Vashon Island | Coupeville Sports

Posts Tagged ‘Vashon Island’

Shoot-out at the Coupeville corral!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged 20-20, Basketball, CHS Wolves, Gabe Wynn, Hunter Smith, Vashon Island on December 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Gabe Wynn scorched the nets for a season-high 20 Saturday in a loss to Vashon. (John Fisken photo)

Offense was not the issue.

Despite playing on back-to-back nights, after a long, late trip to Bellevue Friday, the undermanned Coupeville High School boys’ basketball squad put up its season-high in points Saturday night.

Unfortunately, visiting Vashon Island went a bit bonkers from behind the arc and rode 11 three-balls to a 75-62 non-conference victory.

The loss, which came despite Wolf captains Hunter Smith (25) and Gabe Wynn (20) combining for 45 points, drops the Wolves to 1-7 on the season.

Coupeville has a road game at Concrete Tuesday, then gets a nine-day Christmas break from competition.

The Wolves didn’t get in from Bellevue until 12:30 AM Saturday morning, and, with just eight players available against Vashon, had to push through tired legs and minds.

It seemed to sting them in the early going, as Vashon roared out to a 19-8 lead at the first break.

CHS senior Brian Shank was doing his best to counteract the Pirates attack, dropping seven points in the opening quarter.

It was blunted by three treys from Vashon, though, as the Pirates broke Coupeville’s zone with red-hot shooting and closed the quarter on a 12-1 spurt.

The Wolves mixed things up, extending their zone, then switching to man-to-man, but Vashon seized any little opening and was ruthless in torching the nets.

The lead grew to 40-24 at the half and 59-39 after three, before cresting at 25 early in the final period.

To their credit, the Wolves put together their most sustained run of the night after that, cutting the lead in half and preventing Vashon from ever being able to pull its starters.

Smith poured in 14 of his team-high 25 down the stretch, hitting five buckets, a trey and a free throw.

“Give credit to my guys — they worked hard and never quit — they just got tired,” said Coupeville coach Anthony Smith. “My team battled.”

Wynn did most of his damage in the middle two quarters, ringing up 15 of his season-high 20 in the second and third. He paced CHS with three long bombs.

Shank, who battled through foul trouble after his early hot start, finished with nine, while Hunter Downes slid seven through the twines and Cameron Toomey-Stout banged home a free throw to round out the scoring.

Ethan Spark, Kyle Rockwell and Ariah Bepler also saw floor time for the very-thin Wolves.

Vashon was led by Casper Forest, who netted 26, and Jacob Chavez, who hit for 18. The duo combined to nail nine three-balls.

Read Full Post »

Vashon? Vanquished!!

Posted in Football, tagged Bryce Hoisington, Cameron Toomey-Stout, CHS Wolves, football, Ryan Labrador, Vashon Island on September 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Sophomore lineman Ryan Labrador recovered a fumble for his first varsity touchdown Friday night. (John Fisken photo)

They flipped the script.

A year ago, Vashon Island throttled Coupeville 70-31 on the gridiron as Bryce Hoisington ran for a state-record 573 yards and nine touchdowns on his home turf.

Friday night, back in Cow Town, it was time for the big pay-back.

Scoring five different ways (pass, run, punt return, interception and fumble recovery) the Wolves mashed the Pirates 63-32 in their biggest assault on the scoreboard in memory.

The win snapped a three-game skid for Coupeville and evened their Olympic/Nisqually League mark at 1-1 headed into a Homecoming showdown with Port Townsend and former Wolf assistant coach Alex Heilig.

Coupeville is 2-3 under first-year head coach Jon Atkins, which doubles its win total from a season ago.

“This was a quality win,” Atkins said. “We’ve been working really hard on executing the little things, and we did that really well tonight. It was a big difference.”

The Wolves came out on fire and never turned down the flame.

While Bryce Hoisington still got them for four touchdowns this time around, they all came after Vashon was already dead and buried.

Far more often, the Wolf defenders, led by Julian Welling, Clay Reilly, Dane Lucero and Co., swarmed him, rode him down hard, caught him from behind and, all in all, made dang sure they weren’t going to be on the wrong side of history again.

Coupeville scored early, late and often, hitting big less than two minutes into the game.

Having forced Vashon to punt — Jacob Martin hauled down Vashon QB Connor Hoisington for a loss on third down — the Wolves seized the moment.

