Week 10: My 4 year-old daughter’s expert football picks
She’s ready for the playoffs, seen here studying Beavers in preparation for the Tenino/Woodland game
Tumwater T-Birds vs. Hockinson Hawks
Her pick: T-Birds
“They are really good.”
Timberline Blazers vs. Chief Sealth Seahawks
Her pick: Blazers
“They’ll chop down the tree wih their nests in them.”
Tenino Beavers @ Woodland Beavers
Her pick: Tenino
“They’ll chew down the trees and build their lodges faster!”
Capital Cougars @ Ridgefield Spudders
Her pick: Spudders
“They’ll blow up some potatoes!”
Olympia Bears @ Auburn Trojans
Her pick: Trojans
“They’re better.”
Shelton Highclimbers @ Nathan Hale Raiders
Her pick: Raiders
“Because they are pirates!”
North Thurston Rams vs. Rainier Beach Vikings
Her pick: Vikings
“Because they say ‘mine’ all he time! That’s what (her little sister) said!”
Today (11/2): Postseason football is a go!
High school football
In town…
Tumwater vs. Hockinson – Tumwater Stadium – 7:00 PM
Timberline vs. Chief Sealth – South Sound Stadium – 7:00 PM
Out of town…
Capital @ Ridgefield – Ridgefield Stadium – 7:00 PM
Tenino @ Woodland – Woodland Stadium – 7:00 PM
The Olympian has a pretty good preview of tonight’s four football games, so I’ll refer you to them or my power rankings if you crave more info on these games. I’ll have predictions and more later today.
Thursday scoreboard: District soccer and volleyball; Saints volleyball, Geoducks basketball fall
Girl’s soccer
2A Division IV playoffs
WF West 1, Tumwater 0
Black Hills 6, Capital 2
Meghan Ward scored in the 57th minute and WF West held on to knock off Tumwater in the 2A Division IV title game. Both teams had already qualified for state.
Whitney Lowe scored four goals and Arin Seidlitz added two more as Black Hills exploded to keep their season alive with a 6-2 win over Capital. The Wolves move on to face Hockinson on Saturday in a loser-out, winner-to-state game. The Cougars season came to an end.
College volleyball
Seattle Pacific 3, Saint Martin’s 0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-14) – Recap
High school volleyball
2A District IV playoffs
Tumwater 3, Centralia 0 (25-8, 25-6, 25-5)
Capital 3, RA Long 1 (25-10, 25-23, 23-25, 25-14)
Mark Morris 3, Black Hills 0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-10)
Black Hills 3, Centralia 0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-20)
Men’s basketball
Seattle Mountaineers 85, Evergreen 72 – Recap from Evergreen athletics
Evergreen kicked off their season with an 85-72 exhibition game loss to the semi-pro Seattle Mountaineers at the CRC Gymnasium. Newcomers KJ Hong and Marc Taylor scored 18 and 14 points respectively for the Geoducks while the lone returning Evergreen player that played, Travis Wagner, chipped in 10 points.
High school football
Yelm 64, Mount Tahoma 6
Yelm picked up an extra week 10 game against Mount Tahoma and knocked off the T-Birds 64-6 behind six touchdowns from Jacob Swilley in his last high school game. The six touchdowns were a single-game record for the Tornadoes and Swilley broke the school record for single season rushing.
Saint Martin’s men’s basketball 2012-2013 printable preview
Click here to download page 1 PDF
Click here to download page 2 PDF
College basketball is back! Last night the Evergreen men played an exhibition against the Seattle Mountaineers and today the Saint Martin’s guys head to Idaho to take on NCAA Division I Boise State at Taco Bell Arena.
College basketball is my favorite sport to follow and I have been a Saint Martin’s fan since the NAIA days of Michael Courtney, Anthony Pendleton and Troy Whiteto. For quite a few years from middle school well into high school, I cut The Olympian’s Saints preview – which included the schedule, team picture, a feature article and usually individual pictures and bios of players – out of the newspaper and put it on my school binder and studied it like it was gospel. Before the days of the internet, it was the first glimpse of the team that season and and it would get me psyched for the season.
