Varsity football vs Marysville

The undefeated Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks came into Wildcat Memorial Stadium looking to lock up the WESCO North title. The Tommies were the highest-scoring team, averaging over 35 points per game and allowing an average of only 10, shutting out both Lake Stevens and Monroe along the way. Oak Harbor had the lowest point total of any WESCO North team, scoring only 113 points for an average of just over 14 points per game. The 'Cats were, however, the 2nd stingiest team in allowing points, behind only M-P. The Wildcats had allowed 153 points for a 19.1 average per game. Oak Harbor was itching to play the spoiler, and put that one blemish on Marysville's record, much as Lake Stevens did 2 years ago on our way to a state championship. Overall, the defense played excellent football - with 3 exceptions, all long runs by M-P. The offense, however, just couldn't get on track. The game started out with OH kicking off to MP. The Tommies started on their own 33, and it only took a single play for them to take a 7-0 lead. Their runner burst through our line and zipped down the sideline untouched. After the kickoff, OH had the ball on the 30, an on the first play, a reverse, the ball was fumbled and MP recovered. At this point the crowd was hushed and many in the stands were thinking that things were going badly early. Now, with the ball at the OH 28, the Tomahawks moved the ball down to the OH 5, but two back-to-back false start penalties made it 3rd & 13 at the OH 15. M-P attempted a rare pass, which was thrown high and short, allowing Derrick Clarit to step in front of the receiver and snag the ball at the OH 1 yard line. OH was only able to move the ball out to the 10 before being forced to punt on 4th & 1. Our defense kept Marysville's run game in check for the series, forcing MP into a 3-and-out. Taking the ball at the OH 29 with 4:29 left in the 1st quarter, the 'Cats used a series of runs out of the shotgun, including a 35-yard run by James Jordan to get the ball to the MP 13. There, a Jordan sack led to a Kevin Flavin field goal with just 13 seconds left in the 1st quarter to close the score to 7-3. After the kickoff, which resulted in a touchback, the Oak Harbor defense bent, letting MP move from their own 20 down to the OH 18, stopping the option pitch and forcing a field goal attempt by MP. The kick was blocked and was picked up by Clarit at the OH 1 and returned to the 10. On their next series, the OH offense again sputtered, with Jordan overthrowing Rashaad Smith, a fumble on a run play, and another run play that went for -4 yards. Stephen Lewis' punt from the OH 8 bounced at the OH 39 and rolled OOB at the MP 47. The OH defense again stepped up, stopping the MP quarterback on a 4th & 2 sneak at the OH 20. Again, the offense did nothing but lose 4 yards and punt. Marysville took over on the OH 43, but were backed up due to a holding penalty, and our defense was able to hold MP to short gains, forcing a 4th & 14 with just 21 seconds left in the half. After the punt, Jordan took a knee to end the half with MP still in the lead 7-3. Coming out of the half, MP attempted an onside kick, kicking the ball high into the air, but OH signaled a fair catch and was interfered with, so MP backed up to the 25 and kicked again, with Lewis getting the ball at the 44 and returning it to the MP 49. On the first play, the ball was stripped out of Lewis' hands, but Chris Neumiller was there to pick it up and continue the play, but the whole thing was brought back due to an illegal procedure penalty on OH. On the next play, MP jumped offside, and the nose guard gave our center a hard shove. It was hard enough that the officials called MP for a personal foul and gave OH a first down at the MP 39. Donovan Hunt ran the ball on the next play, and MP was flagged again for another personal foul, moving the ball to the MP 19. From there, the offense gained only 1 yard in 3 plays. Flavin attempted another field goal, but it was blocked, giving MP the ball at their own 26 with just over 10 minutes left in the 3rd. MP started to march towards the OH goal, moving the ball down to the OH 32. At that point, the defense, led by Brian Howard and Stephen Lewis sniffed out the option pitch, tackling the runner for a 7-yard loss, forcing the MP punt. The OH offense went 3-and-out again, gaining 6 yards on the series before punting. The next MP series lasted only 3 plays when Clarence LaMont recovered a fumble at the MP 39. A reception by Hunt moved the ball to the 27, and on a 3rd & 7 on the MP 24, Jordan got free and ran to the MP 8. Hunt moved to the 3, and Jordan to the 3 before time expired in the 3rd. The Wildcats started the final period looking at a 3rd & goal at the 3. Instead of using big Stephen Lewis or even bigger Brad Farnum to blow through the middle, Jordan kept the ball to get to the 2, but was stopped short of the goal line on the 4th down play. Marysville had the ball on the OH 2, then moved it to the 6 on a QB sneak, then their runner got through the OH line, evaded a tackler at the OH 20, and high-stepped to the TD. OH was able to block the PAT kick, leaving the score 13-3 with 10:21 left in the game. Josh Higbee caught the kickoff at the 5 and returned it out to the 17, but the offense gained 0 yards on 2 incomplete passes and a Jordan scramble, and to add to the OH woes, the Tomahawks were able to get a hand on the Lewis punt, and downed it at the OH 23. Again, the defense bent but didn't break, letting Marysville get down to the 10, then blocked another field goal attempt, taking over the ball at the 23. After an incomplete pass and a fumbled snap and sack, Jordan was able to complete a long pass to Clarit on a 3rd & 21, getting the ball out to the OH 48, then completed two more to Higbee and Lewis down to the 18 yard line. Then, with just 3:50 left in the game, Marysville intercepted Jordan's pass at the 18. Marysville broke their 3rd long run of the game, a 69-yard scamper that was stopped at the OH 13. Marysville then moved the ball to the 9, and with less than 40 seconds left, elected to not take a knee, but run for their 3rd TD of the night, scoring with only 31 seconds on the clock. The final score - M-P 20, OH 3. In other WESCO North games, all high-scoring affairs, Stanwood surprised Arlington to win the Stilly Cup 48-39; Mariner was all over Monroe 58-21, and Lake Stevens failed to convert a 2-point PAT attempt and lost to Snohomish 49-48. MP wins the WESCO North and will host a playoff game next week. Snohomish finished in 2nd and will play their first game at home, and Lake Stevens will go on the road for their playoff game. Oak Harbor finished the regular season with a 2-4 league record and an overall record of 3-6. The Wildcats will have one more football game, a North-South crossover game against a team to be determined. The game will be at Wildcat Memorial Stadium next weekend.

Football and Volleyball video clips posted

Sorry for the delay on football, but the football clips from the Lake Stevens game and clips from Wednesday's volleyball match at Snohomish are now posted.

You can find all the clips by clicking HERE.

Timeout with...Regina Carter - Freshman Volleyball

Regina Joyce Carter was born on December 2nd in Fairfield, CA to Reginald and Ligaya Carter. Her dad works at Costco and her mom is a medical aide at the Naval Hospital. The 5- 5 3/4 tall freshman moved to Oak Harbor when she was just a few months old and has lived there ever since.

She attended North Whidbey Middle School, where she really enjoyed Miss Brockett's English class, as she made the class interesting and fun, and Regina actually enjoyed going to learn English. She also likes her science classes, as they are very "hands-on", and "you actually get to do stuff in them".

She chose volleyball over other fall sports because she doesn't like to run a lot, and volleyball has the least running of the fall sports for girls. She is thinking of trying out for basketball this winter, and in the spring will probably play golf, as she and her dad go golfing often, but she has not ruled out track and field, with the emphasis on 'field'. Last year, in 8th grade, she had her most memorable sports moment when she threw the discus 72 feet her first time throwing, and finished 3rd overall in the 8th grade finals.

When not playing sports, Regina likes to watch football and basketball, and she's into music. She plays the piano and sings in the OHHS treble choir. Occasionally she has some time to herself, and will watch re-runs of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" on TV, or will watch "The Parent Trap" with Lindsay Lohan. More than likely, she'll be doing these things with best bud Jessica Taylor.

Regina set some goals for herself at the beginning of the year both in the classroom and on the court. In the classroom, her goal is to keep her grades high, and she is meeting that goal, having nothing lower than a 'B' so far. On the volleyball court, her goal is to better anticipate the ball, and on this goal, Regina marks herself as 'progressing'.

After high school, Regina thinks she would like to become a dentist, and once she is a dentist, wants to live "somewhere warm"!

When asked to tell us something about herself that was odd or quirky, Regina said that sometimes she will burst into song for no reason. She says the trigger is usually a word or phrase she'll see when reading or hear on TV, but it happens quite often.

We expect to see some good things out of Regina both scholastically and athletically in the coming years.

Girls Soccer from Thursday

On what turned out to be a pleasant night for soccer, the Oak Harbor Wildcats honored their senior players before their last game of the year, against Snohomish. Each girl was introduced individually before the game, along with their parents, and quite a few tears were shed. The departing seniors are Kathy Silveira, Jamie Turnek, Carson McKole, Claire Trepanier, Roni Tomlin, Hope Thompson, Shelbie Peddie and Kirsten Roof.

Kathy Silveira had been injured and unable to play most of the year, so what the refs and Snohomish agreed to was to let Kathy on the field for the opening kick, and the Wildcats would kick the ball out of bounds, allowing Coach Barker to sub in a player for Kathy. What wound up happening is that when the Wildcats kicked the ball towards the side line, it didn't go OOB, so instead of kicking the ball around, a Panther player called out to her teammate who was on the ball and told her to just kick it out, which she did. It was some good sportsmanship on the part of the Snohomish Panthers soccer team.

Once the game got going, everyone could tell the girls were energized and motiviated to play. The ball spent a majority of the time in the Panther side of the field, and our girls had at least 4-5 good shots on the goal just in the first half. One of these, by Hope Thompson, went in with just over 2 minutes left to give the 'Cats a 1-0 halftime lead.

The aggression continued in the 2nd, with Carson McKole adding another goal to make it 2-0. However, Snohomish lit a fire of their own and scored two goal of their own in the last 4 minutes of the game, sending it into overtime.

Neither team was able to score in OT, and since it's not a playoff game, it was allowed to end a tie.

The JV team didn't do as well, posting a 4-0 loss.

52 photos of senior night activities are posted HERE.

76 game photos, both JV and Varsity are HERE.

OHYFL - Lynx still in playoff

In the Oak Harbor Youth Football League, all but a single Oak Harbor team lost last Saturday. The lone remaining Oak Harbor representative is the Pee Wee Oak Harbor Lynx.

The Lynx will be playing Sunday, November 2nd at Wildcat Memorial Stadium at 9am.

The #1 seeded Lynx will play against 3rd-seeded Burlington, and after they win that game, will be Conference champions, and will go on to play either Anacortes or Arlington Blue for the League Championship. The Lynx will know going into their game which team they will play, as the Anacortes/Arlington game will be on Saturday at Mt. Vernon at 12:30.

