Mitchell Tripp, Oregon State Baseball
In November 2010, Laurel’s own Mitchell Tripp signed with Oregon State to play baseball. Oregon State is sitting in the upper half of the Pac 12 standings this season, 8-7 in conference and 26-12 overall at about the halfway mark of the season. They’re ranked 19th in the college baseball writers’ poll.
Unfortunately, Mitchell injured his arm in February, right before the season, and is redshirting this year.
Despite that bad luck, all is not lost in the near term. Mitchell plans to play with the Corvallis Knights this summer, and the Knights will be playing the Bellingham Bells in Bellingham July 3rd, 4th and 5th. Come out and watch.
Mitchell signs his arm away to OSU
1976 Game 3: Meridian 21, Lynden Christian 0
The Trojans hosted the Lyncs in the first of two meetings in 1976. The Trojans drove a short field for their first score of the game, a 7-yard Mike Kingma run. Future Whitworth decathlete Doug Larson added the PAT for a 7-0 first quarter lead. Larson scored the Trojans’ second touchdown on a 38-yard strike from quarterback Ken Shockey, then added his second PAT to push the first half lead to 14-0.
Shockey intercepted his L.C. counterpart, QB Terry Kaemingk in the 3rd quarter to set up Jeff Gorsenger’s 5-yard scoring run for the final Trojan points. The Trojan defense stifled the Lync offense for the remainder of the game to post their 2nd consecutive home shutout, 21-0. For the game, the Lyncs completed just 3 of 12 passes for 41 yards and gained only 3 yards rushing on 25 attempts for a total of 44 yards and just 4 first downs. Meanwhile, the Trojans rolled up 199 yards rushing and 96 passing and did not punt in the game.
Stat Stars
Ken Shockey
Passing: 4-8, 96 yards, 1 td, 1 int
Interceptions: 1-0
Mike Kingma
Rushing: 20-108, 1 td
Doug Larson
Receiving: 3-66, 1 td
PATs: 3-3
Kick-off Returns: 1-9
The Meridian track team scaled the high passes to take on the Kashmir Invitational this past Saturday and had a truly epic meet, leaving no doubt who controlled that heavily contested region. Jake Schmitt won the 100, 200 and 400, and Denver Vander Yacht won the javelin and discus. Those performances along with many other great showings got Meridian the team win with 111 points in the 12 team meet.
“It was a great meet for our kids,” Trojans assistant coach Andrea Ames said in a phone interview. “We get over here and the weather was great. We got to bring more kids with us than we would have if we had gone to Snohomish or Pasco, and we posted some really good times with the good weather and a fast track.”
Other notables were Neal Tilbury taking third in the discus and Spencer Blackburn throwing 157-3 in the javelin for third.
As far as anyone can remember, this is also the first time the Meridian boys have beaten Kings in a meet. Lynden was 4th with 87 points and King’s was 5th with 69.
Denver’s throw in March of 185-10 is second best in 1A currently, with Connell’s Hadley the Younger holding the top mark of 195-2. For all classifications, Denver is 10th.
Bellingham Herald: Schmitt, Vander Yacht lead Meridian to win at Cashmere Invite
Just Announced…
3rd Annual
Big Kahuna Kickoff Classic 2012
Saturday, July 28, 2012
North Bellingham Golf Course, 9AM Shotgun Start
The Big Kahuna Kickoff Classic golf tournament, sponsored by the Meridian Football Boosters, is an annual fundraiser with proceeds going to the football team as well as the “Big Kahuna” Scholarship Endowment. Be sure to check out some of the fun last year in the photo gallery.
Bookmark the permanent page on this site for updates.
Cougfan.com Photo
On paper, the Mike Leach Airraid offense would not be the ideal situation for a large though athletic tight end. Leach teams are typically 4- and 5-wide with the offensive line splits so wide there’s really no room for a tight end. Thus there was some concern in Laurel for what this meant for our favorite Cougar, Andrei Lintz.
While Andrei had become comfortable of his place with in the new Cougar system within the locker room, we got public notice of how Leach sees Andrei’s role during a KJR interview Monday afternoon. Leach used words like “beast,” “violent hands,” and “release the hounds” in a glowing two minute portion of the interview. You can listen to the full interview here.
Since then, the Cougar was out of the bag, so to speak, and the rest of the Coug media corps has rushed to match Leach’s endorsements.
From CougCenter.com:
Andrei Lintz: He’s been more a blocking tight, but look for Lintz to break out. Right now, he looks like Leach’s x-factor, a guy that can move around, play a bunch of different positions and create some matchup problems in the route. Lintz is more athletic than most realize, and Leach seems to be enamored with him.
And CougFan.com:
Mike Leach‘s offense doesn’t really employ tight ends but a big receiver who can make plays? Leach covets those guys regardless of body-type. And Andrei Lintz, listed as a 6-5, 252-pound tight end, impressed Leach in a big way on Day 2. Oh, and by the way, he also likes what he’s seen from Kristoff Williams.
“Other guys to keep an eye on, Kristoff Williams and Andrei Lintz. Andrei Lintz had a huge day. Andrei Lintz caught more balls in the last practice than anybody. This guy’s a monster, he’s like 6-5, 255, something like that. He’s smooth, runs well, good hands,” said Leach.