Junior speed demon Hunter Smith pocketed the kick a step behind his 20-yard line, sauntered to the side for a half-step, then dropped the booster rockets and roared through 11 would-be tacklers like a hot knife slicing through sweet, defenseless butter.

Up 7-0, the Wolves were just getting warmed up, and they started hitting with a vengeance on defense.

While the Hoisington brothers are a slippery duo, CHS lost a few battles while winning the overall defensive war.

Chris Battaglia blew-up a pitch for a loss, then Uriel Liquidano and Ryan Labrador combined to plant Connor Hoisington 15 yards from where he started on a sack by committee.

Coupeville, which never punted on the evening, scored on every possession except one.

That was on a lost fumble, but they immediately responded by forcing yet another Vashon punt to even things out.

Martin plunged in from four yards out to push the game to 14-0, then Labrador fell on a fumble in the end zone with just 25 ticks on the clock in the first quarter to effectively end the game.

A second touchdown from Smith, this one on a 31-yard sprint to daylight on his only rushing attempt of the night, made the score 28-0 midway through the second quarter.

The play was set-up by a sensational block from Cameron Toomey-Stout. While it was the first time the junior’s name was intoned by PA announcer Randy King, it was far from the last.

While he waited to score until Coupeville’s fifth touchdown, Toomey-Stout actually led the Wolves, crossing the goal line three times.

First came a 43-yard catch and run in which Wolf QB (and birthday boy) Hunter Downes heaved a bomb, then a 14-yard dart of a scoring pass on which Toomey-Stout beat his man to the deepest part of the right corner of the end zone.

After a brief rest — while Battaglia and Martin each added 25-yard scoring runs — Toomey-Stout returned to put the cherry on the victory sundae.

With 3:40 to play on the clock, Connor Hoisington heaved a desperation pass into coverage, only to see #11 in the red and black go airborne, snag the wayward ball, then spin and take things to the house.

Covering 60+ yards on his final jaunt, Toomey-Stout brought the overflowing stands to their feet and came dangerously close to making Wolf camera woman BayLee Dunsmore cough up a lung as she screamed like a woman possessed.

That she didn’t knock best bud Madison Aylesworth off the top of the stands in her frenzy (she came close) was probably the most remarkable thing about the play.

With the game decided, the Wolf bench got playing time, with sophomore QB Shane Losey getting some snaps and Matt Hilborn ripping off a pretty 21-yard jaunt that almost turned into touchdown #10.

The win leaves Coupeville a game back of the league leaders, with five to play.

In other action Friday, Cascade Christian crunched Klahowya 40-6 and Port Townsend blasted Chimacum 55-7. Bellevue Christian and Charles Wright play Saturday.

Current Olympic/Nisqually League standings:

School	League	Overall
Cascade Christian	2-0	5-0
Port Townsend	2-0	3-2
Charles Wright	1-0	2-2
COUPEVILLE	1-1	2-3
Klahowya	1-1	3-2
Bellevue Christian	0-1	0-4
Chimacum	0-2	1-4
Vashon Island	0-2	0-5

Read Full Post »

Heartbreak city!!

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged Abraham Leyva, CHS Wolves, shoot-out, Soccer, Vashon Island on March 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Cody Menges, seen here in an earlier game, kept Coupeville alive in a penalty kick shootout Tuesday with a brilliant, sudden-death shot. (John Fisken photo)

One play will echo for a long time.

A referee’s interpretation on a tough call late in a tie game Tuesday put the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad down a player, cost them their goalie’s services and will deny that same player a chance to suit up Wednesday.

But it ultimately didn’t cost them a win.

Knotted 1-1 with visiting Vashon Island, the Wolves were scrambling back on defense with six minutes to play when the game, and a portion of their season, took a wild plunge off the side of a cliff.

Coupeville netminder Connor McCormick, who was outside the goal box, was whistled for a hand ball as he tried to get back into position.

The ref ruled it was worthy of a red card, which carries an automatic ejection and a one-game suspension, because he felt the play likely denied Vashon an “obvious opportunity to score.”

The Wolves were allowed to replace McCormick in goal with Jose Marcos, but had to pull another player off the field as well and play 10-on-11 the remainder of the way.

And they did pretty well, battling through 16 more minutes of scoreless play (six in regulation, 10 in overtime) before falling 6-5 in a penalty kick shootout.

It won’t count as a loss, however, but a tie, as Olympic League schools only count shootout wins or losses in conference games, and Vashon is a non-conference foe.

