Girl’s soccer

Tumwater vs. Archbishop Murphy – Tumwater Stadium – 7:00 PM

The Tumwater girl’s soccer team opens 2A state playoffs against Archbishop Murphy at 7:00 PM at Tumwater Stadium. The T-Birds at 11-7 are the #2 seed out of district IV while the Wildcats are 19-1 and are the #3 seed out of district 1/2.  Archbishop Murphy suffered their first loss of the season, a 2-1 decision to Squalicum in the district playoffs to drop to the third seed.

You can listen to the game live on the Eli Sports Network.

Roller Derby

Gotham 233, Oly Rollers 130

The Oly Rollers cut a 51-0 lead taken by Gotham to open the game and led by as many as ten points in the first half. But Gotham scored the final 24 points of the first half and went on an 86-5 run to close the game to capture their second straight WFTDA championship, knocking off Oly 233-130 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Oly was unable to stop Gotham’s Bonnie Thunders, who scored 178 of their 233 points in 22 jams.

Thunders set the tone for the bout on the very first jam by scoring 20 points as part of a 51-0 run for Gotham. Minutes later, Atomatrix quickly got Oly going with a 29 point jam and the Cosa Nostra Donnas continued to chip away at the Gotham lead until a 19 point jam by Onda Sligh gave Oly their first lead at 70-67. Atomatrix and DeRanged scored the next seven points to give Oly their largets lead at 77-67 but Thunders came back with a 13 point jam to put Gotham back on top. Oly retook the lead at 81-80 but a 24-0 run to close the half put Gotham on top for good.

The Donnas were able to cut the Gotham lead to 14 points, 107-93, in the early minutes of the second half but Thunders once again came up with a 20 point jam followed by Suzy Hotrod’s nine points put Gotham up 136-96. Oly never came within 22 points of Gotham after that and an 86-5 run in the last ten minutes sealed Oly’s second loss in two seasons in the WFTDA championships to Gotham.

Atomatrix paced the Donnas with 60 points on 22 jams while Onda Sligh scored 47 points on 11 jams. DeRanged rounded out the scoring with 23 points.

The loss dropped Oly to 12-1 on the season and gave them second place at nationals for the third season in a row. In four seasons of WFTDA championships eligibility, the Cosa Nostra Donnas have won one championship and placed second three times. In 2009, Oly beat Texas 178-100 to capture their first title. In 2010, they dropped a nail-biter, 147-146 to Rocky Mountain. And last year, Gotham knocked off Oly 140-97.

Roller derby

WFTDA championships
Oly Rollers 218, Minnesota 125 – Recap from Derby News Network
Oly Rollers 224, Texas 127 – Recap from DNN

Atomatrix scored 75 points in 13 jams to lead the Oly Rollers past Minnesota in the quarterfinals of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association championships in Atlanta on Saturday morning. Oly jumped out to a 40-0 lead and never looked back. Minnesota cut the lead to 11 points at 54-43 but the Rollers went on a 72-2 run in the middle of the game and took a 130-49 lead and led by by as many as 113 late in the game. Onda Sligh scored 58 points on nine jams and DeRanged chipped in 40 points on ten jams in the win. Harmony Killerbruise (my new favorite derby name) led the way with 55 points for Minnesota.

In the semifinals, Oly jumped out to a 73-3 lead and never let up en route to a 224-127 win over Texas. Atomatrix continued her dominating performance at nationals scoring 125 points on 15 jams and Onda Sligh added another 82 points.

The Oly Rollers move to 12-0 on the season and advance to their fourth straight WFTDA championship game and will face Gotham in a rematch of the 2011 championship game tomorrow at noon, Olympia time. Gotham scored a 205 point win over Naptown in the semifinals and knocked off Denver 221-120 to reach the finals. Gotham scored a 140-97 over Oly in last year’s championship game to win their second WFTDA title.

High school football

North Thurston 40, Rainier Beach 0
Nathan Hale 19, Shelton 6
Auburn 41, Olympia 38

North Thurston ran past Rainier Beach to advance in the 3A playoffs, while Shelton and Olympia saw their seasons come to an end.

Men’s soccer

Evergreen 1, Northwest 0 – Recap from Evergreen athletics
Seattle Pacific 5, Saint Martin’s 0 – Recap from SMUSaints.com
SPSCC 3, Southwestern Oregon 1

Brady Espinoza scored on a free kick in the 48th minute to lead Evergreen to a 1-0 win over Northwest in their regular season finale. Mauricio Sanchez made two saves in the Geoducks’ shutout. The Geoducks will play in their first playoff game since 2005 and will host their first home playoff game in program history on Tuesday. They will face the #3 seed Warner Pacific at 4:00 PM at the RAC in Lacey.

And SPSCC got goals from Giovanni Torres, Kyle Ballard and Juan Loza to pick up their second win of the season, 3-1 over Southwestern Oregon, in their final game of the season. The Clippers finished 2-10-1 and out of the cellar of the NWAACC South division.

Girl’s soccer

Enumclaw 3, Timberline 0
Bonney Lake 4, North Thurston 0
Auburn 1, Olympia 0
Hockinson 4, Black Hills 2

Rough day on the pitch for local high schools. All four teams, Timberline, North Thurston, Olympia and Black Hills lost their loser-out, winner-to-state games today and ended their season.

