9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2018
ASTORIA FISHERMEN
GIRLS SOCCER • BOYS SOCCER • CROSS COUNTRY
Big numbers should help Astoria cross country
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
W
hether as a run-
ner or a coach,
Andrew Fick has
always loved a challenge.
And as the Astoria cross
country program begins
another season, the former
Astoria runner — now cross
country coach — has his wish.
While the Astoria boys
are looking to climb back up
the Cowapa League ladder,
the Lady Fishermen need to
replace some key seniors lost
to graduation.
“I’m excited for the sea-
son,” Fick said. “It seems like
we’re set to continue our pos-
itive momentum for both the
men’s and women’s teams.
“We have good numbers out
early on, and our student-ath-
letes have been working hard
and have a positive mindset as
we start the season.”
The Fishermen had a cou-
ple of uncharacteristic lower
division finishes in last year’s
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Healthy numbers will help this year’s Astoria cross country team.
district meet.
The Astoria boys were fifth
out of six teams, just three
points ahead of last-place
Banks. The Lady Fishermen
were third out of four teams.
Banks and Seaside did not
have enough girls athletes to
score in the team standings last
year, and the Cowapa League
said farewell to traditional
league power Scappoose, now
a 5A school.
That leaves the girls’ side
with potentially just three full
teams.
Fick and the Fishermen are
just concerned with rebuilding
their own program.
“For the women’s team,
we’re looking pretty strong,
and we’re feeling hopeful to be
a competitive force again this
year,” Fick said. “We gradu-
ated three of our senior lead-
ers McKenzie (Burnett), Kathy
(Perez), and Libbie (Nash), but
we’re set to continue to build
off an overall solid season.”
As freshmen last year,
Sophie Long, Abby Groncki
and Emma Roe all finished in
the top 20 in the league cham-
pionship race, and McKenna
Long was 25th.
McKenna Long is back for
her junior year, while Sophie
Long, Groncki and Roe will
be three of the Cowapa’s top
sophomores.
“We have Ally Pritchard
(So.) returning, who has been
doing a lot of summer running
and is looking really strong,”
Fick said. “Lindsay Riutta is
an incoming freshman who ran
well in middle school and is
looking strong early on.”
In addition, “we have sev-
eral new runners this year,
and it will be fun to have that
energy as we move forward
into the season. Last season we
were proud of our accomplish-
ments, like winning a couple
of big invitationals, but it was
a real challenge not being able
to get to state.”
This year, “with Scappoose
moving to 5A, that will change
things a little, but you never
know who’s going to show up.
You can count on strong pro-
grams in the Cowapa. We’re
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Despite some key losses to graduation last year, the 2018 Astoria boys soccer team
should still be a major challenger in the Cowapa League.
just going to work hard, have
fun and compete at the highest
level we can.”
On the boys’ side, Fick said
“we have a lot of our runners
returning, which will help us
be more competitive, as we
have more experience and our
guys know what it will take to
compete in our league.”
Astoria’s top returner is
sophomore Nikolai Boisvert,
who was 25th out of 39 run-
ners in the district meet.
Out of 14 runners practic-
ing the first week, the Fish-
ermen had just three seniors
(Parker Ivanoff, Calvin Kaul
and Elias Simmons).
“Everyone seems to be
working pretty hard, and
there’s going to be competition
to get those varsity spots in the
big races,” Fick said, “so it will
interesting to see how we stack
up individually and as team.
“We have lots of room to
grow from last year, so I’m
excited and I know our guys
are excited to see what we can
do this year.”
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
It will be a young team that takes the field for Astoria girls soccer in 2018.
Girls will chase Valiants
A ‘start over’ year for
Astoria boys soccer squad
ASTORIA
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
The highlight of 2017
was a 2-2 tie against the No.
1-ranked team in the state.
The Astoria boys soccer
team went on to finish 9-5-2
overall, a respectable record
coming off a 5-8 season the
year before. The Fishermen
even managed to advance
to the Sweet 16, where they
fell in a first-round game at
Stayton.
It’s time to reload for the
Astoria boys and head coach
Lee Cain. Time to come up
with another all-league goal-
keeper, which would be Asto-
ria’s third Goalkeeper of the
Year in three years.
But Cain is also realistic,
and he knows a rebuilding
project when he sees it.
“We lost seven seniors,
so it’s a ‘start over’ year, and
a rebuild,” Cain said. “The
losses were pretty well distrib-
uted, so our focus is on build-
ing a program, and building
the skills of the players we
have.”
Astoria was responsible
for Seaside’s only non-win in
league play last year, a 2-2 tie
Sept. 23 at Seaside.
THE COWAPA
Speaking of Seaside, the
entire 4A level may be chas-
ing after the Gulls this sea-
son. Woodburn may be the
favorite on paper, but Seaside
claims it will be even better
than last year’s team, which
was ranked No. 1 for much of
the season.
“I don’t know what Valley
ASTORIA
BOYS SOCCER
Coach: Lee Cain, 3rd
year
2017: 9-5-2 (5-3-2 league)
Playoffs: Defeated
Gladstone (1-0) in play-in,
lost at Stayton (0-4) in first
round.
All-league losses: Cole
Beeson, Trevor Byrd, Jose
Gonzalez, Jake Hurd.