There is no admission fee, so come one down and cheer on the future of Oak Harbor Football!

Wildcat Memorial Stadium will be hosting 4 other game on Sunday

11:15am - Juniors - Arlington vs Lakewood
1:30pm - Juniors - Friday Harbor vs Sedro Woolley
3:45pm - Juniors - Arlington vs Bellingham
6:00pm - Seniors - Bellingham vs Burlington

There should be some great football in the Stadium on Sunday.

Wednesday sports - Volleyball & Boys Tennis

Starting with tennis, Junior Derek Thomas was back at Stanwood High School, playing for the WESCO District tennis championship.

Unfortunately, he lost in 1st-round action to #2 seed from Edmonds-Woodway HS 6-2, 6-0. In the consolation round he played better, but still fell to his Kamiak opponent 6-2, 6-4, ending this years' tennis season.

In volleyball the Freshman, JV and Varsity teams were all at Snohomish High School. The Snohomish Varsity came into the match with a record of 5-1 in league and 10-2 overall, while Oak Harbor is 1-5, 3-9, but we'll get to the Varsity match later.

The Freshman and JV teams played at the same time in the same gym, on side-to-side courts. The first game for the freshmen was bad. The game was tied 2-2 early; with both OH points coming off Snohomish service errors, then the Panthers went on an 18-0 run on their way to a 25-4 game one victory. All the OH points were unearned, coming off Snoho errors.

Freshman game 2 was a loss, but our girl started to play some volleyball, although it took a while. Snohomish sprinted to a 12-4 lead, but 3 of the 4 Wildcat points were earned: a kill by Regina Carter and service aces by Leah Pantoleon and Carlie Olson. A pair of kills by Carter later in the game closed the gap to 4 at 13-17, but a series of unforced errors by Oak Harbor let Snoho build their lead to 7 as the cruised to a 25-17 final.

In game 3, the 'Cats stayed close for the first half of the game, even holding a 10-8 lead at one point after an ace by Pantoleon. An overpass kill by Abi Cone kept the score close at 15-16, but the Wildcats were able to score only 2 more points the entire game on an overpass kill by Cone and a service ace by Carter, leaving the final at 25-18 in favor of Snoho.

Game 1 of the JV match was very close, with numerous ties, but in the end, the Wildcats were able to pull out a 26-24 victory, however game 3 went badly for the girls, as they fell 9-25.

Game 3 was closer, but the Wildcats were on the short end of the score throughout. There was some nice play both at the net and in the back row, including a great solo block to go with a couple of kill by Amanda Blau. Jordan Faralan and Janine DeGuzman also had kills for the Wildcats, and Lizzy Chase, recently moved up from the Freshman team, scored a service ace. The final score in game 3 was 25-16 for the Panthers.

Varsity game 1 had some of the best blocking we've seen all year by the Wildcats. At least 3 times by our unofficial count, 4 Wildcat points were earned by blocks. At the net were Jessica Muzzall, Jennifer Jansen, Kim Mowbray and Marisa Sutherland. In addition to the blocks that earned points, the Wildcats blocked numerous other Panther hitting attempts, but those blocks either remained in play or went OOB. Even though the Wildcats lost game 1 25-19, it was an exciting game to watch.

Game 2 wasn't as close, and the girls didn't play as well. The final was 25-12 for Snohomish, and only 3 points were earned - a kill each by Jansen, Janessa Ramos and Kim Mowbray. The rest were errors by Snohomish. The Wildcats were a little more active in game 3, but the result was similar, a 25-14 Snohomish win. Jansen and Muzzall both got a couple of kills, and Sutherland tapped a Snohomish overpass to the floor for a point.

Next up for volleyball is Senior night vs 6th-ranked Monroe. Come cheer our girls as they play their last volleyball game ever in a Wildcat uniform. JV and Freshman start at 5:15pm next Tuesday, November 4th, with Varsity following at 7-ish.

38 photos, mostly of the Freshman and JV teams have been posted HERE.

Volleyball video highlights

Video highlights from the JV and Varsity matches at OHHS vs Cascade are now posted.

You can access the videos by clicking HERE.

Volleyball vs Cascade 10-27-08

The Cascade Bruins traveled to Oak Harbor for the teams' 2nd meeting of the season. The two teams played each other in a non-league contest at Cascade back on September 9th.

In that first match, the Freshman team played 3 close games, winning one. Last night, the Freshmen again won only 1 game, a close 25-22 win, but did not play well at all in the other two games, losing by scores of 14-25 and 13-25.

The JV team was the bright spot of the night. In the first meeting, the JV lost the first game but won the next two for a match win. In Monday's match, the first two games were all Oak Harbor.

The JV girls started out by building a 6-0 lead on a nice kill by Heather Felps and a service ace by Jordan Faralan. With the score at 9-3, the 'Cats went on a run, scoring 7 unanswered points. Two were by kills by 6'1 sophomore Amanda Blau, and one Kristine Bouchard, and Mandy Kepner added a service ace. The Wildcats did let the Bruins creep back into the game, at one point narrowing the Oak Harbor lead to 9 points at 24-15. On the final play of the game, Amanda Blau hit the ball over the Bruin block and it looked like it was hit out, but the referee ruled a touch, giving game one to the Wildcats 25-15.

Game 2 started slower, as Cascade got an early 2-0 lead, but that was the last lead they had, as the 'Cats quickly built a 10-4 lead, including 3 straight service aces by Lauren Lewis. Kepner and Sydney Carlson both added service aces later in the game, and Blau added 3 late-game kills, including the game winner, as the JV team cruised to a 25-19 win in game 2.

Game 3 was close, and the end left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The JV team lost Amanda Blau and setter Jordan Faralan to the varsity team for this game, and Cascade took advantage of that by jumping to an early 8-2 lead. The Wildcats didn't let it get to them, and closed the gap to just 3 point mid-game after a Janine DeGuzman ace, the score standing at 12-15. Kills by Bouchard and Lewis kept the Cascade lead at 3, then two hitting errors by the Bruins lowered their lead to a single point, then a service error tied the game at 21 each. For the remainer of the game, the score was either tied, or Cascade had a 1-point lead. The 'Cats tried hard, but just could not get that late-game lead. Blau got a kill to tie the game at 24, but a Wildcat hitting error made it 25-24 for Cascade. In Volleyball, a game is not won until one team has 25 points AND a 2-point lead, but in this case, the referee called the game at 25-24 and gave the game 3 win to Cascade. After the game, Coach Reed said she didn't understand why the ref stopped the game when the Wildcats still had a chance to win the 3rd game for the sweep.

In the first meeting, the Varsity team swept Cascade 3-0. In Monday's match, it was very close throughout most of game 1. The 'Cats were able to build a 4-point lead, 11-7, thanks to a kill by Melany Cone, a block by Jennifer Jansen, and 2 service aces by Emily Meagher. The Wildcats were finally able to tie things back up at 17, then took the lead on an error by Cascade. A kill by Jansen made it 22-19 OH, then 3 straight hitting errors by the Bruins gave the 25-19 win to Oak Harbor.

Game 2 started out with Oak Harbor building an early 4-0 lead, but Cascade picked away at it, taking advantage of OH errors to tie the game at 9, then take the lead 10-9 on a service ace. Both teams stayed withing a point or two for the remainder of the game, with 3 kills by Jessica Muzzall and a service ace by Kelsey Cooley keeping the 'Cats in the game. A late hitting error by Cascade gave OH game point, 24-22, but an OH service error and a tipped ball tied it at 24. Muzzall got another kill to give OH game point again, 25-24, but a net violation by OH and a Cascade kill gave the Bruins game point 26-25. The 'Cats were unable to handle the Cascade serve and lost game two 25-27.

The 'Cats came out slow in game 3, spotting Cascade a 8-5 lead, which was slowly built to 19-13. They kept the lead until late in the game, when two nice kills by Marisa Sutherland and a trio of service aces by Kim Mowbray tied the game at 20. The Wildcats still couldn't grab the lead, and Cascade had game point, 24-22. At this point, there was an excessive delay while both referees conferred, looking at the Cascade rotation. After almost 10 minutes, including some spirited arguing by the Cascade coach, the game was resumed with no changes. Oak Harbor got the next point when the overpass went across the net and Cascade let it go, thinking it was out, but the ball dropped right on the line, keeping OH in the game. A service ace by Cooley tied it at 24. Cascade scored the next point, but two Jansen kills gave the advantage back to OH. Cascade scored another point, knotting the game at 27, then an Oak Harbor hitting error put the advantage to Cascade. Jansen came though again, with a big kill to tie the game at 27. On the next play, Oak Harbor was called for being in the net, then the 'Cats hit the ball long, giving Cascade the 29-27 win in game 3.

Game 4 started out close, and although Cascade had an early 4-1 lead, the Wildcats were able to tie it at 11 each. From there, though, Cascade was able creep away, earning 2 points to our 1, finishing game 4 with a 25-18 win and a 3-1 match victory.

34 images, mostly of the freshman and JV warmups, are posted HERE.

Athlete Profile - Carolyn Vasquez

by Michelle Sandstrom

Varsity swimmer Carolyn Vasquez, who

recently celebrated her seventeenth birthday, is a senior here at Oak Harbor High school and is enjoying her last year on the girls swim team.
Born in the hot sun down in San Diego California, she has lived here all of her adult life and has been swimming six years of it, including all four years of high school.
She got into swimming because of friends and her main event has been the 50 freestyle. Describing an average practice she said they swim about 2,000-4,000 meters including backstroke, the breast stroke, fly, and freestyle, and before they get wet they dry land activities they have to accomplish first. Just hearing about a practice makes me thankful I’m not a swimmer, and she proceeds to explain to my why swimming is the hardest sport; “runners use there legs, soccer players use there legs, swimmers use there whole body”, “oh and girls swim is definitely tougher then boys swim - look at our rockin’ swimmer shoulders” she adds on.
Despite all the hard workouts provided by Coach Erika Miller and the work that is put into swimming, she describes the girls as “awesome” and that they are “all pretty close, especially towards the end of the season”. “This is our largest group of girls yet, we have about twenty five”!
A meet for these ladies reminds me a track meet, where there are is a JV and Varsity race for each event, however swimmers have two individual, two relays, and our Oak Harbor High School swim team has divers, which not all schools have. These meets are held at any pool large enough and Carolyn hopes to make it to State this year for the 50 freestyle or relay, which is her favorite meet because her parents always go to it.
During her off season she tells me she continues to swim all throughout winter to stay in shape and as a plus she is a lifeguard at the local pool, and in spring she usually participates in track but this year is considering golf. Outside of school sports, she runs the Whidbey Triathlon and the Whidbey Half Marathon. She also added in that during the off season it is usually harder to keep her grades up, however this season it is just as much as a challenge as out of season because they only have four home meets this season and are always leaving between fourth and fifth period and it’s a lot of work to constantly have to make up.
Outside of school and homework it’s hard to believe this always on the go swimmer has a life, and here she shared a little of it with me. She talks about being single and she has two amazing best friends (Josh D. and Keri Anne W. who is also a swimmer), however homework does consume most of her life so she doesn’t see much of them or her parents who both happen to be dentists or her brother Henry who is away at Notre Dame. But when she does have spare time she likes to dance, kayak, snow board, and soon scuba dive!
When she graduates she plans on seeing the rest of the world and find some warm weather and while doing go into the field of nursing and work in South Africa, but while attending college she wants to try water polo!
A fun side note about Carolyn is that she often gets compared to a fish and people say “they don’t recognize her with her hair dry”.
Carolyn is on the fast track to success and hopefully we hear more from her near the end of the season along with the rest of these lady swimmers on there way to state.