Now, The Olympian will probably post a short preview but nothing worth cutting out and throwing on a binder. Space restrictions, a more crowded sports scene and manpower have contributed to the loss of one of my favorite features.
So I have put together my own Saints preview that could, in theory, be printed out and put on a binder. It features a team photo, schedule, coaches, pictures of the current roster and a very short preview of the season. I hope you enjoy.
Time permitting, I hope to put one of these together for each team in the area, men and women. Stay tuned.
Oly Rollers gunning for second WFTDA Championship
The Oly Rollers get a first round bye in the WFTDA Championships, will play winner of Minnesota/Kansas City first round game.
The Oly Rollers are heading to Atlanta this weekend to take part in the 2012 Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Championships. By winning the Western Regional, Oly earned a first round bye and will play the winner of Friday’s Minnesota Rollergirls/Kansas City Roller Warriors bout on Saturday at 9:00 AM Olympia time. The Rollers have made the final game of the WFTDA Championships three straight years, beating the Texas Rollergirls for the title in their first year of eligibility in 2009 but falling to Gotham in 2010 and Rocky Mountain in 2011.
Oly comes into the tournament as one of the most controversial and hated teams in the tournament because of their (completely by the rules) pickups of skaters from out of the area. The team picked up Psycho Babble and Ecko from Rocky Mountain, Onda Sligh from Slaughter County and Lindsay Loblow from Tucson before the season started and added a trio former Oly skaters that had moved away from Olympia right before the rosters had to be finalized for the post-season. Atomatrix, Hockey Honey and Joy Collision joined the squad after skating for other teams this season, ruffling a lot of feathers in the derby world.
But despite coming from by far the smallest market* of any team in the WFTDA Championships, Oly comes into the tournament as one of the favorites to win the Hydra. If seeding holds, they will take on Minnesota on Saturday in the quarterfinals. Minnesota came to Olympia in late August and lost by 60 points to a Cosa Nostra Donnas team that wasn’t at current strength (probably the same can be said about Minnesota, though). And beyond the quarters, if the favorite prevails, the Texas Rollergirls would be looking to avenge a 95 point loss at Skateland! also in late August. Oly avoids a game with Gotham until a possible finals bout on Sunday.
You can follow all the action from the WFTDA Championships on WFTDA.tv by purchasing a live streaming pass for $20. Or you can follow @WFTDALive on Twitter, the Oly Rollers Twitter account and Facebook page and of course on OlySports.com and @OlySportsBlog.
Also, check out the Derby News Network’s excellent preview of all 12 teams involved in the WFTDA championships.
*Cities fielding teams in the WFTDA championships: Little old Olympia, Denver, Baltimore, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Kansas City, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, Chicago, New York and Austin.
Tumwater Pioneers release inaugural season schedule
The Tumwater Pioneers indoor soccer team released their inaugural season schedule on Monday night. They will play eight home games total including four home games, the first on January 5th against the Marysville Ruckus. The Pios will play their first ever game on December 1st in Bremerton against the Kitsap Pumas.
The PASL Premier’s nine teams will be grouped in one division but not all teams will play each other. The Pioneers will play the Pumas, South Sound Shock (Tacoma), Cascade Steelheaders (Bend, Oregon) twice and the Ruckus and Wenatchee Fire once but they don’t face the Arlington Aviators, Snohomish Skyhawks or WSA Rapids in the regular season.
For more info on the Pioneers, visit their website at www.tumwaterpioneers.com and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Tickets for games at Tumwater Indoor Sports are just $5 for adults and $3 for children
(Full disclosure: I manage the media relations and marketing for the Pioneers.)
Today (11/1): T-Birds play for district title, Cougs and Wolves play elimination game; College basketball is back!
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.