That leaves Coupeville at 0-3-1 on the season.

The Wolves return to action immediately, hosting Bellevue Christian (1-3) Wednesday, but will do so without McCormick.

The senior goalie was the star for most of the game Tuesday, holding down the net with authority and blunting several charges by the Pirates.

After the two teams battled to a stalemate through the first 40 minutes, Coupeville broke through quickly in the second half.

Abraham Leyva took a ball off of the foot of Zane Bundy and smacked a shot into the right corner of the net for his fourth goal in as many games.

Coming just two minutes into the half, it gave the Wolves breathing room and they held on until Vashon got lucky, sliding a partially-deflected shot just under McCormick’s glove at the 19:20 mark.

From that point on, the two teams went toe-to-toe (and often elbow to head, as things got chippy at times).

Marcos held down the fort to end regulation, then Wolf defender Tanner Kircher stepped in to mind the net in OT and through the penalty kicks.

He knocked down Vashon’s second attempt, while Coupeville hit on its first four attempts (Bundy, Leyva, William Nelson and Sebastian Davis) to take a 4-3 lead into the final round of penalty kicks.

The Pirates rallied, however, notching a goal on their final kick, then getting a block on the Wolves fifth attempt.

Knotted at 4-4, the teams exchanged successful kicks, with Coupeville’s Cody Menges draining a pressure-packed sudden-death one to keep things going.

That was it for the luck of the Wolves however, as Vashon banged home their next attempt, before the Pirate goalie snuffed Loren Nelson to end the game.

Read Full Post »

Welcome to the Allison Wenzel Experience!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Allison Wenzel, Basketball, CHS Wolves, Skyler Lawrence, Vashon Island on December 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Allison Wenzel (right) seen here jumping center in an earlier game, went for a team-high 10 Tuesday at Vashon. (John Fisken photo)

Allison Wenzel was in tune with the hoop.

Dropping a season-high 10 points, one for every day she and her teammates had been off, the Wolf sophomore was a bright, shining star for the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad Tuesday night.

And, while she and her teammates eventually fell 32-20 at Vashon Island — victim of a fourth-quarter slump — they came away with a lot of positives for playing in their first game in a week and a half.

Now 2-4, the JV will join the Wolf varsity (5-2) in taking another week off (from games, not practice), as they don’t play again until Dec. 30.

That will give the young guns, and coach Amy King, time to work on things, figuring out what clicked against the Pirates and what didn’t.

“Overall, we need to decide we want to play less passive defense and handle the ball with more strength and confidence,” King said. “Tonight we did run a few of our plays very successfully, and had many rebounds.

“We just need to get better at taking care of the ball after we do get it.”

Coupeville stayed close early, trailing just 9-6 after one quarter.

Sarah Wright and Skyler Lawrence dropped in buckets, while Brittany Powers and Ema Smith added a free throw apiece.

Vashon, having some issues with its man-to-man defense, promptly switched to a more-successful zone.

“We found some holes in the man defense that made them switch over and that gave us some trouble,” King said. “They had a few girls playing the guards fairly aggressively, which accounted for a few of their baskets.”

From the second quarter on, it was the Wenzel Experience on full display, as the swing player went off for 10 of Coupeville’s final 14 points.

She tossed in all four of Coupeville’s points in the second, doubled that in the third and topped the night with a fourth quarter bucket.

The Wolves made a run in the third, sparked by another of its swing players, Kyla Briscoe, who brought high energy and aggressive, steal-orientated defense to the floor.

“We made a little run with the help of Kyla and her defense, which caused a little panic in Vashon,” King said. “Our defense picked up, as did our energy overall.

“We moved the ball on offense better and forced some turnovers,” she added. “It was exciting to win that quarter.”

Any hopes of a successful comeback fell apart in the fourth, however, as a lid went on the basket for the Wolves.

While Coupeville pressed matters on the other end of the court, a lack of buckets killed them in the end.

“Our defense worked hard, but just came up short,” King said.

Wenzel snagged four rebounds and a steal to go with her team-high 10 points, while Lawrence (three points, four rebounds, three steals), Smith (three points, two boards) and Wright (two points on “a great drive to the basket” and three caroms) all chipped in to the group effort.

Briscoe and Powers rounded out the scorers with a point apiece, with Powers a whirlwind on defense with a season-high five steals, including one she turned into a breakaway.

