Prep Football: 2B Running Start Previews

After one week of play, here's everything we know about the 2B's

Jordan Nailon / Blast Zone Media

Toledo promises punishing start in ‘24

The Riverhawks have made a nasty habit out of starting slow in recent years. It’s become some sort of tradition for talented Toledo teams to drop their first contest of the season, almost as an invite for head coach Mike Christensen to unleash a furious call to arms in the postgame locker room.

Thus far, those missteps haven’t hurt the Riverhawks in the long run. Year after year they’ve managed to put together deep playoff runs, but when asked if they planned on repeating those regrettable first steps of seasons’ past, this year’s Toledo squad responded in unison with what can be least offensively relayed as an emphatic no.

And the Riverhawks made sure to deliver with a 35-7 win over Adna in their opener. Toledo picked up 354 total yards against the Pirates, with Carter Swofford notching three touchdowns himself.

This week things will get even tougher with 1A Goldendale set to visit CheeseTown.

Last season Toledo put up a record of 9-3, losing to NW Christian in the State quarterfinals. This season, the Riverhawks had 49 players on the roster entering Week 1 and they’ll once again be gunning for a top finish in the Central 2B League (South/East Division), and as many more wins as they can muster.

Now in his eighth year as head coach, Mike Christensen is experiencing a first in his tenure at Toledo.

“This is my first year ever having a returning quarterback,” Christensen said. “I had no idea how nice that would be. I thought it would be nice. I heard it would be nice. But it’s even better than I’d imagined.” 

That returning signal caller is junior Eli Weeks, who has added both pocket presence and arm strength since the beginning of last fall.

“I think we’ve taken the next step offensively, and a lot of that is because of Eli,” Christensen said.

According to Christensen, that offense will be a “Gun-T” with junior Trevin Gale getting his hands on the ball frequently out of the slot, along with junior Carter Swofford who figures to be the primary full back.

“We have the luxury to throw if we need do,” Christensen said. “I think Swofford is a dandy back there and we’ve got a couple o there guys we can rotate in.”

Up front, seniors Liam McCree and Mikey Rodriguez, along with junior Alex Vasquez and sophomore Nico Acosta will be knocking heads on the offensive line. They’ll flank Christian Martin, a senior who worked hard in the offseason to hold down the starting center role.

On defense the Riverhawks will show a 3-5 front on most downs. McCree and Vasquez will bring experience to the defensive line, but it’s the athletes in the middle who will cover the most ground.

“We’re backer heavy,” explained Christensen.

The Riverhawks got in some preseason action at Castle Rock, playing the host Rockets and the Columbians of Rainier (Ore.). Toledo didn't need much more time to get up to speed in order to avoid spinning out in its opening contests. After the Cheese Town gang tacklers opened up on the road at Adna, they'll host Goldendale this week before heading out Highway 6 to play Pe Ell-Willapa Valley in Week 3.

In a turn of good fortune, Toledo saw their old league rivals from Kalama move up to the 1A ranks in the offseason. While they’ll miss the stiff competition, it could prove to be beneficial to their win-loss record when it comes time to draw up the postseason brackets.

“That’s good for us. It’s a really good team that’s out. But there’s other good teams, too,” Christensen said. “It’s nice not having to play another State champion quality team but I think some other teams are ready to take their place.”

Specifically, Christensen sees Adna and PWV as two teams prepared to make a big jump this season. Still, he believes it will be a two-team battle for supremacy in the South by season’s end, with his Riverhawks and the Onalaska Loggers standing as the two heavyweight favorites.

“I see some good teams in our division but I think if you polled the rest of the league they’d say us two are probably the top two,” Christensen said.

TOLEDO RIVERHAWKS

COACH/YEAR: Mike Christensen, 8th

LAST YEAR’S RECORD: 9-3

ROSTER NUMBER: 49

KEY RETURNERS:

Eli Weeks, QB, junior

Trevin Gale, slot, junior

Liam McCree, OL/DL, senior

Alex Vasquez, OL/DL, junior

Carter Swofford, DB/RB, 

Alex Kruger, Split End

OFFENSE: Gun-T

DEFENSE: 3-5

GAMES TO WATCH:

Oct. 25 - at Onalaska

Oct. 31 - at Winlock

Cards facing familiar foes in return to C2BL

After spending four seasons playing 8-man football in the 1B ranks, Winlock is back among familiar faces in the SWW 2B South Division this fall. The Cardinals suffered a rude welcome back in a 40-8 loss to Pe Ell-Willapa Valley in Week 1, but they’ve been working hard to make sure they’ll be a nuisance to their old league pals.