Tuesday scoreboard: T-Birds make state, Cougs survive, Blazers fall
Girl’s soccer
2A District IV playoffs
Tumwater 3, Black Hills 0
Capital 4, Aberdeen 0
Tumwater’s McKenzie May scored in the 27th and 33rd minutes to lead the T-Birds past Black Hills in a 2A Division IV semifinal game. The win qualifies the T-Birds for the state tournament and they will play WF West on Thursday in Chehalis for the district title. Abbey Bergquist added an insurance goal in the 77th minute and Mackenzie Bergquist posted a shutout in goal for the T-Birds. The Wolves will take on Capital in a loser-out game on Thursday.
McKenzie Phillips and Logan Cox combined to score three goals in the first eleven minutes and Capital avoided elimination with a 4-0 win over Aberdeen. With the win, the Cougars will face another elimination game on Thursday when they travel to Tumwater Stadium to play Black Hills.
Narrows League regular season
Wilson 3, Timberline 0
North Thurston vs. Mount Tahoma – No report
In what turned out to be the Narrows League championship game, Wilson knocked off Timberline 3-0 to claim the league title. With the loss, the Blazers will have to travel to Highline for their opening game of the post-season on Saturday.
High school volleyball
2B District playoffs
Adna 3, Northwest Christian 0
Oly Sports high school football power rankings: T-Birds finish on top
Eight straight wins for the T-Birds and they finish atop the final Oly Sports power rankings
The regular season has come to an end and the Tumwater T-Birds are the hottest team in the area. Eight straight wins, their only blemish coming on opening day against an upstart Shelton Highclimbers team. They’ve knocked off Timberline, Capital, WF West and North Thurston in the process. Impressive. Meanwhile, Timberline has won seven straight with their only loss coming to those T-Birds. In all, seven of the area’s 12 football teams will be playing in the post-season.
So how does everybody stack up at the end of the regular season? Take a look at my highly unscientific power rankings, complete with ScoreCzar predictions…
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1. Tumwater T-Birds (8-1)
Last week: #1 (No change)
Previous game: Tumwater 35, Black Hills 7
Next game: vs. Hockinson (6-3) – Tumwater Stadium – Friday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Tumwater 27, Hockinson 16
Notes: A Pioneer Bowl victory means eight straight wins and counting for the T-Birds and the #1 seed out of the 2A EvCo. Next up, the 6-3 Hockinson Hawks, who are the #3 seed from the GSHL. The two teams had one common opponent this season, River Ridge. Tumwater knocked off Lacey’s Hawks 27-12 two weeks ago while Hockinson dropped a 28-14 decision on September 21st.
2. Timberline Blazers (8-1)
Last week: #2 (No change)
Previous game: Timberline 33, Shelton 26
Next game: vs. Chief Sealth (4-5) – South Sound Stadium – Friday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Timberline 37, Chief Sealth 6
Notes: Timberline played a far from perfect game committing a couple of major penalties on Friday night against Shelton allowing the Highclimbers stay in game that could have easily been a blowout. Cut out those mistakes and the Blazers’ speed and defense could get them really far in these playoffs.
3. Capital Cougars (7-2)
Last week: #4 (+1)
Previous game: Capital 55, River Ridge 18
Next game: @ Ridgefield (6-3) – Ridgefield Stadium – Friday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Capital 27, Ridgefield 13
Notes: Capital closed out their regular season and secured the 2A EvCo’s second place with an exclamation point, romping over River Ridge on Friday night. The Cougars draw 6-3 Ridgefield, the GSHL’s #2 seed. The Spudders also played the Hawks this season and gave up 61 points in a 21 point loss on September 15th.
4. North Thurston Rams (7-2)
Last week: #5 (+1)
Previous game: North Thurston 57, Mount Tahoma 14
Next game: vs. Rainier Beach (5-4) – South Sound Stadium – Saturday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: North Thurston 27, Rainier Beach 20
Notes: North Thurston secured the #2 seed out of the 3A Narrows League by knocking off winless Mount Tahoma by 43 points, a good way to get healthy after a 24 point loss to Timberline. The Rams next get Seattle’s Rainier Beach, who were 5-1 in the Metro League’s Sound division but lost all of their non-league games, albeit to good teams in Eastside Catholic and O’Dea in a Metro League playoff.
