Inside the Huddle

Both Olympic and Central Kitsap pulled out key victories on the gridiron Oct. 23, with the Trojans clinching a postseason berth and the Cougars bolstering their playoff chances significantly.
The Trojans (5-3 overall, 4-3 league) used a late touchdown from Larry Dixon to escape North Kitsap on homecoming night with a 21-14 win, their third consecutive triumph. Oly is now locked into the No. 4 seed from the combined Olympic/Western Cascade League, meaning the team faces the No. 1 seed from the Greater St. Helens league in a state preliminary game Nov. 7 or 8. That team will be either Camas or Union, both of which are ranked in the Top 10 of the Associated Press state football poll. Camas and Union face each other Friday, the winner earning the No. 1 spot.
The road to state for CK, meanwhile, is yet to be determined. The Cougars (5-3 overall, 5-2 league), who cruised 30-0 past Stadium Oct. 23, close the regular season Thursday with a HUGE game at Wilson (6-2, 6-1). The winner of that game most likely will be the Narrows League No. 3 seed (Wilson could jump to No. 2 with a win and an Olympia loss). For CK, the difference between third and fourth or fifth in the Narrows League, which gets five postseason berths, is significant. The Narrows No. 3 seed receives a matchup against the Wesco North No. 2 team, currently Kamiak, in prelims, whereas both the Narrows No. 4 and 5 teams must face a No. 1 seed, needing a win to advance to the round of 16.

Gotta love the final month of the regular season in high school football.
Not only are the games getting more and more important, but it’s finally an acceptable time to talk about one of my favorite topics: playoff scenarios.
Klahowya is eliminated from postseason contention, but Central Kitsap and Olympic both have chances to extend their seasons.
So let’s take a look at what could happen over the next two weeks in terms of the postseason:
On the Class 3A side, Olympic has rebounded from a three-game losing streak to win its past two games. That puts the Trojans at 4-3 overall and 2-3 in Olympic/Western Cascade League play.
OWL is allotted four playoff spots, three of which have already been locked up by Timberline, Capital and North Thurston. Port Angeles and Bremerton are winless in league play and have no chance to make the playoffs, leaving three teams — Olympic, North Kitsap and Yelm — fighting for the fourth and final spot.
Oly, NK and Yelm boast identical 2-3 league records and all three have two games to play. Oly and NK face off Friday at NK in what is the biggest game of the season for both teams.
The winner of that game — both Oly and NK hold tiebreakers over Yelm by virtue of head-to-head wins — is the odds on favorite to take the OWL No. 4. The loser, on the other hand, is eliminated from playoff contention.
So if Olympic beats NK on Friday, the Trojans would be 3-3 in league going into the season finale against Bremerton, a team that hasn’t won a league game all season. No game is a gimme, but Oly should take care of Bremerton regardless of what happens against NK.
The recipe for the Trojans is simple: win twice and their in.
Assuming the Trojans beat NK and hold serve against the Knights, they would play a state preliminary round game against the No. 1 team from the 3A Greater St. Helens League, either Camas (6-1, 3-0) or Union (6-1, 3-0). Those teams square off Oct. 30, with the winner getting the No. 1 spot and a matchup with OWL No. 4.
The winner of the OWL No. 4/GSHL No. 1 game becomes the District 4 No. 1 seed to the state tournament, getting a matchup with the District 3 No. 4 team in the Round of 16.
To sum it up, Olympic needs to win its next two games and should anticipate a game against either Camas or Union in the prelims if it does.

OWL standings (league, overall)
Timberline                    5   0     7   0
North Thurston           5   0     6   1
Capital                           4   1     4   3
Olympic                        2   3     4   3
North Kitsap                2   3     3   4
Yelm                              2   3     3   4
Bremerton                   0   5     1   6
Port Angeles                0   5     0   7

Meanwhile, Central Kitsap is putting together a winning streak eerily similar to the one it did at the end of last year when it advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals.
The Cougars (4-3, 4-2), who have won three of their past four games, are in good position to make the playoffs out of the Narrows League, which gets five playoff spots. As the standings sit today, CK is in fourth with a chance to move to third with two victories to close the season.
Coach Mark Keel’s team closes against Stadium (2-5, 2-5) and Wilson (5-2, 5-1).
The Stadium game should be a victory, at least on paper, setting up what would be a huge game against Wilson to close the season.
If CK were to win out and earn the No. 3 seed, it would face the Wesco South No. 2 team in prelims with the winner becoming the District 1 No. 3 seed to state. Jackson, Cascade and Mountlake Terrace are currently deadlocked for the Wesco South No. 2 team.
If the Cougars lose either of their final two games, then the best they can finish is No. 4. The No. 4 Narrows team faces the South Puget Sound League  South Division No. 1 in prelims. Right now that would be undefeated Curtis.
Finishing as the No. 5 Narrows team is even worse, however, because that team must play a state prelim play-in game with the winner getting the 4A Greater St. Helens League No. 1 in prelims.
The Cougars need to close the season with two victories and secure the Narrows No. 3 seed to have a realistic chance of making another deep run in the state playoffs.

