The Wildcats defense hunts in packs, as evidenced with this gang tackle vs Forks last week.
Elle Nesbitt (left) and Taylor Foster (right) put everything they have into a block during last weekend's district match vs Black Hills.
The Ridgefield volleyball girls celebrate after a point during the district tournament last weekend in Woodland.
La Center football
The wildcats didn't take any chances of missing out on state for back-to-back seasons in the district crossover round last week as they crushed Forks 66-12. Getting back to the final 16-team state playoffs for the fifth time in six years isn’t satisfying enough though. Football minds in La Center are thinking big and hoping for more.
“This group’s expectation is to keep going further than this round,” said Coach John Lambert of their upcoming first round game.
The road to the Tacoma Dome and a state title is a four-week journey that begins this Friday in Woodland at 7 p.m. Port Townsend is the first roadblock they’ll have to overcome this weekend. In the regular season, the Port Townsend Redhawks finished 7-2 and added a playoff win to their 2016 resume last week by beating Charles Wright to move on to state. A year ago, the Redhawks lost in this same upcoming game.
A big key to success for La Center this weekend will be slowing down Port Townsend’s running game. Last week, their primary tailback, Detrius Kelsall, had a solid game of 70 yards, but much more scary is their dual threat quarterback Berkley Hill, who plowed his way to 200 yards on the ground alone.
“Defensively we will have to stay disciplined,” said Lambert. "He's really elusive."
As worthy of an opponent as the Redhawks might be, La Center is not a group anybody wants to have to face right now. Not since week one have the Cats experienced a loss. They’ve won nine straight and also have not won by less than double digits since September.
Woodland volleyball
Legendary Clark County volleyball coach Jeff Nesbitt was down to the final 15 points of his coaching career last weekend. At the end of the year, Nesbitt is retiring, and on Saturday his lady Beavers were pushed to a fifth game in a winner-to-state, loser-out match against Columbia River but prevailed.
“Everyone was mentally and physically exhausted at that point,” said Nesbitt. “We had to work hard to get them focused.”
By the mid-point of the match though, he says that his girls were making reads and calls on the court without help from the sideline. Reflecting on their performance in the season-deciding game, Nesbitt says it was a definitely a late-season turning point for them and he hopes the momentum stays with them.
Heading to state once again this weekend at Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Woodland will take on North Kitsap in the first round Friday at 11 a.m. Volleyball state is a double elimination bracket that eight of the 16 teams bring home a trophy from.
Putting away North Kitsap will be no easy task as the Vikings have only lost twice this fall, and in both of those matches they managed to still push it to four games.
Ridgefield girls soccer
Having barely squeaked into state, the Spudders might be getting looked over right now, but don’t forget about what they did last year and what they set out to get back to this year — the state championship.
Taryn Ries still does it all for the Spuds, but she will need her teammates to keep making big plays. That includes freshman Brooke Weese, who last week scored the winning goal in their winner-to-state, loser-out game against Hockinson. On Wednesday, Ridgefield will go on the road to square off against White River. Unlike their run to the championship last season — in which they got to play two out of four state games on their home field — Ridgefield’s path will be all at distant sites.
Other teams
heading to state
Prairie girls soccer: Junior Aimee Kurfurst would not let the Falcons lose last weekend in their winner-to-state, loser-out game against Yelm. She scored the game's only three goals and will have to play well again to take down Shorecrest on Tuesday or Wednesday at either Prairie High or McKenzie Stadium (day/time/location was TBD when The Reflector published). This is the first time in program history that the Falcons are headed to state in back-to-back seasons.
La Center volleyball: These girls are on a roll. After surprising the Trico league in the regular season by winning the league crown, the Cats took it one step further and defeated the top team from the Evergreen league (Montesano) last weekend in the district championship match. Now La Center will try to prove that being the best in District 4 means something special as they try to bring home some hardware from Yakima this weekend. Their first match is against South Whidbey on Friday morning at 8 a.m.
Ridgefield volleyball: Ridgefield gave it everything they had in the district title match against Tumwater last weekend, losing in five games.
“I wasn’t too disappointed,” said head coach Sabrina Dobbs. “We put up a great fight and it showed us we can beat anyone. They’re ranked second in state.”
If the Spudder girls can shake off the disappointment like Dobbs by Friday at 1 p.m. against Bellingham at Saint Martin's University, they could be a dark horse place higher than they got last year when they were third, meaning they could reach the very last 2A match of the year.
“It’s been our goal all season (to get to the championship),” said Dobbs.
Prairie volleyball: Has Prairie volleyball made it to state the last three seasons? Yes. But did they win their first match in any of those years? No. The last time the Falcons won their first match at the state tournament they went on to win the whole thing. That was 2012 and Prairie will try to repeat it by beating Lakeside (Seattle) at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