Youth Soccer - GU-10 - Saturday

The Oak Harbor Sports Report was only able to get to a single youth soccer game on Saturday. It was a girls U-10 game featuring the Lightning Bolts, sponsored by Alaska USA Mortgage Company and coached by Greg & Amy Davis against the Red Hot Chili Peppers from South Whidbey.



It was about as lopsided a victory as you'll see in youth soccer. At halftime the Lightning Bolts were up 3-0, then added 7 goals in the 2nd half to secure a 10-1 victory. The lone SW goal came on a free kick near the penalty kick stripe.



83 images from the game have been posted HERE.

OHYFL - Saturday playoffs

Last Saturday, October 25th, the Oak Harbor Youth Football League started playoffs. Two games were played in Oak Harbor, and the Oak Harbor Sports Report was there.

First up: the Cougars. They came into the playoffs as the Midget "B" division #2 seed with a 6-1 record, their only loss was 14-0 vs #1 seed Sedro-Woolley. The Cougar's opponent was #3 seed Anacortes with a 5-2 record, losing 16-0 to Sedro and 32-22 to the Cougars in the first two games of the year.

Oak Harbor shut out two of their opponents and held two more to just a single score, but Anacortes scored more points against the Cougars than any other team in the regular season. Anacortes also recorded a pair of shutouts and held one more opponent to one TD. Things looked good for the Cougars, but once the game got started, it got bad quickly. Anacortes was able to move the ball, while the Cougars offense never got on track. If it wasn't a missed handoff it was a turnover. It just wasn't the Cougar's day, and in the end, Anacortes left with a 20-0 victory. Only 14 decent photos from this game, which are posted HERE.

In contrast, the Oak Harbor Lynx entered as the #1 seed from Pee Wee "A". They had the same record as #2 Sedro Woolley, but got the #1 on the head-to-head Lynx win in the first game of the season. The Lynx's only loss was to #3 Burlington 27-12. The Lynx recorded only a single shutout, against Sedro-Wooley, but in 6 wins outscored the opponents 178-42. The opponent, Arlington, entered the playoffs with a 4-3 record. The Eagles lost their first game of the season 38-14 to the Lynx, and were shutout by both Sedro Woolley and Burlington. In their 4 wins, the Eagle allowed only a single TD while scoring 81 points. This game was all Lynx. The Lynx scored 3 touchdowns in just the 1st quarter - one by run, one by pass, and one by punt return. They added another TD each in the other 3 quarters but only converted 1 PAT attempt to secure a 37-0 win. 50 images are posted HERE.

While we don't have specific results, it was reported that the Senior Wildcats team, the #6 seed, lost to #3 Burlington in Burlington.

Other Oak Harbor teams in action last Saturday:

Pee Wee - #4 Bobcats at #1 Anacortes
Junior - #7 Pumas at #2 Arlington
Junior - #6 Jaguars at #3 Bellingham

OHHS Cross Country - WESCO Divisional Championships.

At Lakewood HS near Arlington, both the boys and girls teams performed well, and even produced a first-place finisher!

In the girls JV, OH was represented by Taylor Von Greg, Kim Zachertz and Rebecca Honeycutt. The field of 77 runners was dominated by Jackson and Snohomish (the first 12 finishers were either Snoho or Jackson), but Von Greg completed the 5,000 meter run in 36th place and Zachertz was in 57th overall. Honeycutt came in 70th.

6 OH runners were in the boys JV race, and in finishing order they were Kellen Crebbin, Mitchell Jackson, Lucas Salmons, Thomas Honeycutt, Sidney Dawson and Josh Pervus. 216 runners finished the race, with Crebbin finishing 76th overall in a time of 20:23.96.

Moving to the girls varsity, 8 runners ran for the Wildcats out of a field of 68. First to cross the line for Oak Harbor was Sophomore Allison Duvenez in 6th, then Adrianna Royal in 9th. A minute and a half later, Kathryn Fisken crossed the line in 28th, followed by Kim Kyle and Heather Dale, just 7 seconds apart. Sheila Keyes, Emily Bain, and exchange student Kate Kapitonova rounded out the varsity team. Overall, the girls team finished 5th with 108 points, just 2 points behind 4th place Arlington and 38 points ahead of 6th place Lake Stevens.

Finally, the boys race started with 86 runners, and the first to cross the finish line was Soph. Tyler King (who actually attends Coupeville HS) in a time of 16:15.6. King was followed by Josh Duhrkopf in 12th, Cody Klauer in 21st, Michael Reith in 36th and Matt Reith in 39th. As a team the boys finished in 4th place, behind Lake Stevens, Snohomish and Cascade.

Also running for Oak Harbor in the varsity race were Nathan Miller, Matt Bolte, Connar Zimmerman, Jonathan Houk, Aaron Mitchell, Jake Daniel, Dan Klope, John Manni, Colton Elliot and Adam Goforth.

Late boys tennis result

From Coach Mells:

Derek Thomas, Oak Harbor's #1 player, won the consolation singles by defeating Rylan Herdt of Lake Stevens, 6-4, 6-3. Derek's only loss was to the tournament singles winner. He place 3rd in the tournament and advances to District Singles which start play Wednesday next week at Stanwood.

Varsity football - close, but no cigar

It was a Jekyll/Hyde night for the Oak Harbor defense. The "D" shut out Lake Stevens in the first half, then allowed 28 points in the 2nd. The offense scored just before the end of the 2nd quarter, then again halfway through the 4th quarter.

The first 3 possessions of the game were all 3-and outs, 2 by the Vikings (1 featuring a great solo sack by Stephen Lewis that was featured on KING 5 news that evening) and one by OH. Getting the ball for the 2nd time in the game with 10:11 on the clock in the first quarter, OH got a drive going. Starting at the OH 41, the 'Cats spread the ball around, with receptions by Brad Farnum, Stephen Lewis and Rashaad Smith, and runs by Lewis, James Jordan and Donovan Hunt. Unfortunately, Jordan, while running in from the 12, had the ball knocked away at the 7, and was covered by Lake Stevens at the 10.

The Lake Stevens QB ran out to the 21, and then completed a pass to the 29, but it was brought back to the LS 15 after a holding call, then with the ball on the LS 44, the Vikings were called for an illegal shift. With a 1st & 15 from the 39, the Lake Stevens QB threw the ball deep, where it was intercepted by Derrick Clarit at the OH 34. The 'Cats ran one play, a run by Jordan, and the quarter ended with the score 0-0. The OH drive only went another 3 plays before Lewis punted to the LS 36. The teams traded punts after short drives, and with the Vikings driving from the OH 33, another LS pass was picked off, this one by Hunt, this one at the OH 10 with 4:43 left in the half.

The first two plays were runs by Hunt, one for a loss, setting up a 3rd & 10 pass reception by Josh Higbee at the 25, and then a long pass reception by Hunt moved the ball from the OH 27 to the LS 23. From there, Hunt caught another pass and ran it into the end zone for the first score of the game. Kevin Flavin's kick was blocked, so with 1:48 left in the half it was Oak Harbor 6, Lake Stevens 0, and that score stood as the clock ran out.

Oak Harbor received the 2nd half opening kickoff, with Hunt catching it at the 15 and returning it to the Viking 46. But after gaining only 2 yards in 3 plays, the 'Cats punted away again. This is when the Viking offense kicked into high gear. Using just over 4 minutes, the Vikings moved the ball 83 yards, capping the drive with a pass into the end zone.

Hunt again had a decent return on the kickoff, setting up the offense on the OH 25, but the 2nd play of that drive was intercepted at the OH 26, and 4 plays later Lake Stevens scored again, moving the score to 14-6 with 3:04 left in the 3rd.

The Lake Stevens kickoff was short, and was covered by Greg Goebel at the 40, but after a loss of 4 on 1st down, and a sack on 3rd down, the Wildcats punted on 4th & 22 from the 27 that was returned back to the OH 41, and again the Vikings made short work of it and scored on a pass play in just 5 plays. With the clock showing 11:48 left in the game it was LS 21 OH 6.

OH started their next drive on their own 38, and slowly started to work their way upfield. There were a couple of heart-gripping moments, such as when Jordan got sacked at midfield, but Hunt got it back setting up a 3rd & 10 at the LS 38. A scramble run by Jordan brought the ball to the 14, another run by Jordan took it to the 6, and then Jordan kept it one more time to score with 5:58 left in the game to make it LS 21, OH 13.

Lake Stevens' efficient offense went to work again, starting at their own 19, and again only used 5 plays to score once more with 3:54 left in the game. The Viking win was sealed when a Jordan pass was intercepted with just 3:09 remaining, and the Vikings were able to run the clock out.

Look for video highlights on Tuesday.

Another photo site of OH in action

This site mainly had Freshman football photos, but also some tennis video.

You can get there by clicking HERE.

Girls swim

And it's another 1st-place sweep and lopsided victory for the Oak Harbor girls swim team.

At Forest Park Pool in Everett, the Wildcats faced off against the Cascade Bruins and came away with a 142-44 win.

Leading off was the 200 medley relay made up of Amanda Streubel, Rachel Weinstein, Ciara Hu and Carolyn Vasquez. Tori Nickerson won the 200 IM, and Abby Rankin again was the top diver, scoring 107.08 points. Lily Doyle came in first in the 100 back, and in the final event of the day, the 400 meter freestyle relay team made of Weinstein, Nickerson, Hu and Karina Concepcion won in a time of 4:16.30.

Great job by the swimmers!

Boys Tennis - WESCO Tournament at Stanwood - day 2

We received the following communication from Coach Horace Mells from the WESCO Tourney in Stanwood:

The North Division Tournament is singles and doubles with a draw of 16 entries, 2 singles players and 2 doubles teams from each of the 8 schools in the North Division. Players losing in the first round are eliminated from tournament play. All winners advance to quarter finals which starts double elimination.