5. Shelton Highclimbers (7-2)
Last week: #3 (-2)
Previous game: Timberline 33, Shelton 26
Next game: @ Nathan Hale (7-2) – Memorial Stadium, Seattle – Saturday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Shelton 33, Nathan Hale 19
Notes: Give the Highclimbers credit, they battled to the end with Timberline. But the Blazers exposed some glaring weaknesses that Shelton will have to address if they wish to go any further in the playoffs. The loss means that they have to go on the road to Seattle’s Memorial Stadium to face Nathan Hale, the #2 seed out of the Metro League. The Raiders are a hard team to figure out, they were 7-2 overall and 6-0 in the Sound division but lost 50-8 to Eastside Catholic in the Metro championship game.
6. Tenino Beavers (6-3)
Last week: #6 (No change)
Previous game: Tenino 50, Rochester 6
Next game: @ Woodland (7-2) – Woodland Stadium – Friday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Woodland 31, Tenino 14
Notes: Tenino broke their three game losing streak against Rochester and now draw the 1A Trico’s #2 seed Woodland. The Beavers and the Beavers had two common opponents, Montesano and La Center, and both teams went 0-2 in those games. Tenino was outscored 90-13 while Woodland lost by a combined 70-14.
7. Olympia Bears (4-5)
Last week: #8 (+1)
Previous game: Olympia 29, Yelm 22
Next game: @ Auburn – Auburn Memorial Stadium – Saturday, 7:00 PM
ScoreCzar prediction: Auburn 24, Olympia 11
Notes: Despite everything, the Bears made the playoffs, in fact earned the #3 seed out of the 4A Narrows League. Their reward? Auburn in Auburn. The Trojans went 7-2 this season with the only losses coming to a pair of undefeated teams, Kentwood and Federal Way. Take away those two losses and Auburn outscored their opponents 269-83.
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8. River Ridge Hawks (5-4)
Last week: #7 (-1)
Previous game: Capital 55, River Ridge 18
9. Yelm Tornadoes (4-5)
Last week: #9 (No change)
Previous game: Olympia 29, Yelm 22
Next game: vs. Mount Tahoma (0-9) – Yelm Tornadoes Stadium – Friday, 7:00 PM
10. Black Hills Wolves (4-5)
Last week: #10 (No change)
Previous game: Tumwater 35, Black Hills 7
11. Rochester Warriors (2-7)
Last week: #11 (No change)
Previous game: Tenino 50, Rochester 6
12. Rainier Mountaineers (1-8)
Last week: #12 (No change)
Previous game: Rainier 28, Seton Catholic 7
Notes: Woo hoo Mountaineers!
Tonight (10/30): Soggy district soccer
A pair of 2A District IV playoff games highlight tonight’s light schedule of girl’s soccer games. Enjoy the downpour, ladies.
In a semifinal game, Tumwater takes on Black Hills in a game hosted by the Wolves at Tumwater Stadium. The two teams split the season series in extremely close games. Black Hills knocked off the T-Birds 2-1 in September but Tumwater’s Hannah Fine scored a double overtime goal to beat the Wolves 1-0 one week ago. Both teams pulled off 3-2 double overtime wins on Saturday to get to this point. First kick tonight is scheduled for 7:00 PM
In the 2A District IV consolation bracket, Capital hosts Aberdeen at Ingersoll Stadium in a loser out match. Capital fell to Ridgefield on Saturday while Aberdeen couldn’t get past WF West. The two teams met twice in the regular season. The Cougars scored in the last minute in Aberdeen to win 1-0 and the Bobcats won in a penalty kick shootout last Wednesday in Olympia. First kick tonight is set for 7:00 5:00 PM.
Over at South Sound Stadium, 3A Narrows League third place North Thurston takes on cellar dwelling Mount Tahoma at 7:00 PM in the regular season finale.
Oly Sports 