three 8th graders and two freshmen this season, and have no seniors, can return everyone on their roster.

And, even in defeat, they fought until the final batter, showcasing the hustle and grit which defines Kevin McGranahan’s diamond program.

Saturday’s game pitted a Toledo team which was playing its third game of the day against a Coupeville squad which hadn’t played in a week.

For an inning, at least, the fresher team looked sharper.

Wolf hurler Adeline Maynes, one of those 8th graders, mowed through the Riverhawks in the top of the first, picking up two strikeouts and a groundout to fellow middle school classmate Sydney Van Dyke.

Hefting their bats for the first time since they carved up South Whidbey in the regular season finale May 10, the Wolves immediately stung Toledo.

Taylor Brotemarkle gets medieval on the softball. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Haylee Armstrong took the first pitch she saw and ripped it into left field for a single, before Mia Farris clobbered a double in the same direction.

With two runners on and nobody out, Taylor Brotemarkle lofted a precision sac fly to plate the game’s first run, before Madison McMillan went nuclear.

Punching a hole in the dark, foreboding clouds which hung over the field, the junior third baseman cleared the fences with a two-run tater, and Coupeville was up 3-0 just four batters in.

And then the batting display turned off. Big time.

After McMillan’s epic blast, the Wolves went two complete rotations through the lineup — a full 18 batters — before getting another hit.

Van Dyke, Danica Strong, and Brotemarkle eked out walks during that dry spell, but with no base knocks, there were no more runs for a very long time.

It wasn’t until two batters into the bottom of the sixth that Coupeville finally broke the hitless skid, with sophomore catcher Teagan Calkins mashing a fences-clearing home run of her own.

Teagan Calkins goes yard. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Capri Anter accounted for the Wolves final hit, cracking a long single into an opening in the outfield defense in the seventh inning.

But that was it for CHS, as it started with three hits in the first four batters but finished with just five base knocks and three walks total.

That 3-0 lead held up for a bit, with Toledo scratching out a run in the second, then sliding ahead 4-3 thanks to several well-placed hits in the top of the third.

The deficit was still just a run well into the fifth, but that was when the Riverhawks found their groove, peppering the ball around the field and plating six runs to turn a nailbiter into a bit of a runaway.

One final tally in the sixth made it 11 unanswered runs for Toledo, before Calkins walloped her final moon ball of the season to get one back for Coupeville.

“The Red Dragon” then ended her second high school diamond campaign by gunning down a runner trying, and failing, to steal second base, as the Wolves refused to go meekly into the stormy night.

While the loss brings a close to the season, Coupeville’s young guns can exit heads held high.

They went undefeated in Northwest 2B/1B League play, reclaimed their conference crown from Friday Harbor, and held their own against a tough non-league schedule.

Wins against Onalaska, Nooksack Valley, and Sultan were big, and a two-game sweep of next-door neighbor South Whidbey especially sweet.

And, as mentioned, EVERYONE on the roster can come back.

The “core four” — current juniors Farris, Brotemarkle, Jada Heaton, and McMillan — will be seniors next spring, while their younger teammates achieved success early and can continue to grow.

The pitching staff of Maynes, Armstrong, and Anter have four, three, and three seasons remaining respectively, a particular bright spot for one of Coupeville’s most-successful programs year-in, year-out.

Haylee Armstrong fires BB’s. (Claire Kalwies-Anderson photo)

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Late shooting woes plague Wolves

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Madison McMillan led Coupeville in scoring Saturday night. (Kaitlyn Leavell photo)

The basket stopped accepting Coupeville’s offerings in the final minutes.

After waging a tense tussle with Toledo for three-plus quarters Saturday, the Wolf varsity girls’ basketball squad went cold late, allowing the Riverhawks to storm their way to a non-conference victory.

The visitors closed on a 17-2 run across the game’s final six minutes, turning a five-point advantage into a 40-20 win.

The loss drops a rebuilding Coupeville squad to 0-2 on the season.

Megan Richter’s squad will have six days to work on its shooting touch, not returning to action against a rival until a trip to Sultan next Saturday, Dec. 9.

Saturday’s rumble, coming against a largely unknown foe, was a close, and low-scoring affair for much of the afternoon.

Madison McMillan drilled a quick shot mere seconds into play to stake CHS to a 2-0 lead, but the Wolves hit a wall after that.

Coupeville’s next bucket didn’t come until right before the end of the first quarter, courtesy a jumper from the side by Lyla Stuurmans, cutting the lead to 8-4.

The second quarter was an equal opportunity freeze-out, as the teams combined to hit six free throws … and not a single field goal.

Skylar Parker and Katie Marti connected on shots from the charity stripe, but CHS was down 11-7 at the half.

Things picked up in the third frame, though mainly for Toledo.

McMillan banked in a pair of buckets — one on a slash to the basket, the other off of an offensive rebound — but the visitors swished the game’s only three-ball as they pushed the advantage out to 21-14 heading into the fourth.