Jordan Kingma & Josh Even lost in the first round and finished 9th in doubles.

Paul Jewell & Joel Valles II won a close first round match, lost to the #1 seeded team in the quarters and again in the consolation and finished 7th in doubles.

Ryan Evans won his first round match in singles, then lost to the #2 seeded players in the quarters and lost again in the consolation with a 7th place finish in singles.

Derek Thomas is still active. He is seeded 4th in singles and advanced to the semi finals before losing to the #1 seeded player and tournament singles winner. Derek has advanced to the finals of the singles consolation and will be playing for 3rd or 4th place tomorrow.

Junior Varsity season ended on the 16th with the last league match and do not participate in post season play.

WESCO North tennis tournament

Oak Harbor Wildcats Derek Thomas, Ryan Evans, Paul Jewell, Joel Valles, Jordan Kingma and Josh Evans all participated in the 1st round of the tournament at Stanwood High School Wednesday afternoon.

In single action, Derek Thomas defeated his opponent from Snohomish 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the 2nd round, and Ryan Evans beat his opponent, also from Snohomish, 6-1, 6-3.

Thomas advanced to Thursday's semifinals by dispatching his Arlington opponent 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, but Ryan Evans lost 6-0, 6-0 to Monroe.

In doubles, Paul Jewell and Joel Valles beat their Stanwood opponent 6-4, 6-4, but the other Stanwood doubles team beat the newly-formed doubles team of Jordan Kingma and Josh Evans 6-3, 7-6.

The remaining OH doubles partners lost in the 2nd round. Jewell-Valles fell to Snohomish 6-1, 6-0 to end their run in the winner's bracket.

Video highlight clips posted

A total of 17 video clips from Friday's Homecoming football game against Arlington, Tuesday's JV and Varsity volleyball match against Marysville, and Wednesday's Freshman football game against an unsporting Arlington team are now posted.

Click HERE to get to the video clips.

Freshman football vs Arlington

It was a clear, crisp fall evening - an almost perfect night for football. Unfortunately, the Arlington Eagles were in town and were determined to not only beat the 'Cats, but to rub dirt in their faces. Even more unfortunately, they were helped towards their goal in almost every facet of the game by the Oak Harbor team.

Starting early in the game, things went sour. On the 2nd play of the game, a Matt Burgoyne pass was tipped and intercepted by Arlington at the OH 40 and returned to the 8. 2 plays later, and after a trick 2-point conversion, it was Arlington 8, OH 0 at the 8:31 mark in the 1st quarter.

Edward Denmon took the kickoff at his own 13 and returned it to the 33. 11 plays later the ball was only on the OH 47, due to a holding penalty and a false start call, both against the Wildcats. A hurried punt only netted 8 yards, giving Arlington a 1st down on their own 47.

Arlington used a combination of run and pass to move the ball to the OH 36 when time expired in the 1st quarter. Arlington scored on a pass just 4 plays and 2 minutes later to boost the lead to 14-0.

The Eagles then kicked the ball high and short, and it dropped in a sort of 'no-man's land' behind the upbacks, and Arlington was able to cover the ball at the OH 37. The first play was a long pass that went for a score and a 20-0 lead.

Oak Harbor started their next possession at the 43. Justin Everett got the ball, but it slipped from his hands and he was able to cover it. After he secured the ball, an Arlington player came in and hit Justin, leading with his head. The 15-yard personal foul penalty gave OH a 1st down in Eagle territory. The 'Cats were able to work the ball down to the 39 and were looking at a 4th & 3. The answer to that was to give the ball to Denmon, who gained 4 yards. However, on the very next play, the ball was stripped and Arlington recovered on the 36. Arlington attempted a reverse, but it was sniffed out and stuffed at midfield. Later in the series, though, Arlington ran a double reverse with a pass downfield that resulted in yet another touchdown.

The Arlington kickoff bounced into the end zone. On the 1st down play, the center/quarterback exchange was fumbled and Arlington was able to cover the ball at the 19. Arlington scored again on a pass play from the OH 5, and the score stood at 34-0 as the teams broke for halftime.

The Eagle received the 2nd half kickoff at their own 41, and even though there was a nice QB sack by Colin Higginbotham and Brent Ryan, Arlington was able to score yet again, pushing the lead to 40-0.

The Wildcats finally started to get on track, taking the ball from their own 37 to the Arlington 25 on alternating Everett and Denmon runs. On a 4th & 3 play, Burgoyne handed off to Gabe Dye who started running to the right, stopped and passed back to Burgoyne who ran to the end zone untouched. Burgoyne kept the ball and score a 2-point PAT to make the score 40-8.

Arlington ran 3 plays on offense before fumbling the snap, which OH recovered on the 49. A great pass reception by Peter Franssen and a run by Everett moved the ball to the 25. At that point, Burgoyne dropped back and threw a long pass that looked like a sure interception. However, the defender let the ball bounce off his fingertips and it went straight into Denmon's hands at the 7, and he took it in. Justin Everett caught a pass for 2 more points, and with 6:58 left in the game it was Arlington 40, OH 16.

This is when Arlington started to show their true colors. Facing a 4th & 14 at midfield and around 4 minutes left in the game, most people would expect a team leading 40-16 to punt. Not Arlington. The lined up to punt and threw deep. The ball was intercepted by Franssen and returned to the 40, but the refs called defensive pass interference and gave Arlington a 1st down at the OH 36. With less that 3 1/2 minutes left and a 4th and 10, still at the 36, Arlington didn't punt, but ran another reverse that appeared to go for a TD, but it was called back for an illegal block. Now with a 4th & 23 at the 49 and 2 1/2 minutes left, Arlington STILL didn't punt, but threw a deep pass that was incomplete at the OH 20.

Oak Harbor took the ball down to the 35, but Arlington intercepted another OH pass at the 12, returning it to the 19. Now, with only 1:45 left in the game and still holding a 40-16 lead, most teams would run up the middle, or even start taking a knee. Not Arlington. They ran the ball around the end up to the OH 48. 2 plays later, with only 7 seconds left at the OH 44, Arlington STILL didn't take a knee, but rushed back to the line to get off one last play, which they threw downfield but was incomplete at the OH 10.

Most of the 4th quarter showed everyone in the stands what a totally classless act the Arlington Eagles Freshman team was in that game.

Volleyball, Soccer and Swimming - Tuesday

Let's start with the good first.

The OH swim team again swept first place in all swimming events on the way to a 131-50 victory over visiting Bellingham. The girls are having a great year, and should be sending plenty of swimmers into the post season.

The Girls soccer team just can't seem to get on track, falling to Marysville 3-0. The girls work hard in practice and have great team chemistry, but for some reason just aren't getting it done in games.

Volleyball - Folks, this was just plain ugly. The Wildcats lost the first game 11-25, and that was their best performace of the night. The other two game scores were 7-25 and 9-25. About halfway through the first game, with the cats down 7-15, you could see it in the players - they were resigned to losing. The second game looked like it could be won, as the game was tied at 7-7 at one point, but M-P went on a 7-0 run to put it away.

As a team they were listless, not hustling, and to be honest, it looked like they just didn't care if they lost, and many in the crowd were getting the same impression. In the 3rd game, Coach Molitor pulled most of her starters and played the game with the bench players. Sophomore Jordan Faralan set for sophomores Amanda Blau and Janessa "T-Rex" Ramos at the net, and junior Emily Meagher was on defense, all for the entire game.

The JV played OK, but were outplayed by a superior Marysville team. Their game scores were 15-25, 11-25 and 12-25. Even though they were getting beat, the JV girls kept their heads up and played hard.

The Freshman team took one game from Marysville, and the other two game were very close - only a few points difference. The Freshman girls felt quite good about their level of play during the match.

Volleyball photos are posted HERE. They are mostly of the JV pre-game warmup, and there are photos of each of the JV team members along with some JV team photos, including a couple of goofy shots.

Youth Wrestling

Yep, winter sports are right around the corner, and the Whidbey Wildcats Wrestling Club are already starting their second week of practice. Practices are every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday form 6-8pm in the high school mat room, and it's not too late to register and participate.

The first tournament of the year is here in Oak Harbor - The Whidbey Wildcat Salute to the Veteran Tournament.

Full schedules along with detailed information can be found by going HERE.

The Oak Harbor Sports Report was at practice Monday night, and some photos of wrestlers and coaches have been posted HERE.

Also in the gym Monday night were two girls AAU basketball teams getting ready for their season, which starts this Saturday.

The 5th/6th grade team plays the Regulators at Mt. Baker Middle School at 1:30pm, and the 8th grade team plays against Snohomish Rock at 12:20pm at LaVenture Middle School.

Kathy Silveira

As many of you know, Kathy is on the injured list and hasn't played this year. However, she was able to go 1-on-1 with the photographer during practice on Monday. Even with her crutches, she was able to get all four shots past the cameraman.

You can see 28 photos at http://oakharborsports.shutterfly.com/

Middle School Cross Country results are here!

The combined Oak Harbor Middle and North Whidbey Middle Cross Country team, running under the banner of North Whidbey, competed in their final regular season race of the year at the Wirth Farm in Oak Harbor over a 1.6 mile course. Overall, North Whidbey athletes performed well, and there were some exciting finishes. Links to photos are with each grade level's article.

7th grade girls

The 7th grade girls race was all North Whidbey, with local girls capturing 4 of the top 10 spots enroute to the team win.

Olivia Meyer of NWMS was the first to cross the finish line, in a time of 11:31, and she was followed 14 seconds later by fellow NWMS student Alex Laiblin in 3rd. The next two North Whidbey finishers were Oak Harbor Christian School students Hannah Kagey and Annie Leete, 7th & 8th respectively. Anchoring the NW team, but still finishing smack in the middle of the finishers was Jasmyn Maier of Oak Harbor Middle School.

The girls didn’t have much depth, but they did have speed, and beat 2nd place Langley MS by 12 points and 3rd place Anacortes by 40 points.

7th grade girls photos are HERE.


7th grade boys –

The 7th grade boys weren’t as strong as the 7th grade girls, but had numbers on their side, enough to get a second place finish. First to cross the line for NW was Carlton Johnson of NWMS in 6th overall, with Teddy Peterschmidt, also from NWMS, just 10 seconds behind. North Whidbey’s Tom Horton just missed nabbing 10th place, finishing just 20 seconds out of 10th with a time of 12:28. Other NW finishers were David Paradise, Nathan Wagner and Harrison Miller from OHMS, and Trevor Sanders and Cody Edwards of NWMS.

7th grade boys photos are HERE.