And a full article in the Spokesman Review on Tuesday:
Andrei Lintz was not particularly encouraged by the film he was watching.
Washington State had just hired Mike Leach as its head coach, so Lintz, a 6-foot-5, 252-pound senior tight end, dug up some highlights of Leach’s teams at Texas Tech.
What he saw seemed like a problem.
“Holy cow,” Lintz thought. “Every guy that’s playing receiver is like 205 (pounds). There’s not that many people my size.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get moved to defense or if they were even going to have a spot for me.”
After three practices this spring, it appears as if Lintz was wrong. Very wrong. So wrong, in fact, that not only has Leach raved about Lintz’s size, hands and blocking ability, but inside receivers coach Eric Morris said that if the season started today, Lintz would be WSU’s starting right inside receiver.
“No question,” Morris said. “He’d play every play until he got tired.”
Finally, the WSU sports information people posted two interviews following Tuesday practice, one with Coach Leach saying a little more about Andrei, and then the Hound Releaser himself in a 2 minute interview.
1976 Game 7: Meridian 31, Mt. Baker 18 (Meeting #2)
From the Bellingham Herald:
... Rest the rest of this post.Meridian Outslugs Mount Baker, 31-18
Bob Ames was talking to the officials before Friday night’s Whatcom County League football game between his Meridian Trojans and the Mount Baker Mountaineers:
“They (Mount Baker ) have a pretty good team. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble. It should be a pretty clean game.”
So much for prophecy. Ames had best stick to coaching.
1988 Game 5: Meridian 16, Mt. Baker 0
WCL rivals Meridian and Mt. Baker met just once in the middle of the 1988 season in Deming, with the Trojans bringing an unblemished 4-0 record into the contest. The Trojans stymied the Mountaineers’ first possession with Kelly Thrift intercepting Baker QB Ken Gates’s first pass of the game. Todd Pfannenstiel’s 41-yard run on the Trojans’ first possession set up Kirk Palmberg’s 33-yard field goal and 3-0 1st quarter lead. The rest of the 1st half would go back and forth until the Trojans struck at the end of the 2nd quarter with junior quarterback Victor Nelson connecting with Thrift on a 35-yard touchdown for a 10-0 halftime lead.
The 2nd half was dominated by the Trojan defense, which didn’t allow a completion to Gates until the final drive of the game. The Trojans final score came at the end of the 3rd quarter when senior Travis Bass scored from 15 yards out for the Trojans final points of the game. The game was turned over to the Trojans’ reserves in the 4th quarter who preserved the shutout, the ’88 Trojans’ 2nd of the season. Although not a huge offensive explosion for the Trojans, they outgained Baker by 50 yards and held the Mounties to just 2 completions in 9 pass attempts and just 3.8 yards per rush to earn their 4th straight victory in the series.
Stat Stars
Todd Pfannenstiel
Rushing: 16-78
Kelly Thrift
Receiving: 4-103, 1 td
Interceptions: 1-20
1997 Game 9: Meridian 37, Granite Falls 2
The Trojans traveled to Granite Falls looking to clinch the league title in the first season of the newly-created North Cascades Conference, a combination of the the WCL and Cascade League. The Trojans entered at 8-0 and looked for a 5th consecutive win over the host Tigers in the series. The Trojans started the fire works early, as senior QB Wade Koning fired a 51-yard touchdown pass to senior all-stater Dominic Chambers for a 7-0 lead. The Trojan aerial show continued into the 2nd quarter with Koning throwing 16 yards to Josh Randall, then 20 yards to sophomore Jeff Bennum, with Randall adding a 28-yard field goal for a 23-0 halftime lead, which also saw the Trojan defense limit the Tiger offense and do-it-all senior Lars Axberg to just 30 yards and 3 first downs.
... Rest the rest of this post.2006 Playoffs Game 1: Meridian 21, Lacenter 8
The 2006 Trojans earned a trip into the state playoffs with a final game win over Lynden Christian to finish the regular season an unblemished 10-0. The league championship earned them the right to host a first round state playoff game at Civic Stadium against 2003 Semi-Final opponent the Lacenter Wildcats. The Wildcats’ “Double-Wing” phone-booth-football approach to offense would present a stiff challenge for the Trojans. The Wildcats’ approach was to hold on to the ball on offense and not let the Trojans’ high-octane attack possess it–a plan that all involved in the game were well-aware.
The Trojans scored opened the game with a score, driving 60 yards in 12 plays, with Sean Hurlbut scoring on an 8-yard run for a 7-0 lead. The Trojans forced a Lacenter punt after 8 plays of the Wildcats’ initial drive, but the Lacenter punt team forced a Hurlbut fumble that they recovered. They then proceeded to run off 11 more plays, all of the remainder of the first quarter clock and a third of the second quarter before they finally scored on a short run. The Wildcats gamely went for 2 on the conversion try and were successful to lead the Trojans 8-7.
... Rest the rest of this post.We announced this in brief last week, but it’s worth a full mention.
Johnny Murphy and Denver VanderYacht were officially selected for the 2012 Earl Barden All-State Game last Friday. Denver was selected as offensive/defense linemen and Johnny as running back/linebacker.
The game will take place June 23 in Yakima.