The Cards finished last season with a record of 5-6 after losing to Neah Bay in the playoffs. This year the entered the season with 28 players and head coach Ernie Samples is hoping his team can quickly reacclimatize to the 11-man game in his ninth season in charge in EggTown.

“We’re gonna kind of go back to what we were doing when we were playing 11-man and Bryce (Cline) was our quarterback,” Samples said. “We’re going to spread it out, get more guys out of the box and let James (Cusson) pound it.”

Cusson is a 245-pound junior running back who seems intent on following the Nolan Swofford model for hefty ball carriers. Landon Cline will again take the reigns as quarterback in his sophomore season, and Carter Svenson will be out wide looking to catch passes. Kaiden McCay, a junior, will get the action started on the line at center.

Defensively, the Cards will operate mainly out of a 5-2 front, but they’ll move to a 3-4 when necessary.

“You could call it one thing and it might look like something else,” Samples said.

The linebackers will include Cusson and Arturo Hernandez, while Svenson, Cline and freshman Jackson Bolagio will lockdown the secondary coverage. Up front Winlock will feature Thapa and Lincoln Ruiz on the line.

Taking a look around the rest of the division, Samples sees the same old names that have long played the foil for the Cards, with Napavine, Onalaska and Toledo topping that list. But this year he’s hoping some of that will change.

“I honestly see us competing,” Samples insisted. “It’s going to be fun. We get to play real football again. Where we end up, who knows.”

And the return to the 2B ranks means that the Battle of the Cowlitz rivalry game with Toledo is back on the docket this season. Does that mean the Cardinals are already gearing up to smack heads with their arch nemesis from the other side of I-5?

“Well, it’s on Halloween, which is kind of fun,” Samples said. “We’ll see. We’ve got a lot of kids who know each other. We’ll soon find out if we can compete with them, but they’ve already painted our rock!”

WINLOCK CARDINALS

COACH/YEAR: Ernie Samples, 9th year

LAST YEAR’S RECORD/FINISH: 5-6 

ROSTER NUMBER: 28

KEY RETURNERS:

James Cusson, RB/LB, junior

Arean Thapa OL/DL, 

Carter Svenson, WR/CB, junior

Landon Cline, QB/S, sophomore

Lincoln Ruiz,TE/DE

Kaiden McCay, C, junior

OFFENSE: Spread

DEFENSE: 5-2 or 3-4

GAMES TO WATCH:

Sept. 20 at Toutle Lake

Oct. 31 vs Toledo

Toutle Lake takes it all apart, rebuilds in the offseason

It’s been tough sledding for the Fighting Ducks in recent seasons but they’re hoping a mid-season coaching change last year rock bottom. With head coach Jacob Green back for his first full season calling the shots in East Cowlitz County, the Toutle Lake gang is hoping to take at least several positive steps in the right direction this fall.

The Ducks didn’t get off to the start they’d imagined in Week 1 when they suffered a 16-6 loss to Ilwaco, but it was a competitive game and enough to keep everyone pulling in the same direction as they began to prepare for a home game against 1A Fort Vancouver.

That’s a game the Ducks should be highly motivated for.

“We’re maybe going to have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder in the Fort Vancouver game, and we also play Hoquiam (Week 4),” Green noted. “Fort Vancouver was in our league when I played at Kelso, so to ask several times to play a 2B school when you’re nearly 3A size, they’re obviously looking for an easy win, which is sort of a slap in our face for us when we’ve been right on the cusp of even fielding an 11-man team.”

Toutle Lake began the season with 33 players on the roster, with several key returners in the mix.

Maddox Walker will be at the heart of the offensive line after the senior moved over to center from his former station at guard. Max Kasimov, a junior, will slot in at left tackle and Hunter Wall, a senior, will hold down the right tackle spot.

“Our offensive line is going to be undersized but most of them are going to be very quick so we’ll utilize that,” Green said.

Meanwhile, junior Dom (Rivera) Settlemier has moved to full back from tail back in order to inflict maximum punishment on would-be tacklers.

“He’s all downhill, the kid loves contact,” Green said. “He would rather seek out a safety or a linebacker than avoid that collision.”

The Ducks will also feature senior Caleb Webber at wide receiver after an All-League performance last season’s with junior Austin Webber slotting in as the primary tailback in the new I-Wing system.

“We’ve put in a brand new offense from what has been in the past at Toutle,” Green said. “I’m a Kelso guys so, you go with what you know.”