8th grade girls –

The 8th grade girls don’t have a very strong team, but make up for that strength in numbers and enthusiasm. Despite no NW runners finishing higher than 9th overall, the depth of the team allowed them to capture 2nd place.

First for NW was OHMS’s Christina Wicker with a 12:48 and 9th place overall, and she was followed by Taylor Nienhuis, Haruna Hamamoto, Ainsley McLoud, Carlie Kenny, all from NWMS, in 10th through 15th. Finishing up for the NW was homeschooled Abby Hickinbotham, Kelsey Rankin from OHMS, and Elizabeth Adkins from the Christian School.

8th grade girls photos

8th grade boys –

This was an exciting race. Entering the 2nd half of the run, Oak Harbor Middle School’s Wyatt Homola, the lead NW runner, was running in 4th, and with a hundred yards or so to go was in 2nd by about 20 yards. However, by digging in and pumping his legs to get up the final hill, he was able to slip in front of an Anacortes runner right at the finish line to capture first place. Wyatt was the only NW runner in the top 10, and even with some depth, the field was just too large for NW to score points, and wound up in 2nd place. Other runners representing OHMS in the 24-man field were Chris Hailer, Matt Cross, Zachary Hastings and Kelly Turner. NWMS had some numbers in the race as well – Jackson Knoll, David Kusnick, Guillermo Quinones, Trevor Taylor, Brice Benz and Stacy Jappert.

While perhaps some runners were not as fast as others, or perhaps didn’t finish as well as they wanted, they are all winners, as cross country is not an easy sport. It takes hard work, dedication, and commitment. Every kid who was at the meet was a kid who was outside, having fun, making friends, staying fit, and not sitting at home in front of an electronic screen. Congratulations to ALL of you for being winners!

8th grade boys race photos

Q&A with... Derek Thomas

Reporter Michelle Sandstrom submitted the following Q&A session she had with tennis player Derek Thomas last week.

Getting to know the Athlete:

Q: What is your name?
A: Derek Thomas.

Q: How Old are you and What year in school?
A: I am sixteen and I am a Junior.

Q: Where were you born?
A: Okinawa, Japan.

Q: How long have you lived here?
A: I have lived here for sixteen years.


The Sport:


Q: What sport to you play?
A: Tennis.

Q: How long have you been playing?
A: two years.

Q: Do you play singles or doubles?
A: I play singles, on Varsity the top four play singles.

Q: Describe a practice for me .
A: I play a lot of practice matches and we practice our serves a lot.

Q: What do you enjoy about it?
A: Tennis is a life long sport, it is enjoyable, and I like the aspect of a team.

Q: Will you be playing Tennis next year? How about for college?
A: hopefully…YES!

Q: Any icon tennis players? I’ve heard of this one guy Andy something!
A: yeah Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi.

Q: What is your coaches name?
A: Horace Mells.

Q: How do you like him?
A: He is fun and interesting, and he is an inspirational coach with a love for the game like I have never seen.

Q: What got you into the sport?
A: My friend’s mother told me I should try out for the team.

Q: How are you personally doing this season?
A: Since my shoulder injury, I haven’t been too happy with my games.

Q: What are your goals this season and next season?
A: Our division tournament is coming up and I hope my shoulder can hold out, I want to do the best that I can.


Outside of Tennis:


Q: What do you do outside of tennis (work, friends, family, girlfriend) ?
A: I work at Their Place Children’s Center, and when I’m not working I hangout with friends and I always have homework.

Q: Are you excited for Homecoming?
A: The game yes; I have high expectations for our team, as for the dance I am not attending but I hope everyone else has fun!

Q: Do you have a date?
A: Nope.

Q: What are your plans?
A: Hopefully I get to hangout with some friends.

Youth sports Saturday - Soccer and Football

The Oak Harbor Sports Report was able to get to 2 soccer and 2 youth football games this past Saturday.

First was a GU-6 game between the Orange Cheetahs and the Red Roses. 39 pictures from the game are posted HERE.

Next up was our first visit with the boys U-10 program. The game featured the Pirates, sponsored by the North Whidbey Soccer Club against the Royals, sponsored by Kreig Concrete Products.

The game resulted in a 4-4 tie, and after the game, both coaches were very proud of their teams' efforts. Coach Michael Walters of the Royals said his boys "played hard today", and he was proud of the way they performed. Coach Jamie Patrick of the Pirates complimented her players on playing great positions, and said "they've come a long way with their skills". Both teams are at the experience level that the coaches are starting to introduce set plays into their games.

75 images from this game are posted HERE.

Two OHYFL football games were played on the Ft. Nugent Field. At 2:30 the Panthers faced off against Burlington. The Panthers didn't play badly, but were up against a clearly superior opponent, and it showed in the score, 38-8 in favor of Burlington.

120 images from the game, including pictures of the Panther Cheerleaders are posted HERE.

The other game was the Senior Wildcats vs Sedro-Woolley. The Wildcats are not playing badly, but lost a lot of quality players to the high school from last years' team, and it's showing. Coming into the game with only 2 wins, the team is still in playoff contention, as the top 6 teams advance, and this made Saturday's game supremely important.

The Wildcats got on the board early, jumping out to a 14-0 1st quarter lead, and adding another score before halftime. Coming out of the half, the Wildcats kicked off to the Cubs, and it was a squib kick that skipped across the grass. The Cubs were caught totally off guard, as the ball rolled right back a Cub upback who just looked at the ball as it went past. The Wildcats were able to recover, and went on to score again later in the 3rd for a 28-0 lead. Sedro was able to get a TD of their own late in the game, but it was too little, too late, as the 'Cats left the field 43-8 victors.

97 pictures of the game and the Wildcat Cheer Squad can be found by clicking HERE.

Freshman football - Saturday special

That's right, there was a freshman football game this past Saturday against Cavalero Mid-High, also known as the Lake Stevens junior campus. This was not part of the regular freshman season, but a chance for the "B" squads of each school to get some playing time.

The game was close throughout, neither team getting ahead by more than a touchdown.

Oak Harbor got the ball first on their own 33, and after runs by Brent Ryan, Michael Mack and Nick Farrell, and an incomplete pass thrown to Brandon Stratton, the 'Cats were forced to punt from the Cavalero 21. The Lake Stevens drive lasted 6 plays, and was stopped by a Chris Opdyke interception at that he returned out to the Cavalero 48. A nice run by Ryan was negated by a holding call and the Wildcats lined up to punt. Instead of kicking the ball, Justin Everett ran to the left but was tackled short of the 1st down. Cavalero was able to get a drive going and a pas-and-run combination resulted in a Colt TD with just 32 seconds in the first quarter.

Oak Harbor responded with a score of their own, with runs by Stratton and Ryan moving the ball to the OH 44, then Edward Denmon got his hands on the ball and ran it down to the Colt 20, and two plays later ran in for a 19-yard score with 8:57 left in the half.

Cavalero fumbled the OH kickoff, and the Wildcats recovered on the Cav 32. This Oak Harbor drive only lasted a single play, as the Zach Van Pelt pass was tipped and caught by the Colts at the 20 then returned to the 32. The Wildcat defense stepped up and held Cavalero to just 18 yards, forcing them into a 3rd & 21 situation, then preventing a pass completion on 4th down. The 'Cat weren't able to do anything with the ball and punted from their own 43 after the Colts were able to sack Van Pelt. The punt was partially blocked, but still rolled down to the Colt 42.

On their first play, the Colts ran the ball to the OH 48, but then the team of Colin Higginbotham and Elias Whitefoot combined for a QB sack, then Matt Burgoyne intercepted a pass at the OH 30. Denmon then broke another long run, moving the ball 50 yards down to the Cav 20, then again to the 2. 2 plays later, Van Pelt, on the QB keep ran the ball in for the score from the 1 yard line with 23 seconds left in the half, putting OH in the lead 12-6.

The Colts tried hard to get the ball downfield, completing a pass from their own 41 to the OH 32, and were able to call the timeout with just 0.5 seconds left in the half, but the final pass attempt was incomplete, and the teams headed for the locker room.

Oak Harbor kicked off to start the 2nd half, and fortune smiled again, as Cavalero fumbled the ball and Oak Harbor recovered on the Colt 41. Runs by Ryan, Stratton, Vail and Farrell used 4 minutes off the clock and moved the ball to the 4 yard line. Things went bad at that point. First the 'Cats were flagged for a false start, and then Van Pelt was sacked. Another false start moved the ball back to the 21. Vail then got the ball and started around the end on a sweep, but the defender caught his foot and dragged him down for another loss of yards. Finally, facing a 4th & goal from the 20, Noah Lightfritz caught a pass at the 7, but wasn't able to make it to the end zone.

Cavalero used the remaining 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter to move the ball to mid-field, but the OH "D" showed some grit, and a 10-yard pass by Cavalero was intercepted by Whitefoot at the OH 45. A short run by Vail was added to by a facemask foul on the Colts, and a pass reception by Adriel Eckart and runs by Vail, Mack and Stratton moved the ball down to the 31, where another OH pass was intercepted.

This drive was productive for Cavalero, but was aided by a 15-yard facemask penalty on Oak Harbor, which combined with the pass reception moved the ball from the Cav 47 to the OH 23. Two QB keepers got the ball into the OH end zone. The PAT pass attempt failed, and now the game was tied at 12 each.

The next OH drive stalled after gaining 8 yards, and a 2nd fake punt attempt was 4 yards short. That gave Cavalero excellent field position, and they capitalized on it, scoring in only 3 plays, passing for a 14-yard TD. This time the PAT run was good, leaving the Colts with a 20-12 lead.

Oak Harbor now had the ball on their own 35 with just 1:22 left in the game. A false start flag made it 1st & 15 from the 30, then 3 straight QB sacks left the 'Cats looking at a 4th & 32 from their own 18 and only 30 seconds left in the game. The Colts were able to stop the OH offense after only a 3-yard gain, and then ran a single play to end the game with a 20-12 win.

Video highlights should be posted by Tuesday evening.

Wildcats defeat Arlington for Homecoming!

On a cool, blustery Friday night, Kevin Flavin kicked a field goal with 8:17 left in the first quarter. It was all the Wildcats would need, as the Oak Harbor defense came alive for homecoming, shutting down the Arlington Eagles offense.

Oak Harbor received the kickoff, and starting from their own 38 used a series of runs out of the spread offense to move the ball. The first run was by Stephen Lewis for 5 yards, then Donovan Hunt ran from the OH 43 down to the Arlington 41, then added another 20 yards on the next play. QB James Jordan, after a muffed snap, was able to run the ball down to the Arlington 6. From there, the ‘Cats lost 2 yards on 3 plays, setting up Flavin’s 25-yard field goal and the 3-0 Wildcat lead.

Flavin’s kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, and the Eagle were able to move the ball down to the OH 35, where a 4th & 2 pass attempt fell incomplete.