Narrows League standings (league, overall)
South Kitsap                6   0     7   0
Olympia                        5   1     6   1
Wilson, Woodrow       5   1     5   2
Central Kitsap              4   2     4   3
Foss, Henry                  4   3     4   3
Gig Harbor                   3   3     3   4
Bellarmine Prep.         2   4     3   4
Lincoln                          2   4     2   5
Stadium                         2   5     2   5
Shelton                           1   5     1   6
Mount Tahoma            0   6     1   6

A few newsworthy items won’t be in the Central Kitsap Reporter print edition when it comes out Friday.
Most notably: Olympic and Klahowya played a great girls soccer game Tuesday at Silverdale Stadium, ending in a 0-0 tie. Neither team created many scoring opportunities, but the Lady Eagles managed a few shots on goal against Oly goalkeeper Darrien Dorr, who registered her fifth consecutive shutout.
The tie was significant for more reasons than one.
On the lighter side, there is a friendly rivalry between KSS coach Troy Oelschlager and Oly coach Steve Haggerty. Oelschlager played under Haggerty at Olympic, but the KSS coach is winless against his mentor since taking over at KSS. Oelschlager does own a state title, however, whereas Haggerty doesn’t. You be the judge.
But more importantly, the game had significant implications on the combined Class 3A/2A Olympic League standings and playoff race. Both teams were undefeated in league play entering the game, with KSS controlling its own destiny for the 2A crown and Oly controlling its own destiny for the 3A crown.
The Lady Eagles are now 7-0-2 overall and 5-0-2 in league, comfortably ahead of second-place Kingston (3-3-2, 3-2-1) in the 2A race. Oly (6-2-2, 4-0-2), however, is in a dogfight with North Kitsap (6-1-2, 5-0-1) in the 3A race. The tie dropped Oly two points behind NK, which beat North Mason Tuesday.
NK and KSS play today in a game that will go a long way toward determining the eventual league champion(s).
Here are some post-game quotes from Dorr:
On the importance of the game — “We were looking at this as one of our biggest games of the season because Klahowya is really good this year.”
On registering her fifth consecutive shutout: “I feel really comfortable this year with my defense … most of my shutouts are due to my defense.”
Haggerty:
On the flow of the game — “I thought we started fairly flat … we didn’t create our first quality chance until there were 13 minutes left in the ball game.”
On the scoreless effort on offense — “I don’t think we executed very well, we didn’t move the ball well enough to get the ball in the box so we could follow our chances.”
On the implications of the tie — “It’s not the end of the world, but we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
And Oelschlager:
On his team’s effort — “The girls were up, they know we’ve never beat them. They played with a lot of heart.”

In other soccer news, the Central Kitsap girls took care of Shelton 4-1 Tuesday to move into third place overall in the Narrows League. The Lady Cougars (6-2-2, 3-1-2) have lost once since Sept. 14, when they dropped a match to NK 2-0, and seem to be hitting their stride at the perfect time.
The team is at Stadium at 7 p.m. today.

During halftime of Tuesday’s KSS-Oly girls soccer game, I managed to catch the tail end of the KSS-Oly volleyball match. KSS, which has yet to win a match, lost 3-0.
Olympic coach Keith Peden had some nice things to say about the KSS team:
“They are rebuilding, they’ve only got one senior. But they look better than I’ve seen Klahowya look in a long time. They are coming along.”

Well, it’s official: The Central Kitsap Reporter sports section is a member of the blogging family.

As the not-nearly-fearless operator of this interactive sports engine, I hope to bring you, the readers, additional — interesting — insight and analysis on all sports, all Central Kitsap, all the time.

Inside the Huddle will focus on the athletes and coaches who comprise the sports landscape of Central Kitsap. During the academic school year, that means you’ll receive additional news about your favorite student-athletes and high school teams — Olympic, CK and Klahowya. During the summer, that means you’ll hear even more about the Kitsap BlueJackets, Kitsap Pumas and the other teams and athletes who lace ‘em up under the sunshine of Silverdale. This is an opportunity to expand coverage and, if all goes to plan, make the Central Kitsap Reporter sports section better than it already is.

There are times when stories or news briefs or interesting little tidbits don’t make it into the Central Kitsap Reporter print edition because there simply is not enough space. In launching Inside the Huddle, my goal is to close that gap.

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Welcome to Inside the Huddle, your one-stop Central Kitsap sports blog.