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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2018)
SOCCER With fresh legs, lofty goals for Seaside boys in 2018-19 Seaside girls boast wealth of experience on soccer pitch By Gary Henley By Gary Henley Seaside Signal Seaside Signal The 2018 Seaside boys soccer program is on a mis- sion: The Gulls are out to get what they didn’t get last year. Ranked No. 1 for much of the season, the Gulls lost in the Class 4A state quarterfi- nals a year ago, a 2-1 heart- breaker to Newport, which scored a late goal to escape Broadway Field on its way to a state championship. Had they beaten Newport, the Gulls would have had the home field advantage in the semifinals. Seaside lost a few seniors here and there, but for the most part, the Gulls are back and stronger than before. Clatsop County has never produced a high school soc- cer state championship team. The 2018 Gulls — who were ranked No. 1 to end last sea- son — are hoping to be the first. A struggling program looks for positives wherever it can find them — and there weren’t many for the Seaside girls soccer team in 2017. Over their first six games last year, the Lady Gulls were 0-6 and had been outscored 29-1. Still, Seaside managed to find a positive with a strong finish, as the Gulls had just one loss over the final four games, with three ties. In addition, they had four players on the all-league team, and three of those four return. That has the Seaside girls soccer team thinking posi- tive as the Gulls enter a new season, the third under head coach Josh Garhofer. The Cowapa It was no contest last year. The Gulls and their 9-0-1 league record finished well ahead of second-place Valley Catholic (6-2-2), while Asto- ria (the team that managed a 2-2 tie against the Gulls) fin- ished 5-3-2. It may be even less of a contest this year. The Gulls have had problems in the past with Scappoose, but the Indi- ans are no longer there, hav- ing moved to the 5A level. “If we don’t win (the league title) clearly, I’ve got a problem,” Chapman said. “I think we’ll be fine.” In fact, Chapman is more worried about the Oregon West Conference. Woodburn drops down to 4A after winning the last two state titles at the 5A level, THE DAILY ASTORIAN Seaside’s Westin Carter, No. 17, is looking to fill a void left by his older brother Colton, the Cowapa League’s Player of the Year in 2015, ’16 and ’17. and five championships since 2010. Also in the Oregon West is defending 4A cham- pion Newport, which features two-time all-state goalkeeper Luis Reyes. “Any of the teams playing in that league with Woodburn, their league season is almost like a playoff tournament, with how good they are,” he said. “They will have chal- lenging games week in and week out. “And if we make it into the playoffs — which I anticipate we will — if we meet any of those teams, they’re going to be firing on all cylinders.” Originally, the Gulls had Stayton and Woodburn on their preseason schedule. But the Oregon West ended up with seven schools, which added games to their league season. As a result, Woodburn and Stayton had to cancel their nonleague games with Seaside. By contrast, teams in the Cowapa League may take a hit in the RPI rankings, with Scappoose no longer there. 6 • Seagull Pride • Fall 2018 The Fishermen, Valiants and Gulls were the only three teams that had winning re- cords in the Cowapa League last year, and the only three to finish ranked in the top 20. It all adds up to another league title this year for Sea- side, which should have no problem in repeating as the Cowapa champions. The Gulls For the first time since 2014, the Cowapa League will have a Player of the Year other than Seaside’s Colton Carter, who was league MVP in 2015, ’16 and ’17. The likely candidate would be Carter’s younger brother, Seaside sophomore Westin Carter, who was a first-team all-league defender last year. However, “Westin is out injured at the moment,” Chap- man said. “If he had been playing against Newport, I think we would have put that one away. But he strained his hip playing against Roosevelt in the summer, and will be out a couple weeks.” The Cowapa The defending league champion is gone, but the defending state champion is still there, as the “Conference of Champions” gears up for another season. Scappoose — which was 10-0 in league games last year — has moved to the Class 5A level, leaving the Cowapa with just five teams. Valley Catholic finished second in the league stand- ings last season, but got hot in the playoffs and won the state title, defeating Hidden Val- ley 1-0 in the championship game, giving the Valiants their third title in the last five years. Valley Catholic had sev- en players on the all-league team, including five juniors. “Valley has a new coach (Kibwe Cuffie), but they al- ways have a solid program,” Garhofer said. “I have this theory, where I don’t like one GARY HENLEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN Chloe Bartel enters her fourth season of varsity soccer at Seaside. program holding everyone back. But we’ve really had some tough opponents the last few years in the Cowapa League.” Banks finished 4-6-3 over- all last year — below par for the Braves — but Garhofer said, “Banks is back, and Til- lamook’s been putting a lot of summer work in … it’s really interesting right now, because everything is up in the air.” The Lady Gulls No one was happier than Garhofer when the Gulls showed up at preseason prac- tices with one of the largest turnouts in years. “This is the biggest turn- out I’ve ever been a part of,” Garhofer said. “Our freshman class is our biggest, which is the first time we’ve ever had that.” Seaside only lost three se- niors off last year’s team, but all three (Bryre Babbitt, Cor- rie Falleur, Sonoma Moon) were significant. “Each one played de- fense,” Garhofer said. “But we have a lot of young girls coming up with a lot of ex- perience there. So as much as I miss the seniors, at least these girls will take some of the pressure off.” The Gulls have a whop- ping nine seniors on this year’s roster.