Taking over on downs with 4:06 left in the 1st, the Wildcats mounted a drive that used the remainder of the 1st to move down to the Arlington 31. The drive lasted 11 plays, and as the quarter ended, the ‘Cats faced a 4th & 5 on the Arlington 23. Some in the crowd were calling for Oak Harbor to call a timeout just before the quarter expired and have Flavin kick a field goal with the wind at his back, but instead let time expire. In the first play of the 2nd quarter, Lewis got a shovel pass from Jordan, but the Eagles were waiting for him and he was only able to get to the 20, and Arlington got the ball on downs.

The Wildcat defense held Arlington to a 3-and-out, forcing them to punt on a 4th & 14 from the Arlington 20. OH was not able to get anything going on this drive, losing 6 yards before punting back to Arlington.

Arlington started on their own 44, and after running 6 plays, including a holding penalty and an intentional grounding flag, found themselves on their own 47 and a 4th & 21.

Arlington punted back to Oak Harbor with 4:53 left in the half, and the Wildcats used runs by Hunt, Lewis and Jordan, along with a pass to Hunt, and another to Josh Higbee that was just short of the first down with 1:13 left in the half. Facing a 4th & 1 from the Arlington 25, some in the crowd were again calling for a field goal attempt, but Jordan gave the ball to Hunt for no gain. With just 33 seconds in the half, Arlington opted to take a knee and head to the locker room down 3-0.

Coming out for the 2nd half, Arlington had their only sustained drive of the game. Starting from their own 20 after Flavin kicked the ball through the end zone, the Eagles ran 10 plays to get to the OH 16, including a 23-yard pass from the OH 44 down to the 21. A short run by the Eagle QB was followed by an incomplete pass, setting up a 4th & 5. The pass was thrown to the end zone and was intercepted by Josh Higbee, preserving the Oak Harbor shutout.

Starting their next possession from the OH 20, Stephen Lewis got the ball for 5 straight plays – 4 runs and a pass, moving the ball into Eagle territory, but that’s as far as they could get, as the next 3 plays netted a loss of 2 yards. The snap to the punter was low and bobbled, but Lewis was able to get a kick off, but it only went 19 yards to the Arlington 25. As the 3rd quarter ended, Arlington had moved the ball to the Oak Harbor 46. Again, the Wildcat defense stiffened, forcing Arlington to punt once again, down to the Wildcat 21. The OH offense sputtered, losing a yard after 4 plays, one of which was an illegal substitution infraction on a punt. It was a costly penalty, as the original punt went to the Arlington 49, but after walking off the 5 yards, the 2nd punt went only to the OH 36.

That really fired up the OH defense, and on a 3rd & 4 play the Arlington QB tried to run, but was swarmed by the defensive line, and lost 4 yards. The Eagles went for it on 4th down, but the pass was incomplete.

Oak Harbor again went 3-and-out, but were able to punt onto the Eagles half of the field.

The next Arlington possession was a disaster for them, as the runner fumbled the ball, but was able to recover it, after a 3-yard loss, and on the next play the QB was sacked by Yale Rosen. Arlington’s third down play was a completed pass, but for only 5 yards, putting them in a 4th & 15 situation on their own 44 with under 4 minutes to play in the game. The Eagle QB dropped back to pass, but was hit by Lewis coming from his blind side.

Getting the ball on the Arlington 38 with 3:40 left in the game, runs by Jordan and Hunt moved the ball to the 21. Arlington used their final 2 timeouts on the next two plays, followed by 2 OH timeouts. Facing a 4th & 7 with 59 seconds left, the Wildcats executed a near-perfect reverse, and Derrick Clarit was headed for what looked like a TD, but was tackled at around the Arlington 5. Unfortunately, the ‘Cats were called for holding on the play, moving the ball back to the 21 for a Wildcat 4th & 10. Jordan threw a pass to the goal line, but it fell incomplete with 18 seconds left.

Arlington, with the ball at their own 21 threw a deep pass to the OH 40, but it fell incomplete with 9 seconds left. A second pass attempt fell at the OH 43, but the ‘Cats were called for defensive pass interference, and Arlington had one last chance from their own 36 and 1.5 seconds on the clock. The Eagle QB dropped back to pass, and was smothered by Rosen and Greg Goebel, sealing the Homecoming Victory.

Some photos taken of Homecoming fans and court have been posted HERE.

Other football scores of interest to Wildcat fans:

Glacier Peak 42, Everett 24
Marysville 43, Kamiak 14
Snohomish 28, Stanwood 14
Cascade 26, Shorewood 7
Lakewood 42, Coupeville 6
Lake Stevens 52, Monroe 13

Middle School Cross Country

The combined OH/NW Middle School and Oak Harbor Christain School XC team had a home meet at Wirth Farm this past Wednesday.

While we don't have full results, our impressions were that the kids did well, especially the 7th grade girls and 8th grade boys, each had the race winner on their team.

Photos were taken and are posted, one album for each race, and can be found HERE.

Varsity football clips from last Friday

Finally posted. Included is the wild play near the Oak Harbor goal line with the two fumbles.
http://www.youtube.com/user/OakHarborSportsReport

Taking a break with...Emily Bain

Freshman Emily Taapke Bain, a member of the OHHS Cross Country team, was born on May 24th in Anacortes and raised in Oak Harbor. She is the daughter of Mike and Wendy Bain. Her dad works for the Oak Harbor School District in the maintenance department, and mom is a supervisor at Safeway. Emily has 2 sisters, 9-yar-old Meredith and 24-year-old Jessica. We asked her about her unusual middle name, and she said it was Dutch.

So far this year, Emily has ‘A’s and ‘B’s in all her classes, and one of her goals for the year is to get all her grades up to an ‘A’ along with “get all my work done”. It helps that she’s enjoying her classes, in particular Wood Tech I with Mr. Mueller. Emily said she likes that class best as it’s her only class where “we get to do stuff” instead just sit and listen to the teacher. When asked who her favorite teacher has been, she hardly hesitated before saying it was Mrs. Morgan-Mueller. Emily said it was because “she has lots of personality” and is funny.

Athletically, Emily’s main goal this year is to crack a 6:30 mile, and she is getting close, and still has track season to work on it. Also on the subject of sports, Emily like to play recreational soccer along with running, and her most memorable sports moment came during a co-ed soccer game, one of her first, when she was about 9 years old. She was on defense facing off against a boy when the two tangled and fell. Emily got up and back into the game while the little boy stayed there crying. Although she felt bad for making the boy cry, she didn’t feel bad for beating him in the play. When she isn’t running, Emily really liked to watch football, especially the Oak Harbor Wildcats and the Seattle Seahawks.

We asked her what her most memorable life moment was, and she had to think long and hard about it. She finally remembered something that happened when she was about 5 or so. Her sister Meredith had just been born in Anacortes, and she was in the car with her father on the way to visit Meredith and mother. It was a dark and stormy night, during one of Whidbey’s famous storms, and just after crossing the Deception Pass Bridge, they found the road blocked by a fallen tree. She remembers that she was quite scared, and that date was nervous as well, as his path to the hospital was blocked.

Outside of sports, Emily is into country music, and listened to KMPS quite often. Her favorite movies are just about anything by Pixar, but especially Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. When scanning the TV channels, she’s most likely to stop and watch Spongebob Squarepants.

While we all know that plans change throughout high school, but right now, Emily plans to go on to college and eventually become a medical doctor. When asked where she might like to practice her profession, she instantly said “Iowa”. We asked her why Iowa, and she said it was because at heart, she is just a country girl.

Thursday sports - Tennis, Swimming, and Girls Soccer

The OHHS varsity tennis team ended their season Thursday at Snohomish. The Panthers are the top team in WESCO and have one of the top tennis programs in the state. They are a good, well coached team, and it showed against the Wildcat boys.

All 7 matches were won by Snohomish in straight sets, and only Ryan Evans and Jordan Kingma could win more than 2 games in any set.

Snohomish has one more match, but is a cinch to finish the season 16-0, while the Wildcats, although starting off well, finish the season 4-12.

In girls soccer against Everett, the JV played well, but lost 3-0. It should be noted that 2 of the goals were made against a substitute goalkeeper. If anyone sees Hannah Bressler tomorrow, the reason she has a black eye is that she got a rather large gash just under her left eyebrow, and had to head to the hospital for stitches.

Varsity was a different matter. Everett scored early, twice on corner kicks, enroute to a 4-0 halftime lead. The Seagulls scored 3 more times in the 2nd to win 7-1. The lone OH goal came off a penalty kick by Carson McKole. In what was not the most classy of moves, Everett scored their 7th goal with less than 30 seconds remaining in a game that was already won. It wasn't a long kick that just happened to go in, but hard, overpowering play on top of OH goalkeeper Janelle Green.

86 photos of the two games, including shots of Hannah's cut eyebrow (she wanted them posted) can be found HERE.

Finally, the swim team pounded Everett at Forest Park Pool in Everett 135-50. For the third time this season (at least), Oak Harbor swimmers won all 11 swimming events. In addition, an Oak Harbor diver won the diving competition for the first time this year, when Abby Rankin scored 122.75 points to win the diving competition.

In the past couple of weeks, there has been a new swimmer on the team. Sophomore Abby Leete, who is recovering from a running injury, moved from cross country and is now on the swim team, and was a member of the winning 400 meter freestyle relay along with Karina Concepcion, Carolyn Vasquez and Amanda Streubel.

JV Tennis from Wednesday and Thursday

We won't say much, except that it was against Cascade. Of the 7 matches, played, only the #2 doubles team of Zac Akker and Nick Merrick won more than 2 games in a set. Their first set was 6-7(4), but the second was 2-6.

The JV team played again at home against Snohomish. This match was originally scheduled for Friday, but moved due to the OHHS homecoming.

The match was the final match of the season for the JV boys, and it wasn't pretty. The JV team for Snohomish would be a varsity team at any other school, they're that good. For this last match, the OH coach moved the boys around, but it didn't really help against what is probably the best overall tennis program in WESCO. In singles, only David DeGuzman won 2 games (in the first set). All other singles players won only 1 or 0 games.

#1 singles Geoff Worley moved to #2 doubles, and after losing the first set 2-6, fought hard with partner Kavin Gagen to double their games won in set #2, but it was still a win for Snohomish.

JV Football - October 13th

In Stanwood, facing strong winds and sideways rain, the JV football team lost to the Spartans 22-6.

Coach Nurvic pins the loss on the Wildcat's inability to protect the ball, commenting that there was an excessive number of fumbled during the game.

Wednesday results

Wednesday was not a great day for Oak Harbor fall sports.

In tennis, the boys dropped another 4-3 decision, this one to Cascade.

