Boys golf
Blaine boys golf sent three athletes to Bellingham Golf and Country Club (BGGC) on April 16 for the Birger Solberg Invitational, facing the best 36 golfers from 11 Northwest Conference (NWC) teams.
The course at BGCC is tough to play if the golfers don’t hit their drives straight, as the thin fairways punish any missed drives or approach shots, and it took the Borderites until the back nine before they began to figure things out.
Uno Nevarez led the Borderites in 11th place overall, followed by Ellis Griffin and Cameron Saunders. Blaine’s front nine scores weren’t anything to write home about, but each golfer showed great improvement in the second half of the match.
“They were getting used to the course,” head coach Rick Shockey said of his three golfers. “The narrowness of the course made it tough for them at the start. We try to teach that if you’re having a bad day, start working on the thing that you need to get better at.”
Get better, they did. Each Blaine golfer shot a 45 or below on the back nine, with Nevarez again leading the pack with a 41, Griffin with a 43, and Saunders shooting a 45.
Blaine has four more matches in its regular season before sending its best six golfers to district playoffs in May. For Shockey, the whole team has shown that they are improving every day, but will need to improve even more before the postseason begins.
“This team has gotten so much better over the course of the season,” Shockey said. “Even the [junior varsity] players have shown big improvements, so I’m excited to see how we head into districts.”
Blaine’s next match will be on Thursday, April 18 at 3 p.m. at Shuksan Golf Course, 1500 E. Axton Road, Bellingham, and then the Borderites will have its last near-home match at Loomis Trail Golf Club on Thursday, April 25 at 3 p.m.
Softball
After a super hot 5-0 start to the regular season, the bats went cold for Blaine softball this past week, with the Borderites dropping three of its last four games. The Borderites currently hold a 6-3 overall record (5-1 NWC), and still remain atop the 1A NWC standings, just below 2A top dogs Sedro-Woolley and Burlington-Edison.
In a rematch of last season’s state semifinal matchup against Montesano that saw the Borderites bounced from the postseason, Blaine again couldn’t defeat the reigning 1A state champions, falling 9-1 in the second game of a double-header on April 13. Earlier that day, softball lost a closes 3-2 game to Hoquiam, and then were shut out 4-0 by NWC first-place Sedro-Woolley on April 15.
Over those three straight losses, Blaine was outscored 16-3. In the three games prior, Blaine averaged over 15 runs per game.
The Borderites were able to get back in the win column on April 16 with a 5-2 win on the road against Lynden, and hope to stay there with another conference road matchup against Ferndale on Thursday, April 18 at 4 p.m.
Head coach Sean Miller told The Northern Light last week that the schedule would get tougher, and it did, but the Borderites still have plenty of season remaining to rebound and stay atop the 1A conference standings.
Blaine will host two home games this weekend, first facing Coupeville on Friday, April 19 at 4 p.m., then Lynden Christian on Saturday, April 20 at noon at Pipeline Field.
Boys Soccer
Boys soccer had an up-and-down week, blowing out Mt. Baker 6-0 at home on April 10 for its seventh win of the season, and losing 4-1 to Ferndale on April 13.
The Borderites still have a solid record of 7-2-2 overall, but have only picked up seven points in the conference standings, with a NWC record of 2-1-1.
The Borderites scored its second highest goal total of the season against Mt. Baker, behind only the eight-goal bonanza early in the season against Granite Falls, but then followed up that performance by allowing the most goals in a single game so far this season.
Head coach Gio Quesada has said this year’s defense is young and he has tinkered with the back line quite a bit. Hopefully the defensive miscues to Ferndale were just a one-game fluke. The Ferndale game followed three consecutive shutout wins by the Borderites.
Blaine faces Meridian for the second time this season on Thursday, April 18 at 7 p.m. The Borderites will hope to avenge its first loss of the season, a 2-1 defeat to the Trojans on March 26.
Blaine travels to Lynden Christian on Monday, April 22 at 4:30 p.m., and then will host Nooksack Valley on Wednesday, April 24 at 7 p.m.
Senior Dube commits to Skagit Valley College
Blaine senior Deja Dube officially committed to play basketball at Skagit Valley College next year, Blaine Athletics announced on April 16.
Dube was a four-year starter for Blaine basketball and ranked #18 in WhatcomHoops.com’s top-30 player rankings to end last season. Dube averaged eight points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals and one block per game in her senior year. She also led the team in minutes per game with 28 and earned an All-NWC Honorable Mention award.
Dube also excels in track and field, and has already won first place in multiple NWC discus events this year.
Dube is the second Borderite that Blaine Athletics has announced signing a letter of intent to play collegiate sports this season, with softball standout Emersyn Bakker announcing her intent to play at Edmonds Community College earlier this month.
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