Defensively, the Ducks plan to run a 4-3 while relying on an athletic group of linebackers. That platoon will include Kasminov in the middle, with Settlemier and Jaeger Johnson holding down the outsides. The Webber brothers will bring experience to the secondary for Toutle Lake while trying to cover for a relatively inexperienced defensive front.

This season the Ducks will play in the SWW 2B South Division, where they’ll have their hands full on more than a few Fridays. But that’s not putting a damper on their outlook.

“We’re glad the league is back to the way it was instead of the three-tier system,” Green said. “Obviously we’ve got Toledo and Onalaska on our side of the league and those are both great programs. You go in to those games and it kind of shows you where you’re at.”

TOUTLE LAKE FIGHTING DUCKS

COACH/YEAR: Jacob Green, 2nd year

LAST YEAR’S RECORD: 3-6

ROSTER NUMBER: 33

KEY RETURNERS:

Maddox Walker C, senior

Max Kasimov OL/LB, junior

Hunter Wall, OL, senior

Dom (Rivera) Settlemier, RB/OLB, junior

Caleb Webber, WR/DB senior

Austin Webber, RB/DB junior

OFFENSE: I-Wing

DEFENSE: 4-3

GAMES TO WATCH:

Sept. 13 vs Fort Vancouver

Sept. 20 vs Winlock

Ilwaco tries out addition by subtraction

Featuring a bunch of greenhorns on the roster the Fishermen shot off the dock in Week 1 with a 16-6 win over Toutle Lake. The new-look Ilwaco squads will try to keep its momentum rolling in Week 2 with a visit to Winlock, a team that’s making a return to the 2B ranks this season after spending the last classification cycle playing 8-man football.

The Fishermen entered the season with 32 players on the sideline after graduating nine seniors off of last season’s team. That group finished 5-4 for Ilwaco’s first winning season in recent memory. Now in his third season at the helm for the Fishermen, head coach Ron Rood expects this season’s team to be even better, eventually.

“I think we’re going to be better,” Rood said in a preseason interview with Blast Zone Media. “We have pretty good depth in the backfield, but none of them have any stats because they didn’t get to run the ball last year.”

Rood noted that the team went to a summer camp over the break for the first time during his tenure, and a few freshmen appear ready to make an impact right away.

First among those freshmen will be southpaw quarterback Haddox Hazen.

“He’ll run around quite a bit,” Rood said. “He does real well outside the pocket and that’s a good place for him as a freshman.”

And while Ilwaco graduated its entire backfield a season ago, it does return six of its seven most active linemen. Those big pushers are led by All-League guard Cooper Petit, a 195-pound junior. He’ll be joined by the likes of Ben Davis, a three-year starter at center who’s up over 300 pounds as a senior, Robert Sanders (senior, tight end) and Wade Smith (senior, tight end).   

That group will be trying to make room for an inexperienced but talented hold in the backfield as Ilwaco works out of a two-back system with Haddox under center. Those pigskin carriers will include running backs Corbin Johnson (195 lbs, junior), Cody Kaino (165 lbs, freshman), Cody Miller (155 lbs, junior) and slot back Dylan Pelas (175 lbs, junior).

As for the defense, the Fishermen plan on putting out a 4-3 front most of the time. Last year Smith was the leading tackler for Ilwaco and an All-League selection. A “skinny-fast wrestler,” Smith will play outside linebacker while Johnson slots in at middle backer. Marcus Lynch, a senior All-League defensive tackle, will provide experience up front with Petit helping to contain at defensive end, and Pelas stepping back in at strong safety after an All-League campaign last season.

Looking around the SWW 2B North Division, the Fishermen will see plenty of top-tier competition as the season rolls along with teams like Forks, Pe Ell-Willapa Valley and Raymond-South Bend lurking. And at the top of that list is Napavine, last year’s 2B State runner-up who dismantled 2A Hudson’s Bay on the road in Week 1.

“Ours is really the big dog division,” Rood said. “We’re still a year away from really competing for the top two spots.”

ILWACO FISHERMEN

COACH/YEAR: Ron Rood, 3rd year 

LAST YEAR’S RECORD: 5-4

ROSTER NUMBER: 32

KEY RETURNERS:

Cooper Petit G/DE, junior

Ben Davis C, senior

Robert Sanders TE, senior

Wade Smith, TE, senior

Marcus Smith, DT, senior

Dylan Pelas, SS, junior

OFFENSE: Wing-T

DEFENSE: 4-3

GAMES TO WATCH:

Oct. 12 vs Pe Ell-Willapa Valley

Oct. 31 at Raymond-South Bend