All the singles matches were very close, one going to the 3rd set. #1 single Derek Thomas fought off his opponent 7-6(4), 6-4. That's about as close as it gets. #2 Ryan Evans was also close, but fell 6-4, 6-3. Senior Jordan Kingma went 3 sets, losing the first 5-7, but pulling out two 6-4 wins in set 2 and 3. Josh Evans also won with a 7-5, 6-3 final.

The 3 doubles teams lost to their Cascade opponents, with the #1 pair of Paul Jewell and Joel Valles the closest with scores of 5-7 and 3-6. The other two doubles matches were 6-3, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-4 losses. I don't have JV results.

Also in action was the volleyball team at Everett High School. This match started badly and just got worse. Everett swept the match with 25-17, 25-20 and 25-13 game scores. The Wildcats normally have both Jen Jansen and Jessica Muzzall in double digits for kills, but in this match, Jansen lead the team with kills, and had only 8 for the match. JV and Freshman results are not available.

Next up for volleyball is a home match against Marysville on Tuesday the 21st.

Finally - Freshman video clips posted

Sorry for the delay.

5 clips from the Oct 8th game vs Snohomish are now posted.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OakHarborSportsReport

Volleyball and Girls Basketball video clips

Clips from Sunday's Fall League basketball game and Monday's Volleyball game have been posted to YouTube.

The Oak Harbor Wildcat volleyball team hosted Stanwood on a rare Monday night match last night.

In Freshman action, the girls won the first game 25-19, lost the 2nd 24-26, and the third 21-25. Even though they lost, the girls were head up, as they played well. Setter Abi Cone said "we should have won the 2nd game". Coach Bjork continues to be impressed with the weekly improvement of the players.

The JV squad won their match, losing the first game, winning the 2nd strongly, then pulling out a win in a close 3rd match.

Game one did not start well, with the 'Cats dropping behind, at one point down 9-4, but started to chip away at the Spartan lead, using a double block set up by Amanda Blau and Sydney Carlson along with a Heather Felps service ace to tie the game at 12. The next 3 points were for Stanwood were all errors by Wildcats, including a lift call and twice having a player in the net. OH then got an ace by setter Jordan Faralan to close it to 14-15, but Stanwood went on a tear, scoring 7 straight, including 2 service aces and 2 kills. The JV team was only able to score twioce more, one on a really nice kill by Janessa Ramos, but the first game was lost 16-25.

The second game started strong for Oak Harbor, as the girls sprinted out to an early 5-1 lead, but let Stanwood back in on a series of hitting errors. Blau and Felps had a really nice block for a point, but Stanwood was able to tie the game at 6 each. Stanwood then had some unforced errors to put Oak Harbor in the lead for good. The remainder of the game was mostly points on errors by the two teams, but Oak Harbor did earn points on a nice block by Lauren Lewis and Janessa Ramos, a service ace by Sydney Carlson, and a Stanwood overpass that was smacked down by Lewis. The game ended on a pair of Ramos kills.

Game 3 started much like game 2, with an early 6-0 Wildcat win, but the Spartans battled back to tie the game at 8, then took a 8-11 lead until a kill by Blau and a pair of service aces by Kelly Pantoleon to tie it at 11. Oak Harbor was able to crawl ahead, at one point hilding a 19-15 lead, but let it slip away, and a double hit on the 'Cats tied the game again at 24. A kill by Stanwood gave them a 25-24 lead, but Blau tied it again at 25, then a nice kill by Lewis and a back row kill by Pantoleon ended the game with a 27-25 win, and a 2-1 match win for the Wildcats.

The varsity match started out with a very close game 1. The biggest lead by either team was only 4 points, and the game had numerous hitting and service errors by both teams. It wasn't a pretty game, but there were a couple of nice points, one on a Melany Cone kill and another on a double block by Jessica Muzzall and Devin Tanner. In the end, the 'Cats pulled it off, winning 25-23 on a Muzzall kill.

Game 2 started slow, and the Spartans held the lead for the entire game. Jen Jansen had several kills and a service ace, and Marisa Sutherland added two more kills, but it wasn't enough at Stanwood tied the match at 1 each with a 25-19 win in game 2.

Game 3 was close for about half the game before Stanwood went on a 10-4 run late to pull away. Kills by Muzzall, Kim Mowbray and Jansen gave the Wildcats hope, but the girls fell short 15-25.

Game 4 didn't look good for Oak Harbor, as Stanwood built a 11-5 lead on some uncharacteristic hitting and service errors by OH. The girls fought back, and back-to-back kills by Devin Tanner and Jansen closed the gap to 19-22, but Stanwood shut out our girls for the rest of the game, winning 25-19 and picking up the match win 3-1.

89 photos of the JV and Varsity matches, including some Freshman warmup and post-game pictures are posted HERE.

Keeping up with - Kim Mowbray - Varsity Volleyball

Reporter Michelle Sandstrom caught up with Kim Mowbray of the Wildcat Volleyball team last week and has the following report:

Playing volleyball for six years, Kim Mowbray is very well known around the courts. She is 5 foot 10 inches and chooses to play volleyball because it keeps her in shape.
Kim has been playing this game since the seventh grade and has spent three years playing on varsity for the Oak Harbor Wildcats as a middle blocker. Her number is 6 and has been since her freshman year. Kim is a senior this year and even though these ladies have had a shaky start, they are hoping for the best, and the best in her mind is becoming one of the top four teams and making it to the playoffs which they did last year, and personally she wants to play all around rotation wise.
A normal practice she says, consists of ball handling, warm ups, and the preparing of defense and offense. At practices she works at not standing around so much but being active.
Kim prefers home games over away and describes the team “as close as sisters”; every home game they have a team dinner. She also believes that being on a team such as volleyball helps keeps her grades up because without good grades she can’t play, “it’s a great motivator”. She also loves her coaches and describes them as “chill, we can joke”. She also explains that the coaches expect their eating habits to change during the season, “carbs carbs carbs”, and if they don’t change, they get in trouble.
Outside of volleyball she doesn’t have a job and plays softball in the spring.
When asked about going to college for volleyball she said “if I could play at a college level I would really like to”. She doesn’t have a role model but thinks Misty May-Treanor and Carrie Walsh are “freaking amazing”.
The season is just beginning, and hopefully these ladies can get back on track and Kim completes the season at her best during her last year.

Breaking news - Marshall Lobbestael out for season

Marshall was injured in last Saturday's game against Oregon State, and tests have confirmed a damaged ACL *and* MCL, and he is out for the rest of the season.

Girls Basketball - Fall league

The JV and Varsity teams were both in games at Sedro-Woolley HS on Sunday, October 12th.

The JV was first, playing against Tulalip. The first half was close, but Tulalip pulled ahead slightly, leading at the half 17-12. In the 2nd half, Tulalip extended their lead to 21-14, but the Wildcats pulled back, with a 3-pointer by Erica Flores knotting the score at 21. Tulalip scored to lead by 2, then Tatianna Cummings scored to tie it again. Tulalip hit a trey, then Sheena Corey answered back, and with just over a minute left, Janelle "Yoshi" Yoshimoto got the bucket to give the 'Cats a 2 point lead. Tulalip tied the score again at 28 when they got the basket after a foul, but missed the 'and-1'. Oak Harbor called a timeout with less than a minute left, but failed to score before time expired, sending the game to overtime. In this league, the first overtime is 4 minutes, or the first team to get ahead by 3 (or 5, depending on who the ref is) wins the game, and a second OT is sudden death.

Tulalip got the ball first after the tip, but the Wildcat defense prevented a score. Bringing the ball upcourt, Yoshi found herself open at the top of the key, launched the ball, and watched it swish through the net for the 3-pointer and the win, 31-28.

The varsity game, against Burlington, was very close as well for most of the first half, and the Wildcats found themselves down 15-14 until Cheyenne Tubo hit a 3, and from then until the end of the half, the 'Cats increased their lead to 24-17 when Ariel Brothers got the putback 2 with less than a minute.

In the 2nd half, Oak Harbor increased their lead to 39-27 on a Jessica Denmon 3-pointer, but Burlington didn't give up, closing the gap to 39-36 late in the game. Denmon then hit her third trey of the game to make it 41-37. At that point time was getting short, and the Tiger resorted to fouling to stop the clock, sending Denmon, Tubo and Nicky Mowbray to the line to shoot the 1-and-1. Tubo hit both of hers with 15 seconds left in the game to seal the 43-37 Wildcat win.

Photos from both the JV and Varsity games can be found by clicking HERE.

Girls soccer and volleyball from Saturday afternoon

Both the OHHS volleyball and soccer teams were in action Saturday.

The JV and Varsity volleyball squads were in a tournament at Mt. Vernon HS. The varsity didn't do as well as they hoped, finishing in 16th place. The JV, however, had a very respectable 4th place finish.

In soccer, the girls faced off on a sunny Saturday afternoon against Arlington. The JV team played the Eagles to a 0-0 halftime tie, but a goal by Arlington early in the 2nd half was all they needed. It was a very physical game, with Maura McKole having to come out for a while with a very bloody nose, Aimee Kelly got a ball kicked right in her face, and Haylee Little got hit so hard that her lip busted open, and she had to head to the hospital for stitches.

93 images of the JV game are posted HERE.

In the varsity game, Carson McKole scored both Oak Harbor goals, and the Wildcats held a lead until the final minutes of the game. The Eagles scored on a penalty kick and a corner kick in the last 6 minutes of the game to tie it at 2 each. In overtime, neither team could score, so the match ended in a 2-2 tie.

Saturday youth sports

Another busy Saturday for the Oak Harbor Sports Report, but thanks to the miracle of modern transportation, we were able to cover events at Ft. Nugent Field, Wildcat Memorial Stadium, and at Mt. Vernon High School.

First up was youth soccer at Ft. Nugent Field. The Boys U-6 Blue Sharks, sponsored by Der Kinderhuis Montessori school faced off against the Green Dragons. It was a close battle, but in the end both teams were declared victors!

45 photos of the Blue Sharks and Green Dragons can be found HERE.

Next was a gilrs U-6 game with the Blue Butterflies, sponsored by Soroptimist of Oak Harbor vs the Orange Cheetahs. Talk about some hard working girls! Both teams gave it their all, and since they had so much fun playing, who cares who won!!

43 images of the Cheetahs and Butterflies are HERE.

The Girls U-8 Blue Lightning, sponsored by Best Friends Veterinary Clinic versus the Blue Sharks were up next. Another fun game to watch, and it yielded 44 images that can be viewed by going HERE.

Moving to Mt. Vernon High School, the Oak Harbor Youth Football League Pumas were in action against the Mt. Vernon Bulldogs. This game wasn't even close. The Pumas jumped to a 28-0 halftime lead and never looked back, scoring twice more in the 2nd half to finish the game with a 40-0 victory. 34 images of Pumas in action are HERE.

