Saturday at Ft. Nugent Park - football and soccer

It was a very busy day at Ft. Nugent Park in Oak Harbor this past Saturday, with 3 youth football games and a bunch of soccer games. Names of players will only be given for the Junior football game, as it is the policy of the Oak Harbor Sports Report to not use names of athletes who are below middle school age.

I'll start with the two soccer games that I know about. Coach Troy Cowan and his U-10 Blue Knights, sponsored by P&L Contractors played a team from Coupeville. The Knights sprinted to a 4-0 first half lead, helped by the outstanding play of the two goalies who stopped every shot on goal. In the second half, Coupeville got in the game with a pair of goals, but the Blue Knights answered with 3 goal of their own to take the game 7-2. Coach Cowan was particularly impressed with the play of the goalies, and with his forward that scored 3 of the team's 7 goals.

In U-12 action, the Oak Harbor Breakers, sponsored by the Oak Harbor Pizza Factory and the Northwest Training Academy, beat a tough Stanwood team 3-1 in a Skagit Valley Youth Soccer game. The two teams played to a 1-1 halftime tie, and shortly after starting 2nd half play, the Breakers avoided giving Stanwood the lead when a penalty kick went over the net. The Breakers went to to score 2 more goals for the victory. The Coach was proud of his girls, and noted that the win was a total team victory, and that good communication between the girls on the field was a key. 59 photos from this game have been posted HERE

Moving to the Oak Harbor Youth Football League, 3 games were played at Ft. Nugent Field. First up was the midget Cougars vs Everett. The game was all Oak Harbor from the beginning, and the team extended their undefeated record to 3-0 with a 47-6 win. The coach attributed much of the scoring gap to his defense, which shut down the Everett offense, keeping them off the field and giving the OH offense more opportunities to score. The win was a total team effort. The Cougars have a bye next week. A few photos have been posted HERE

The Junior Jaguar team played at 11 against the Bulldogs from Mt. Vernon, and again, Oak Harbor dominated both side of the ball. During the first half, the Jags scored 4 touchdowns on the way to a 27-0 lead. The first two were by Sheyenne Sams on run plays, then Zach Jones caught a pass from Sturdevant, and a run by Brent Mertens finished the first half scoring.

Opening the 2nd half Mt. Vernon got on the board first, but the kickoff was fielded by Jones and returned to the end zone and a 34-7 Oak Harbor lead. Mt. Vernon followed with another TD but didn't convert, leaving the score at 34-13. The Mt. Vernon defense stiffened, and on an Oak Harbor punt attempt, the snap went high and over the punter's head. MV capitalized on this error and scored again, closing the score to 34-20.

34 points was not enough for Sams, who scored again on the ground, moving the scoreboard to 40-20. The Bulldogs took the OH kickoff all the way down to the OH 32, and after a acouple of plays tried to pass it into the end zone, but it was picked off by Jones right at the goal line. He ran it back up the sideline to about the 30 where a Mt. Vernon player knocked the ball out of his hands. Raymond Quinday, a very large lineman, was right with Jones when the ball came out, picked it up off the ground and finished what Jones started. Time ran out during the play, leaving the final score at 46-20. Coack Skerjanec said it was a "wonderful, all-around performance by 1-35 on the team". In addition to the offensive output, cousins Troy and Jacob Sturdevant were a force on defense, along with Rhys Mattila and Blaine Coleman. We're looking forward to seeing these players on the high school team in the next few years. 44 game photos and 25 cheerleader photos are HERE.

Finally, the Pee-Wee Lynx team faced an inexperienced and very small, both in size and numbers, team from Darrington. The Lynx received the opening kickoff and #80 returned it straight to the end zone. When Darrington first got the ball, the went 3-and-out with a loss of 10 yards. Due to the penetration of the Lynx defensive line, Darrington wasn't even able to get the ball handed off. Other first-half scores were made by #22 on a 4th & 1 play, #29 on a nice run from the 40, and #37 who ran a sweep around the right from midfield.

In the 2nd half, Darrington got on the board twice, both scored on runs by the QB. The Lynx scored one more touchdown when a pitch by the quarterback was fumbled, but he picked it up and ran around the right side to pay dirt. After the game, Coach Bell said "everyone gave everything all game", and the key to the game was the dominance of the Lynx defensive line. 38 game photos and 16 cheer photos have been posted HERE. The photos include team photos with the famous Lynxmobile.