The Wolves, who played inspired defense for stretches of the game, cut the margin down to 23-18 after back-to-back buckets from Mia Farris and McMillan.

Farris made off with a steal, hitting the jets and sliding past a pursuing defender on a charge to the hoop, while McMillan knocked down a note-perfect pullup jumper.

But that was where it ended for Coupeville, at the moment where McMillan’s field goal dropped through the net and hit the hardwood.

Ramping up its attack, Toledo suddenly broke through and in a big way, raining down a series of buckets to pull away.

Farris sweetly swished a pair of free throws late, but Coupeville couldn’t get a shot from the field to drop in the game’s final minutes, mirroring its earlier struggles.

McMillan paced the Wolves with a season-high eight points, while Marti added five in support of her fellow junior.

Farris (4), Stuurmans (2), and Parker (1) also scored, while Jada Heaton, Teagan Calkins, Kayla Arnold, and Reese Wilkinson also saw floor time.

It was the varsity debut for the latter two of that group.

And in an intriguing side note, Farris, who is tied for #2 on the team in scoring with 10 points across the first two games, has notched all of her points in the fourth quarter this season.

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Painful night for hoops stars

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cole White, seen in a rare moment where a rival player is NOT smacking him in the face. (Jackie Saia photo)

This one hurt. Literally.

The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday, falling 52-38 to visiting Toledo in a game marred by pain, lopsided officiating, and an offensive attack which sputtered at clutch time.

The good news is the rumble was a non-conference affair, so while the Wolves fall to 2-1 after a busy first week, it doesn’t put a ding in their pursuit of a league crown.

What did have a serious ding put in it was Cole White’s face, and Chase Anderson’s back.

The senior ballhandler, who has now bled in all three of his team’s games, got belted in the mouth by a Toledo elbow and was lost with Coupeville clinging to a one-point lead in the third quarter.

No foul was called on the play — not totally surprising on a night when the refs whistled the Wolves for 25 fouls to just 14 for the visitors — and White’s exit came at a point where he was the game’s leading scorer.

Anderson, who was making his season debut after sitting out the first two games with an injury, got launched into the floor by a pack of Riverhawks earlier in the third quarter.

The springy sophomore later returned to action, but only after first applying a large bag of ice to his back, while momentarily moving like a senior citizen who just lost an intense game of shuffleboard.

Toledo was big, it was physical, and it was a solid test for the Wolves, who responded strongly much of the way.

White and Ryan Blouin knocked down three-balls in the opening minutes, packaged around a slash to the hoop by top scorer Logan Downes as CHS opened with an 8-0 run.

The Wolves eventually got the lead out as far as 17-7 right before the end of the first quarter, with Blouin slapping home a breakaway layup, but the good times hit a pause after that.

With fouls piling up, Coupeville had to sit several key starters for large chunks of the first half, and Toledo took advantage.

An 11-0 surge, starting with two free throws to exit the first, allowed the Riverhawks to take the lead for the first time at 18-17 midway through the second frame.

White and Anderson, before they got bushwhacked, hit buckets to keep things close, but the visitors went in at the half up 25-21.

Coupeville slipped further behind at 29-21, then launched an 11-3 run of its own to knot things at 32-32.

Overcoming the exits of White and Anderson, the Wolves relied on hustle defensive plays from William Davidson and the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers, Hunter and Hurlee, while Downes connected on a three-ball off of an inbounds play.

Toledo slipped a pair of free throws through the net to claim the lead heading into the fourth, but Downes immediately responded with a runner, forging the last tie at 34-34.

That was when the rim turned unforgiving for the Wolves, however, with the visitors tearing off an 18-4 run to pull away.

Two three-point plays, one on a three-ball from the top, and one on a bucket and foul, sealed the deal.

Overall, Toledo hit 13 of 23 free throws, while Coupeville was 5-10.

While fans like to complain about the disparity in fouls, Wolf coach Brad Sherman is quick to shrug that off.

“A few hard-fought games this week,” he said. “Got a couple good wins, just had a tough one tonight.

“Mostly just proud of our boy’s toughness and the way they fight for each other.”

With the next game on the schedule not until Dec. 9, when the Wolves travel to Sultan, the team will have time to fine-tune things and get healthy.

“We will get back at it this week,” Sherman said. “Clean up a few things offensively, keep building on our stuff – and that starts with me.”

Downes paced Coupeville Saturday with 13 points, scoring 11 in the second half while haunted by foul trouble, with White knocking down 11 before being maimed.

Blouin (5), Anderson (4), Hurlee Bronec (3), and Nick Guay (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Davidson, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hunter Bronec also getting floor time.

Hurlee Bronec’s points, which came on a three-point play the hard way, were his first as a varsity player.

He is the 414th Wolf boy we’ve been able to document scoring in the program’s 107-year history.

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