With fall camp officially underway, and football season within sight, what better way to get prepared for the 2022 season than reading some of Chronicle staffers' most educated season predictions?
In this edition of The Chronicle’s preseason roundtable, Alec Dietz, Josh Kirshenbaum, and Aaron VanTuyl pick their most anticipated regular season game on the schedule.
I know what you’re all thinking. Yes, this is a nonleague matchup that will virtually have no meaning in the standings or rankings this fall.
But if you’re a fan of the run, run, and run some more style of offense, do I have two programs for you. And if you’re a fan of a bit of revenge, and a program looking to take the next step after a historic year, there are plenty of good storylines to this otherwise unimportant midseason matchup.
Last year’s contest between the Beavers and Loggers was nothing short of thrilling, a 20-14 Tenino victory that saw all of Stone City slander The Chronicle’s staff for unanimously picking the Loggers.
The game had everything, including controversy, when Ony’s Marshall Haight nearly took a handoff to the house at the very end of the first half, but was dragged down just short of the goal line thanks to a Herculean effort from Tenino’s Dylan Spicer. Of course, Ony’s coaches didn’t think Haight was just short of the end zone.
The Beavers ended up walking away with the one-score victory, coming behind from a 14-0 deficit, and all of Tenino made sure the doubters that picked against the Beavers knew their mistake.
Playing at the Loggers’ house this fall, no doubt Ony coach Mazen Saade will have his players motivated for revenge.
Whatever the over/under is for pass attempts, I’ll take the under.
How about we give the 8-man game some love?
Barring some unforeseen downfall in Naselle, this is shaping up to be yet another year in the Southwestern 1B ranks where the real battle will be for second place, between the Cardinals and Vikings.
But that was the case last season, and all we got out of it was arguably game of the year, with Winlock and Mossyrock running wild for four quarters in a 42-40 Cardinals win sealed with a last-second two-point conversion stop.
This time around, Mossyrock will have the more experienced team on paper, with both of its Kolb brothers coming back to lead the offense. Winlock, meanwhile, will have to replace the bulk of its production with both Nolan Swofford and Neal Patching graduated.
The two sides will come together in the penultimate week of the regular season, with home field advantage in the crossover round up for grabs. And in a league so often flooded with routs, blowouts, and running clocks, this could be the rare 8-man battle to go down to the wire yet again.
Why mess with a classic? This Week 2 matchup promises to be a standing-room-only non-divisional affair between two teams trying to establish themselves before league play kicks into high gear.
Whether or not it’s a great game, it should be a litmus test for both halves of the C2BL the rest of the season. But that’s all just icing on the cake here; this is a longstanding rivalry game between two teams (and three schools) with no shortage of friendly and familial ties between them.