All-league returners:
Aldo Cruz, Sr., Porter
Whitsett, Sr.
Catholic has, but I think our
strongest challenge is going
to come from Seaside,” Cain
said. “They look real strong,
with a lot of physicality.”
The Fishermen have five
challenging nonleague games
this season, before opening
league play Sept. 20 (where
else?), at Seaside.
With only five league
teams (Scappoose has moved
to the 5A level), it will just be
an eight-game league season
for Cowapa League teams.
THE FISHERMEN
Among Astoria’s losses is
Jake Hurd, the league’s Goal-
keeper of the Year in 2017.
Hurd replaced Kyle Birge, the
Cowapa’s 2016 Goalkeeper of
the Year.
There’s actually a long
list of players from the North
Coast who have earned the
award — it’s only natural to
assume the Fishermen will
come up with another all-
league keeper to replace Hurd.
ASTORIA YOUTH
“We’re going to give Tony
Tumbarello a shot at the var-
sity spot, and he’s showing
a lot of promise,” Cain said.
“He’s young, only a sopho-
more, but he’s very athletic.
“We lost Spark (Owen),
probably for most of the sea-
son,” he said. “He broke his
heel bone, a brutal injury.
That’s why Tony is jumping
in there, and we’ll be training
a brand-new keeper at the JV
level. We do have some good
backup keepers, but we need
them on the field.”
Despite losing Jose Gon-
zalez, a first-team all-league
player, Cain said “our defense
should still be strong. Three
of our defenders are back. We
lost Jose, and that’s a huge
hole to fill because he had tre-
mendous energy.
“And not having (Cole)
Beeson in the midfield will be
a new experience,” he said of
Astoria’s mid, who accounted
for a large part of the team’s
scoring production over the
last four years. “We have to
figure out how to play with-
out him. He was very signifi-
cant. But there’s a lot of skill
coming up, and I’m looking at
these guys to mature, hoping
for this to be a good year.”
Astoria’s senior class
includes Aldo Cruz, Jona-
than Jimenez, Christian Medi-
na-Perez, Rodrigo Palacio
Rojas and all-league returner
Porter Whitsett.
A large junior class fea-
tures David Bermudez, Dalton
Byrd, Riley Cameron, Brooks
Fromwiller, Leo Matthews,
Michael Postlewait, Evan
Randall and Shrey Sharma.
With a smaller, less-com-
petitive league, Astoria girls
soccer coach Tim Fastabend
is optimistic about his team’s
playoff chances in 2018. Just
don’t expect too much suc-
cess early on.
The Lady Fishermen lost
both quantity and quality to
graduation last year. In addi-
tion to senior all-league play-
ers Claire Albright, Sarah
Lertora and Haley Ranta, the
major loss was Lexi Law,
the Cowapa League’s Goal-
keeper of the Year.
The long arm of the Law is
now playing soccer at Mult-
nomah Bible College, leaving
Fastabend with a big hole in
the net to fill.
THE COWAPA
Four of the last five state
champions in 4A girls soc-
cer have come from the Cow-
apa League — also known as
the
“Conference
of
Champions.”
The Cowapa finds itself in
a unique situation as the 2018
season gets underway. The
defending league champion
— Scappoose — is no lon-
ger there, as the Indians have
moved to the Class 5A level.
However, the defending state
champion is still a part of the
league.
Valley Catholic finished
second behind Scappoose in
the league standings last sea-
son, but the Valiants got hot
in the state playoffs and won
four straight, capped by a 1-0
win over Hidden Valley in the
state championship.
Valley Catholic has a new
coach (Kibwe Cuffie), and
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GIRLS SOCCER
Coach: Tim Fastabend,
3rd year
2017: 6-7-2 (4-5-1 league)
Playoffs: Lost play-in game
at Philomath (0-6).
All-league losses: Lexi
Law (GK of the Year),
Claire Albright, Sarah
Lertora, Haley Ranta.
All-league returner: An-
drea Harris, Sr.
the Valiants have five all-
league players returning.
After the Valiants, second
place is up for grabs. Asto-
ria finished third in the stand-
ings last year. The Lady Fish
began the league season by
winning three of their first
four, but only had one win
over their final six games.
THE FISHERMEN
Despite five returning
seniors, “it’s a lot younger
team,” Fastabend said. “We’ll
probably start two or three
sophomores and a couple
freshmen. We’ll be young.”
The top returner is senior
Andrea Harris, an all-league
player entering her fourth
year on varsity.
Other seniors include Nara
Van de Grift, Laina Hum-
phrey, Claire Tetlow and Gra-
cie Cummings, a state-quali-
fying sprinter who ran track
two years ago.
The junior class includes
Abigail Albright, Taleigh
Cole, Erin Grauff, Baylee
McSwain, Elizabeth Whitsett
and Brooklyn Zerangue.
The roster has five soph-
omores: Emma Biederman,
Elle Espelien, Hayley Kelly,
Meghan O’Meara and Shelby
Rasmussen.
O’Meara is a transfer from
Newport, and will likely start
in the midfield, while Fas-
tabend will carry two fresh-
men on the roster, Maddie
Sisley and Karen Zuniga.
The candidates to replace
Law at goalkeeper are
McSwain and Rasmussen.
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