College volleyball

MSU Billings 3, Saint Martin’s 1 (25-14, 25-14, 16-25, 25-17) – Recap
Northwest Christian 3, Evergreen 0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-20) – Recap

High school volleyball

Tumwater 3, Capital 0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-15)
North Thurston 3, Enumclaw 2 (25-17, 16-25, 20-25, 25-14, 16-14)
Timberline 3, Kennedy 0 (25-2, 25-11, 25-23)
Timberline 3, North Thurston 2 (20-25, 12-25, 25-11, 25-18, 15-9)
Olympia 3, Rogers 0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-21)
Olympia 3, Gig Harbor 1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-21, 25-16)

Tumwater captured the 2A District IV championship with their third win over Capital this season. Both teams had already qualified for state.

North Thurston qualified for state by knocking off Enumclaw as did Timberline with their straight sets win over Kennedy. But the Blazers got the better of the Rams in yet another epic match between the two teams.

Olympia also qualified for state with their win over Rogers and got the better of Gig Harbor in the seeding game.

The Tumwater girl’s soccer team has already qualified for the state playoffs and now travel to Chehalis to take on WF West with the 2A District IV title on the line. At 7-5 in conference and 9-6 overall, he T-Birds are the #4 seed out of the 2A EvCo but have dispatched the GSHL’s #1 seed Hockinson and easily got past the EvCo’s #2 seed Black Hills on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, WF West, the EvCo’s #1 seed, had to come from behind to knock off Ridgefield 2-1 on Tuesday night to advance to state and the district title game. The Bearcats beat Tumwater twice in the regular season. On September 11th, the two teams went to overtime tied 3-3 but WF West pulled out the victory in double OT. Then, on October 4th, the Bearcats opened up a two goal lead and held off the T-Birds for a 2-1 win.

First kick tonight is scheduled for 7:00 PM and you can listen to the game live on the Eli Sports Network.

In the 2A District IV consolation bracket, Capital and Black Hills square off in a loser-out, winner-to-state game at Tumwater Stadium. The two teams split their season series with the Cougars taking home a penalty kick shootout win on September 22nd and the Wolves posting a 2-1 victory on October 9th.

First kick is at 7:00 PM.

And finally, college basketball is back. The Evergreen men’s team kicks off their rebuilding season with an exhibition game against the semi-pro ABA’s Seattle Mountaineers. Evergreen is coming off an absolutely disastrous 1-26 season last season and returns just two players from that team, seniors Elzie Dickens III and Travis Wagner. The two teamed up to average 16.8 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game last season.

Tip-off at the CRC Gymnasium on the Evergreen campus is schedule for 7:00 PM.

Sick. Be back soon.

The South Sound Spartans kick off their home schedule this afternoon at South Sound Stadium against the Kitsap Peninsula Warhawks.

One of the founding members of the Northwest Junior College Football League, the Spartans are made up of freshmen and sophomores from local colleges and primarily features players from local high schools. The Spartans play eight games against four other teams from around the state: the Warhawks, Tacoma Knights, Everett Red Raiders and Columbia Basin Gladiators. The Spartans knocked off the Tacoma Knights last week in the season opener at the Charles Wright Academy while the Warhawks lost 66-54 to Everett.

Kick off at South Sound Stadium between the Spartans and Warhawks is scheduled for 1:00 PM.

Robert Stevens, long time teacher and coach in the Olympia area, passed away from a battle with cancer this week at the age of 62.

I had Coach Stevens as a gym teacher at Chinook Middle School for just one year and never had him as a coach but he left quite the impression anyway. He was probably the first “coach” that I ever encountered, before that I was always coached by parents that were just volunteering because they had to. He was a new type of personality in my life at the time and I fought that toughness and the gruffness that he had to bring to middle school gym class. I was never good with coaches or people in a position of authority and I often hated going to gym class but I always really liked Coach Stevens. He was tough but he was fair and cared about his students and did his job really well. He would get on you and give you this piercing, nasty, disappointed look if you were dogging it or acting stupid that would send chills down my spine whenever I got it. I honestly think that look stayed with me for the rest of my life, in the back of my mind, urging me to not to piss him off.

Anyway, thank you Coach Stevens. You were definitely one of the most memorable teachers that I ever had and I wish that my attitude and commitment would have been better in 7th grade. I think I probably could have learned a lot more from you. Rest in peace.

Coach Stevens is survived by his four kids: Jason, Janeal, Jameka and Jerramy. There will be a memorial service at Haven of Rest Funeral Home in Gig Harbor on Saturday, September 8th at 11:00 AM. You can read his obituary and sign a guestbook here.

Meg Wochnick of the Olympian wraps up her two part series about 76 year-old Dick Nichols’ retirement today. Nichols broadcast more than 3,000 sporting events in his 50 year career but doesn’t plan on going completely away, he may do more events for other networks in the future. KGY plans to replace Nichols and longtime partner Larry McMillan with a new pair for high school sports.

Also notable in this article, KGY didn’t broadcast a Saint Martin’s basketball game for the first time in over 20 years this past season.

Part one of the series can be found here . Photo Credit: KGY Radio