With such far-flung destinations as Forks and Ilwaco included in the mix, most Twin Harbors teams football teams will open league play on the road this weekend.
Evergreen 2A Conference, Evergreen 1A League, Southwest Washington 2B Coastal Division and Coastal 1B League play will open this week.
Only Elma, which draws the Evergreen 1A League bye, will continue in non-league competition. The Eagles (1-3) makes the relatively short hop to Rochester (2-2) on Friday.
Most Twin Harbors teams will make longer journeys on Friday. Aberdeen (2-2) visits state-ranked Chehalis (3-1) in an Evergreeen 2A opener, with Hoquiam (2-2) traveling to Tenino (1-2) and Montesano (4-0) trekking all the way to Forks (4-0) to make their Evergreen 1A debuts.
Three SWW Coastal 2B games are on tap. Raymond (1-3) is at North Beach (2-2) in the only game played in the Twin Harbors area. Pe Ell-Willapa Valley (2-2) faces Ocosta (2-2) at Pe Ell and South Bend (4-0) faces an interesting test at Ilwaco (2-2).
Taholah belatedly opens its season at Naselle (3-1).
All Friday games are scheduled for 7 p.m. There are no Saturday games this week.
Aberdeen-Chehalis
The Bobcats will be running the gauntlet of the Evergreen 2A elite early. Their first three contests will be against league powers Chehalis, Black Hills and Tumwater (the latter two at Stewart Field).
Chehalis was ranked fifth among state 2A teams last week. The Bearcats didn’t lose much of their luster with a 28-23 loss to unbeaten 3A Lake Washington last Friday. They just missed pulling out that game when Brandon White was ruled barely out of the end zone after catching a potential game-winning touchdown pass from Nole Wollan in the late going.
The son of veteran Bearcat head coach Bob Wollan, Nole Wollan is both a productive passer (throwing for 198 yards last week) and also the team’s leading rusher.
“They’re not complex with what they do. But what they do, they do well,” Aberdeen coach Kevin Ridout said. “Their strength on the offensive side is they have so many weapons. On the defensive side, they’re athletic and flow to the ball really well.”
With Kylan Touch rushing for consecutive 300-yard games, the Bobcats have moved the ball well all season. Defense, however, has been a concern, particularly in high-scoring wins over Class 1A Elma and Castle Rock.
Ridout was pleased with his team’s defensive performance in losses to Montesano and Hoquiam, but admits it has looked “a little disjointed” the last two weeks.
“Coming into the season, I thought that was going to be our saving grace,” he said.
He cited, in addition to Touch, quarterback Ben Dublanko, receiver Cameron Hochstetler, offensive linemen Sage Bridges and Skyler Murray and defensive back Bailey Delahanty for their play against Castle Rock. Freshman Jimmy Boora filled in nicely at tight end.
Hoquiam-Tenino
The Grizzlies will be trying out Tenino’s newly installed black artificial turf on Friday.
The Beavers had one game cancelled due to fires and excessive smoke at White Salmon. They have beaten Bellevue Christian and lost narrowly to Rochester (23-20) and Stevenson (20-12).
Tenino is thin in numbers but do possess a versatile quarterback in Niles Cannon, who passed for two touchdowns against Stevenson.
“He’s their best athlete,” Hoquiam coach Jeremy McMillan said of Cannon. “He plays both ways and has a couple of receivers that are pretty decent, too.”
Although coming off a 30-19 loss to Trico League favorite La Center, McMillan has been pleased with his young team’s early season progress.
“We gained a lot from the first four games of the season,” McMillan said. “I feel like we’ve gotten better every week.”
He credited his coaching staff with making halftime adjustments that enabled the Grizzlies to essentially play the Wildcats even in the second half last week.
Other games
The Montesano-Forks contest matches the fourth (Monte) and seventh-ranked (Forks) teams in the Tacoma News Tribune statewide poll.
The Spartans, who demonstrated progress last year in notching the Evergreen 1A League’s third and final postseason berth, have scored at least 50 points in every game this season— albeit against lesser opposition than the Bulldogs have faced.
Monte coach Terry Jensen labels Forks running back Cole Baysinger, who has nearly topped the 1,000-yard in rushing already this season as “the difference-maker on both sides of the ball.”
“They do a good job blocking for him, but he has really good vision and can read when to cut back and when to bounce plays,” Jensen said.
Perhaps the most interesting SWW 2B Coastal contest will take place in Ilwaco, where South Bend will put its unbeaten record on the line against a Fisherman club that was ranked the division co-favorite with Pe Ell-Willapa Valley.
Ilwaco has struggled a bit in a tough non-league schedule, sandwiching lopsided losses to Central League powers Toledo and Kalama around a 21-19 win over Toutle Lake.
