It’s getting late in the fall sports season, and postseason talk is beginning to bubble up.
Cross-country was scheduled to feature seven varsity runners in the Northwest Conference Championships at Civic Stadium on Wednesday, October 23 (after press time). Football has just two – possibly three depending on scheduling – regular season games remaining as it hangs on to a top-12 state ranking. Girls soccer and volleyball haven’t dominated this season, but still have a chance to make postseason runs in the upcoming weeks.
Playing through torrential rain at Borderite Stadium on October 18, Blaine beat Friday Harbor in convincing fashion, 36-13, behind a stellar rushing attack and stifling defense that forced multiple turnovers.
Senior running back Jaiden Paez had a career-defining day, racking up four touchdowns and 316 rushing yards on 23 carries. With the rain coming down in buckets, the Borderites couldn’t get the deep passing game going, and instead relied on a suffocating running game, and incorporated some creative shovel passes to speedster wideout Kai Kerwin, who finished the day with four receptions for 104 yards.
Head coach Andy Olson raved about Paez and the breakout year he’s had at running back for the Borderites. The Friday Harbor performance – 316 yards – was the 15th most rushing yards in a single game in Whatcom County history, according to WhatcomPreps.com.
“He’s up there for the most improved player in the county this year,” Olson said of the senior running back. “We knew that Jaiden was going to be special, but he really bought into the idea this offseason of seeing how far his talent can take him. Some guys just have that it factor of when they get hit, it almost springs them forward – it propels them. Jaiden’s got that ability, he’s not afraid of contact – in fact, he kind of seeks it out.”
No matter how talented a running back Paez has become, the five linemen in front of him deserve credit for those gaudy statlines that keep popping up week after week. Olson said his offensive line, which features senior leaders Malloy Messenger, Jayden Winslow and Otto Shelton, refused a captaincy because they didn’t want to be separated – even ceremonially – from the rest of the unit.
“They look at it as they’re the team within the team,” Olson said. “They take a lot of pride in being prepared and performing at a high level. When we run the ball, they get giddy about that. As a lineman, that’s your dream to go play smash mouth football and run downhill.”
That’s exactly what Blaine did on Friday, while the defense was able to bottle up Friday Harbor’s “Wing-T” offense, which features lots of backfield trickery and misdirection, for just two scores.
The Borderites’ next opponent, conference rival Mt. Baker, employ a similar offensive scheme, and Blaine will need another marquee performance from defensive ends Zi Yu and Blake Koreski to keep the Mountaineers at bay.
With the win, the Borderites (5-2, 0-2 NWC) beat five of five non-conference opponents – Renton, Cedar Park Christian, Chelan, Granite Falls and Friday Harbor – by a combined score of 199-72.
Despite the stellar 5-2 record, the Borderites are stuck in the bottom of the NWC standings with a winless conference record. The two teams directly ahead in the standings, Mt. Baker and Meridian, are the Borderites’ next two opponents.
A winning streak to end the conference schedule could keep Blaine atop the state rankings and firmly plant the team in the top-12 to qualify for the 1A state playoffs.
According to the WIAA state rankings, Blaine is currently the 10-seed, meaning the team would qualify for the state playoffs if the season ended today. Blaine’s two losses on the season came against seventh-ranked Lynden Christian (4-3, 2-0 NWC) and first-ranked Nooksack Valley (6-1, 3-0 NWC).
Blaine is still searching for that elusive first conference win, and will have a chance on the road Friday, October 25 at 7 p.m., against Mt. Baker (4-3, 0-3 NWC).
Stats provided by WhatcomPreps.com
It hasn’t been the end of the season the Borderites had hoped for, with a five-game losing streak heading into the final game of the regular season. The Borderites (4-11, 3-11 NWC) were close to upsetting 3A Ferndale at home on October 22, but weren’t able to complete the second half comeback and fell 2-1.
Blaine nearly opened up the scoring with eight minutes remaining in the first half, when sophomore forward Nevaeh Zaddack’s shot hit the crossbar, easily beating the Ferndale goalkeeper but painfully rattling off the woodwork and out of bounds, keeping the game in a scoreless tie.
Minutes later, Ferndale would go ahead with a corner kick goal, rattling in a rebound past the outstretched arms of senior goalkeeper Larissa Pluschakov. The Blaine keeper had a stellar first half, stopping multiple Ferndale attacking chances with diving save after diving save, but couldn’t repel a point-blank shot just before halftime.
Ferndale added on another second half goal, and Blaine’s comeback stopped after a lone goal in the second half made it 2-1. Blaine has one game remaining on its regular season schedule, a home game against Bellingham on October 24 at 7:30 p.m. The game could impact playoff seeding, with the Borderites just above Nooksack Valley (2-14-1, 1-21-1 NWC) and Mt. Baker (1-13-1, 1-12-1 NWC) in the 1A standings.
The Borderites will earn an automatic bid into the five-team 1A District 1 Playoffs, and play at Borderite Stadium on either October 26 at 7 p.m. in a loser-out game (if the four- or five-seed), or on October 30 at 5:30 p.m. at Borderite Stadium (if the three-seed).
Blaine volleyball celebrated senior night on October 21 against Ferndale, but weren’t able to send the seniors home with a win in their last regular season game at home.
The game followed the same script for multiple tough Blaine losses this season, with the Borderites winning the first set in close fashion, 25-23, then losing the next three, 25-15, 25-15, 25-14.
Seniors Liesl Schutt, Kaitlyn Harrington, Olivia Price and Brie Smith played their final home games, with Harrington and Smith leading the team statistically – yet again. Harrington led the team with 18 digs along with eight kills, and Smith dished out a solid 19 assists on the night.
Juniors Carly Saunders and Hannah Phelps-McDonald contributed defensively with nine digs each, and sophomore Teia Dube had a team-high 14 kills along with eight digs and two blocks.
The Borderites (2-12, 1-11 NWC) sit above Mt. Baker (0-13, 0-12 NWC) in fourth place in 1A, and will likely face Mt. Baker in the first game of the five-team 1A District 1 Playoffs. The game will be a loser-out game, meaning the Borderites must win to continue on into the double-elimination portion of the tournament. The final two teams in the tournament advance to 1A state playoffs.
Blaine’s lone conference win of the season came against Mt. Baker on October 8, a 3-0 sweep of the Mountaineers that the Borderites will surely hope to reproduce on Saturday, November 2 at 1 p.m. at Meridian.
Stats provided by WhatcomPreps.com
The Blaine cross-country team has seen consistent improvement throughout the season, a goal that head coach Roberto Aguilera set out at the beginning of the year.
The Borderites will have the ultimate chance to prove how much they’ve improved when the team travels to Civic Stadium in Bellingham for the NWC Championships at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 23 (after press time).
Emmanuel Rios-Martinez, Tucker Green, Steven Phelps-Mcdonald, Verdaan Aujla, Sihaan Aujla, Ian Tuski and Jacob Troupe will compete in the boys 5,000-meter varsity race for a chance to qualify for state.
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