Ashlie Shank (five rebounds, two steals) and Maddy Hilkey (four rebounds) sparked the defense, while Lauren Rose and Lindsey Laxton snagged a board apiece.

King also credited Brisa Herrera and Nicole Lester for their “hustle and solid court play,” while praising Laxton for her “nice passes.”

Read Full Post »

“We won’t turn down our win!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Makana Stone, Tiffany Briscoe, ugly wins, Vashon Island on December 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Tiffany Briscoe stepped up and hit (John Fisken photo)

Tiffany Briscoe “stepped up and knocked down some big shots for us” Tuesday night, helping Coupeville nip Vashon Island. (John Fisken photo)

David King knows how the game is played.

The Coupeville High School girls’ basketball coach has been around long enough to know when to walk away and just be grateful.

You tuck a win in your pocket — like the Wolves 36-29 non-conference triumph at Vashon Island Tuesday — and you get your team to the ferry before anyone asks for it back.

Cause a win is a win is a win.

“I’ve never heard of a coach or team turning down an ugly win, and we won’t turn down our win tonight,” King said. “But is was not a pretty game for us.”

The third straight victory for the Wolves, it lifted them to 5-2, but it didn’t come easily.

Stuck in the middle of a stretch where they will play just one game in nearly a three-week span — Coupeville last played Dec. 11 when it beat Klahowya and won’t play again until Dec. 30 — the Wolves looked rusty.

“Tonight we played like we haven’t had a game in a week and a half,” King admitted. “It was a struggle all game, with an exception of about the first two minutes coming out of halftime.”

Both teams shot poorly in the early going, with Coupeville clinging to a 6-4 lead after one quarter and the teams tied at 15 at the half.

Despite getting numerous opportunities at the free throw line — the Wolves were in the bonus before the opening quarter was done — Coupeville couldn’t pull away.

A huge culprit was their cold shooting touch, especially at the charity stripe, where they hit on just 3 of 17 first-half attempts.

“We moved the ball well,” King said. “The problem was our shooting and not making the adjustments to their height.

“We drove, pulled up too close to a taller defender and tried to shoot over them,” he added. “They had three to four blocks in the first four minutes of the game.”

Once they started stepping back, the Wolves got their shots off, but spent most of the first half bouncing the ball off the rim.

“When we did get a clean shot up we started rushing and it was like shooting a beach ball into a cup,” King said. “Nothing was falling and many shots were way off.”

A couple of big second-quarter buckets from sophomore point guard Mia Littlejohn, and a team-wide show of aggressiveness, kept the Wolves close heading into the break.

Once there, King tinkered with a few things.

“At halftime we wanted to improve our defense, move the ball better on offense and improve our free throws,” he said. “We do those things like I believe we are capable, we take control of the game.”

And they did, in spurts at least.

Coupeville hit pay dirt immediately on the first play of the second half, with Makana Stone delivering “a great feed from the high post” to Tiffany Briscoe, who banged home a four-foot baseline jumper.

The Wolves used a run of steals to push the lead out to six, gave a bit back, then got a huge trey from Kailey Kellner to end the third.

Kellner stayed hot in the fourth, swishing a three-ball and converting free throws, including one on a technical foul called on Vashon’s coach.

The Pirates focused on slowing down Stone, who came into the game averaging nearly 19 points a game, and while the Wolf senior tallied a game-high 14, she had to earn every one of them.

A huge key to the win was getting solid scoring support from her running mates, and they responded.

Littlejohn banged home eight, Kellner dropped in seven, Briscoe hit for six and Lauren Grove added a free throw to round out the scoring.

King has been working with Briscoe, a ferocious rebounder and scrapper, to embrace becoming more of a scoring threat and the work paid off at Vashon.

“All game long Makana had two to three girls draped all over her when she was in the post. She had a battle all game long,” King said. “The good thing is Tiffany stepped up and knocked down some big shots for us.”

He also praised Littlejohn for doing “a great job of anticipating passes and getting some timely steals for us.”

While the win wasn’t necessarily one for the highlight reel, it was a win. Now the next week will go towards getting back into a groove.

“Tonight was a frustrating game and we have to get better if we want to continue winning,” King said.

“We have La Conner next Wednesday. They will be a very tough team and well disciplined,” he added. “We need to find our way again to the team that played our second through fifth games earlier.

“If we do that, we can compete with teams like La Conner.”

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »