Next week’s opponent, the Sequim Wolves, POUNDED Forks, 58-7.  While they Wolves had an relatively small —283 yds.—offensive output compared to the score, they held Forks to 54 yards on 39 plays. Youch.

Any doubt about the potency of the Sequim offense entering the 2010 football season was erased after Friday’s season opener at Forks.

The Wolves scored on 8 of their 9 first-half possessions, pounding the Spartans 58-7 in a non-league affair at Spartan Stadium.

Quarterback Drew Rickerson threw two touchdown strikes to fellow senior Joey Hall — including a 17-yarder on the game-opening possession.

Rickerson also scrambled 20-yards for another score as the Wolves raced to a 16-0 advantage just 6 minutes into the contest.

Junior Frank Catelli, who split time between wide receiver and quarterback, ran for two touchdowns and threw a TD pass to junior Nick Ramirez.

Friday Harbor beat LaConner, 29-8, but no details available on that game.

Lynden Christian beat Sehome, 10-0.  The Lyncs ran for 168 yds, but only connected on 3 of 12 passes.

In the last game of the weekend, Nooksack lost 34-21 to Cascade Christian in Seattle this afternoon at the Emerald City Kickoff Classic.  Nooksack was hurt badly by turnovers, throwing 3 interceptions in the first quarter.  On the opening play of the 3rd quarter, they fumbled giving CC the short field for the subsequent score.  Interestingly, the Pioneers switched things up in the third quarter, putting Trevin Myhre in at QB and Tyler Perry out WR.  I believe I heard KPUG saying at one point that Myhre had throw for 100+ before the end of the game.

Despite the setback, the Pioneers still showed they have the potential to be a very good team again this season. Their young offensive line did a good job in pass protection against an aggressive Cougar defense, and junior Trevon Myhre showed that he could be a very versatile weapon. He rushed for 23 yards, passed for 120 more yards and a score, and had four receptions for 33 yards.

Evan Roller had five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown to pace the Pioneers. Reserve quarterback Bret Rediger scored Nooksack Valley’s other touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

“Overall, I think it was a really rewarding and fun experience for the kids,” Robb Myhre said. “They wanted to win something terrible and re-establish themselves as one of the elite football teams in the state, but I still think we can be a pretty darn good football team and we’ll get better from here.”

While the offense was a bit sloppy at times, the defense played very well, particularly in the first 2.5 quarters.  The Trojan defense held Mt. Baker to under 40 yards at half time, and intercepted the Mounties 3-4 times on the night.  The defense gave the offense the short field most of the night.  In addition, special teams played quite well.  Mitchell Tripp had well over 100 yards in returns, and blocked  a kick.  From the stands it looked like Tripp actually caught the ball off the punter’s foot.  All six PAT attempts were good, punt coverage was tight, and return blocking was surprisingly good.

Despite the offensive troubles, Tripp had a great night receiving and Jordan Warren had 2 25+yard scoring runs.

UPDATE

The Herald has its story posted.

Herald’s Preview Capsules.  No winner picked, but Joe Sunnen expects Lepper to work from under center in a Wing’ed T look, and for the Slesk du jour to throw out for the Trojans.  But to do so happily, with enmity towards none and charity to all.

The Herald’s preseason power rankings picks the Trojans #4 in the larger NWC.

With the rest of the above linked portions of the Herald’s prep preview, we have team outlooks for Mount Baker and Meridian.

Along with having Lepper back at quarterback the Mountaineers have several nice players returning around him. State champion hurdler Logan Packard returns at wide receiver to bring his speed to the field. Senior lineman Steven Elsner could be one of the better bigs in the Northwest Conference. He’ll anchor the lines. The team also should be tough at running back, even with the loss of Levi Wigg for a couple weeks due to injury.

“We have a couple of starters back on offense and a couple back on defense,” coach Ron Lepper said. “We’re young and don’t have a lot of varsity experience in some areas, so we have to kind of grow up in a hurry.”

Finally, WhatCo ex-pats can get game updates on our Twitter.com/meridianfb, complete the Twitter-mandated kernel-by-kernel tally of my popcorn consumption.

Sequim – Sat., Sept. 11 at Sequim

For a long time, Sequim football was a non-factor in the state beyond Sequim.  In Class 3A and its antecedent AA, Sequim made just one state playoff appearance in 1978, and lost.

In last 5 years or so, Sequim has come on.  They’ve made the 2A playoffs for the past 4 years, and last year won their first ever playoff game, 34-32 over a very good Burlington-Edison team.  The Wolves then lost 31-0 to Lynden in the quarters.  This year, Sequim is picked to finish first in the Olympic League.

And they say the Olympic League football race is between two teams: Sequim and North Kitsap. At least that was the result of voting Wednesday in the Olympic League coaches poll.

The Wolves have won league titles in five of the last six years. North Kitsap, one of the more consistent football programs in the county, is dropping down from Class 3A to 2A.

That was enough to convince league coaches those two are the favorites. Sequim edged NK by four points. North Mason and Olympic, if the coaches are correct, will take the third and fourth playoff spots. Bremerton, is the league’s lone Class 3A team.

Friday Harbor – At FH on Sept. 17, at Meridian Oct. 8

Not much to find online about the Wolverines yet.  They went 3-7 last year.

Lynden Christian – At LC Sept. 24, at Meridian Oct. 15

The word has been in the preseason that numbers at LC, Meridian, and Nooksack have all been down this year.  Once again, we’ll rely on Joe Sunnen’s practice visit.

Even after finishing last season with a 3-7 record Lynden Christian coach Dan Kaemingk found plenty to cheer about. For starters he couldn’t have been more pleased with the Lyncs’ effort late in the season after enduring more injuries and tough luck than he can remember during his 20 years of coaching.

Three days into fall practice, and following a productive summer, Kaemingk has found even more reasons to be optimistic about the Lyncs this season. After losing several key players it might be easy for Lynden Christian to head into 2010 with modest expectations, but after talking with Kaemingk on Friday, Aug. 20, it’s clear the Lyncs have other plans.

“We have a real nice group,” Kaemingk said. “I think we’re going to get real good leadership out of this senior class so we’re excited about that. We return a fair number of kids who played quite a bit last year so we’re excited about that. We’ve had a real good time with these kids.”

One the biggest changes will be at quarterback where Joey Spoelstra takes over for graduated three-year starter Daniel Ten Broek. Spoelstra hasn’t played quarterback since middle school, but Kaemingk thinks he can handle the new position. And if you’re looking for someone to cheer for on Friday nights, there might not be a better candidate than Spoelstra.

The move of Spoelstra from TE to QB is a big one.  Spoelstra is among the 3-4 best athletes in the conference.  Does the move to QB limit his ability to make things happen in space, or does having the ball in his hands every play maximize Spoelstra’s overall athleticism?

In non-league, LC has Sehome and Lakewood.

Nooksack – At NV Oct. 1, at Meridian Oct. 22

As the team of the new decade, Nooksack has gone 20-5 in the last two years and bows only to Lynden in the NWC.

Here’s a Northwest Conference football pop quiz question for you: Can you name the team with second most wins over the last two seasons?

The answer might surprise you.

Few teams in the NWC have enjoyed a more successful run over the last two years than Nooksack Valley. And by few I mean just one and that’s Lynden which has won back-to-back Class 2A state titles.

The Pioneers have gone 20-5 over the last two seasons. They reached the Class 1A state quarterfinals in 2008 and followed that up with a trip to the Tacoma Dome and the state semifinals last season. There’s no doubt it was a special stretch for Nooksack Valley and its fans.

The Pioneers return all their skill guys, save the fullback and wide receiver who graduated.  But, all but one of their linemen have turned over.  Big deal?  Perhaps, as some have called the 2009 NV line the best 1A squad in the state last year.

Still, Pioneer coach Rob Myrhe told KPUG this week that they have kids that have “been there before.”

“We want those kids to think of themselves as as an elite program, and we want kids coming into our program… to only remember that we are one of those elite programs.  We want them to think like that and to act like that in practice and perform like that.”

In non-league, Nooksack plays #2 ranked Cascade Christian this Saturday in Seattle, and LaConner the following week.

With no 2010 film to watch and our last first hand experience against them 5 years ago, we don’t know as much about these Mt. Baker Mountaineers as one would want to know.  In 2009, the Mounties finished 5-5, losing to Archbishop Murphy 28-0 in the District 1 state qualifier game.  They swept the 2A Bellingham schools, but lost by 3 points to Nooksack, and a combined 7-77 deficit in losses to Blaine and Lynden.  Baker started last season offensively in Twins and two-back looks, but through the course of the season showed more and more of their more accustomed Wing’ed-T.