Also at Mt. Vernon, the OH Peewee Lynx, also vs Mt. Vernon. This game was hard to read. First off, it was a non-conference game. Mt. Vernon came into the game with a single loss, and is guaranteed a playoff spot. The Lynx coaches noticed that it didn't seem like the Bulldogs were using their normal starters, perhaps wanting to save their best players for the playoffs.

At any rate, the Lynx owned the first half. 3 running TDs by 2 different players in the first quarter made it 19-0 for the Lynx. MV responded with a run TD with 2 minutes remaining in the half, but the Lynx struck back with 1:23 left to push the score to 26-7. The Lynx kept the Bulldogs from scoring before the end of the half by intercepting a pass, keeping the halftime score at 26-7.

In the 2nd half, MV had a nice drive going, and on the last play of the drive the runner broke loose and looked like he was going to score. However, the Lynx pursuit caught him just before the goal line and forced a fumble which Oak Harbor recovered in the end zone. Oak Harbor ball, 1-10 on the 20!

The Lynx took that opportunity and marched downfield, setting up a 1st & Goal on the MV 5. From there, it only took 1 play to run in for the 5th Lynx TD of the day. There was no further scoring by either team, and the game ended with the Lynx in command 32-7. The scoring was spread out in this game, with 3 different players scoring, and no player scoring more than 2 TDs. 77 images from the game are posted HERE.

Moving to Wildcat Memorial Stadium, we found the OH Cougars locked in a 0-0 tie with rival Sedro Woolley, but unfortunately, it didn't last long. A 61-yard punt return by Sedro resulted in a Cub score with 5:37 left in the 3rd. Oak Harbor responded with a 39-yard TD run, knotting the score again, 8-8, at the end of the 3rd.

Going into the 4th, the Cougar offense started to sputter and defense started to leak. Two turnovers early in the 3rd, an interception and a fumble, along with a turnover on downs stifled Cougar drives, while Sedro was able to score twice - at the 5:15 mark and again with only 38 second to go in the game. The final score was 20-8 for the Cubs. That was the first loss on the year for the Cougs, and moved Sedro-Woolley to a 7-0 record. 30 photos are posted HERE.

Finally, in a game that started at 7pm, the 1-5 Senior Wildcats went up against 5-2 Burlington. In this game, Oak Harbor just wasn't able to get anything going, with most possessions resulting in little yardage, while Burlington was able to mount long, time-consuming drives that resulted in scores.

The game started on a positive note, with Burlington fumbling on their first play from scrimmage, but OH was unable to convert a 4th & 9 on the Burlington 14, then the Tigers marched 86 yards using 5 minutes to score with just 2:32 remaining in the 1st. The PAT failed, making the score 6-0. On their next possession, OH ran only 6 offensive plays, getting out to their own 36 when a 4th down pass attempt fell incomplete. Burlington then only had 1 play, as the ball was intercepted at the 25 and returned by the Wildcats to the Tiger 42 at time ran out in the first quarter.

Oak Harbor started to move the ball, getting it down to the Tiger 10, but again the 4th down attempt failed, turning over the ball at the Burlington 10 with 7:26 left in the half. OH was able to hold, forcing a Tiger turnover on 4th down, but then only moved the ball backwards 6 yards before a 4th down pass was intercepted by B-E. Oak Harbor was able to stop the Burlington drive with 1 second left in the half. With only 1 play and 50 yards to go, the 'Cats tossed a short pass to the halfback at the OH 48, he threw a pass to a receiver at the 40, but he was only able to get down to the 34 before being forced OOB by Burlington, leaving the halftime score at 6-0.

The 2nd half started badly. Even before the kickoff, OH was hit for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taking too long to come out of the locker room, delaying the start of the 2nd half. B-E then kicked off from the OH 45 instead of their own 40. The kick went into the endzone for a touchback, so OH started the series on their own 20. OH was able to get the ball moving, using nice runs to move the ball to midfield, until a 4th down run ended 4 yards short. B-E took the ball with 7:31 left in the 3rd and used 4 plays and less than a minute and a half to score on a 31-yard run. The kick was good, pushing the score to 14-0.

OH was again forced to punt after running 3 plays, and the Tigers used the remaining 6 minutes of the 3rd to move from their own 32 to the OH 9, then into the end zone with 46 seconds left and increasing the lead to 22-0.

The Tiger kickoff went OOB at the 12, and the penalty put the ball on the OH 35. The Wildcats ran 2 plays until the horn sounded on the 3rd quarter.

Starting the final period, the 'Cats again showed some life, moving the ball down to the B-E 10. A fumble and QB sack resulted in a 4th & 10 on the Tiger 15, but the pass into the end zone was incomplete.

Taking over on their own 15 with 6:02 left in the game, the Tiger used a series of running plays to set up a touchdown pass from the OH 18 with 3:22 left in the game. The Wildcats punted again after only 3 plays, then Burlington took a knee to end the game, winning 30-0. 44 images from the game have been posted HERE.

Late results from Friday's JV Tennis match

The OHHS boys JV tennis team traveled to Marysville for a match on Friday 10-10-08. Why the tennis schedulers continue to insist on scheduling tennis on Friday, which is normally football night, we don't know.

Anyways, it wasn't pretty for the JV boys. Marysville was short of players and forfeited 2nd and 3rd Doubles, but those were the only wins the boys got all afternoon.

#1 singles Geoff Worley lost 3-6, 3-6. He played well, but the other player was better. #3 singles David DeGuzman lost 2-6, 2-6 , but this was a tough match. Both players had long points, hitting with a lot of topspin it was the last match to finish.

#1 doubles Ben Pralle & Zac Akker lost 1-6, 4-6. Ben was playing without his regular partner of Ben Harrrison.

Next up for tennis is at match Monday at home vs Stanwood for the varsity and away vs Stanwood for JV.

Varsity football at Stanwood 10-10-08

Stanwood started out of the gate with a bang, and continued to hammer at the Wildcat run defense, and the Spartans finished on top, 22-10 on homecoming night for Stanwood.

Stanwood received the opening kick, and after a flag on their first play, got started with a 1st& 15 from the Stanwood 27. A long run coupled with a personal foul facemask against the 'Cats moved the ball to the OH 47. 7 plays later, facing a 4th and 6 on the OH 11, Stanwood lined up in a field goal formation, but went for the fake, but the pass fell to the ground, giving the ball to OH with 7:10 to go in the first on the OH 11.

Instead of the normal Wing-T formation Wildcat fans are used to seeing, Oak Harbor came out in a spread formation, with James Jordan taking almost every snap from the shotgun, and no more than 1 running back. The first play was a pass to #24 Josh Higbee for 11 yards. That first series ended with a punt from the Stanwood 48, but instead of run, run, run, the drive, lasting 8 plays before the punt, had 3 passes (2 completed - 1 to Higbee, the other to Rashaad Smith), and 5 runs, 3 by Jordan.

Stanwood took the punt at the 20 and brought it out to the 27, and using the remaining 4:02 of the first quarter, marched 73 yards to the Oak Harbor end zone, scoring on a 37-yard pass reception as time ran out. The kick failed, so the 1st quarter score was 6-0 for Stanwood.

Starting the 2nd quarter, the Wildcats went 3-and-out, punting on a 4th & 10 from the OH 33, Stephen Lewis got off a good kick and got a good bounce, and the Wildcats downed it at the Stanwood 15. Stanwood could only get it out to the 39 before the Wildcat defense forced a punt, but so did the Stanwood "D" after only 6 yards were gained by OH. Derrick Clarit got downfield quickly and tackled the Spartan returner after only 2 yards were gained. Stanwood punted back to Oak Harbor.

Taking over on the OH 37 with 4:16 left in the half, Jordan ran the ball twice, but only got the ball to the OH 39. With a 3rd & 8, Jordan threw the ball to Rashaad Smith who caught it around the Stanwood 42 and ran it down to the 27. A reception by Hunt brought the ball to the Stanwood 12. Jordan was sacked for a 10-yard loss on the next play, and OH could only move back to the Stanwood 17. Facing a 4th & 15 on the 17, Kevin Flavin kicked a 34-yard field goal, putting OH on the board with 45 seconds left in the half. After the kickoff, Stanwood only ran 2 plays before halftime, leaving the score at 6-3 in favor of the Spartans.

Receiving the kick to start the 2nd half, Oak Harbor moved the ball downfield quickly, using exactly one minute to score. The drive only lasted 4 plays. The first was a 12-yard pass reception by Stephen Lewis, followed by a Jordan run after a poor snap. This play was marred by a holding call downfield against the 'Cats, but the play still resulted in a first down in Stanwood territory. Jordan then threw an incompletion to Smith, but then connected with Josh Higbee right at the goal line for the score. Flavin's kick was good, putting OH in the lead 10-6.

Stanwood's next possession ended in a wild play. The Spartan runner, from the Oak Harbor 47, ran down to around the 10. He was slowed by, it looked like, Derrick Clarit, then a so-far unidentified player came up from behind and knocked the ball loose. It popped about 10 feet up in the air, was caught by a Wildcat who retreated near the goal line, and got out to the 5 before HE was hit hard, and the ball popped high in the air again, but was finally recovered by Oak Harbor at their own 5 yard line.

Stanwood's defense turned up the pressure on Jordan, and on a 3rd down play with less than a yard to go, the Spartan defense forced Jordan back, and were able to sack him in the end zone for a safety. Now, with 6:36 in the 3rd, Stanwood had closed the gap to 2, 10-8.

Oak Harbor kicked the ball from the 20 after the safety, and in a time-consuming drive, used 11 consecutive run plays to score from the OH 1 yard line. The kick was good, putting Stanwood in the lead for good, 15-10 with less than a minute left in the 3rd.

Oak Harbor ended the quarter with a nice Higbee reception for a first down, but a series of 3 flags on three plays in a row found Oak Harbor with a 4th down on their own 45, and punted back to Stanwood.

The first Spartan play went backwards 4 yards. Greg Goebel got in a hit on the runner, enough to slow him down and let Chris Neumiller come in to complete the tackle for loss. It was the only high point for OH during the drive, as 6 plays later Stanwood ran the ball in from the OH 40, converted the kick, and led 22-10 with 7:10 left.

Oak Harbor punted after a 3-and-out effort, and Stanwood used 7 running plays to knock 5 minutes off the clock before turning the ball over to OH on downs at the OH 7 with 1:53 remaining. OH got the ball out to the 27, but a long Jordan pass was intercepted at the 45 with 9 seconds left, then Stanwood took a knee as the clock ran out.

Images from the pre-game warmup have been posted HERE.