What we do know is that Baker returns two key seniors, QB Zak Lepper and WR Logan Packard, which leads one to believe that they are going to stretch the field with vertical passing.  Packard is the defending state 2A 110m AND 300m hurdles champion.  This Packard runs better than any other you might see in a Barrett-Jackson auction.  Lepper’s passing stats last year weren’t stellar—80 of 186 for 880 yds., 6TDs and 14INTs—but he’ll be a year older.  Between those talents at hand and the fact that Baker’s three leading rushers from last year all graduated, seems that we can expect the Mountaineers to throw the ball substantially more than, say, the 1997 team that threw less than 4 times a game.

Doug Pacey checked in at Baker practices on Aug. 21, the team’s first day in pads.

“One thing we’ve really tried to emphasize is being a whole team,” senior Logan Packard said. “It’s kind of a family sort of thing. Last year there were times when we weren’t really all together and that held us back a little bit. This year it’s a completely different thing. We’re all working to pick up the freshman and sophomores and let them know that they are part of this team.”

Not only is that a good thing to hear, but it also sounds like the Mountaineers are going to need some younger players to play big roles and contribute this season.

Mount Baker returns a nice mix of skill players and linemen, but there are still some holes to fill. The Mountaineers strapped on the pads for the first time this season on Saturday, Aug. 21 and after the morning practice I talked with coach Ron Lepper about the team.

“We have a couple of starters back on offense and a couple back on defense,” Lepper said. “We’re young and don’t have a lot of varsity experience in some areas so we have to kind of grow up in a hurry.”

“I can remember when I was a freshman and I always felt a little ostracized,” senior Zak Lepper said. “We don’t want that to happen with this group. We want this to be a team. We want everyone to have fun and be excited to be out here. We want them to feel like they are a part of something.”

To that end the group has already done a number of team related activities such as a recent trip to the lake and a trip to a Wenatchee AppleSox game while they were away at summer camp.

It hasn’t been an easy road to the playoffs for Baker since we parted ways with them in 2006, they heading to 2A and we to 1A.  From the beginning, Baker has been among the smallest schools 2A, and the 2010-2012 realignment made it official, with Baker as THE smallest 2A school.  Furthermore, sitting in the NWC 2A and District 1 2A puts Lynden, Burlington, Archbishop Murphy, and the occasional Blaine, Bellingham and Anacortes in the way of reaching the round of 16 state playoffs.  If a NWC 2A team finishes as the bottom seed, congratulations, you get to play Cascade #1 Archbishop Murphy in the state qualifier game.  All that to say, don’t read too much into a lack of 2A playoff action for Baker.

Since 1974, Meridian leads the series 28-20 against Mt. Baker.

Something new for this year, I’m going to pick a song for game preview posts and such.  This week, the Supersuckers, “Supersuckers Drive By Blues”

Given that only 189 miles separates Tallin, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia, college football coaches might want to start making stops at both on recruiting trips.

You never know when you might find the next Michael Roos or Andrei Lintz.

Lintz, 6-5, 247 pounds, was born in St. Petersburg, but emigrated with his mother and brother when he was 6. He came to Pullman from Meridian High in Bellingham, where he first starred on the soccer pitch and basketball court before earning all-state honors as a senior punter and defensive end. He also played tight end at Meridian, the position he’s played all three years at WSU.

And he knows who Roos is.

“When they recruited me, (the coaches) were like, ‘oh ya, Michael Roos,’ “ Lintz said. “He makes the most money, I think, of any left tackle in the NFL.”

Apparently, Matt [Judy, nephew of Bob & Pam Ames] was supposed to sell 35 of these fundraiser cards and didn’t sell any… But I guess a [Nooksack] coach said that if he sold ONE to my dad, he was totally off the hook… Dad says that Matt has to let us score just one touchdown on Nooksack in return. I’m just stoked about the free Papa Murphys pizza :)

Really, short of Dutch Mothers Bakery opening a new location at the corner of Laurel & Old Guide, what could be a more poignant sign of peace amid the internecine conflict that typically defines Whatcom County football?