(story below)

SHS Football — 2015 season schedule

Sept. 4 — Sequim at Chimacum (P.T. field), 5 p.m.

Notes: Wolves beat Cowboys 47-21 in Sequim in 2014 opener … CHS was 0-10 last season, edged by Vashon 16-14 in finale … Wolves lead season series 36-9, with 1st game played in 1928

Sept. 11 — Coupeville at Sequim, 5 p.m.

Notes: Sequim clobbered 1A squad on Whidbey Island 40-18 last fall in renewing of old rivalry: the teams have played just twice (1929 and 1930) before last year … Coupeville was 5-5 in 2014

Sept. 19 — Sequim at Kingston, 7 p.m.

Notes: Sequim avenged big loss in 2013 with 27-19 win last fall … SHS is 6-2 since series began in 2007 … Bucs won 3-way tiebreaker vs. Sequim and PA … lost to Burlington-Edison in first round of state 2A playoffs

Sept. 25 — North Kitsap at Sequim, 7 p.m.

Notes: For second straight year, NK is the defending league champ … Vikes beat Sequim 33-13 in Poulsbo last season and has won past four meetings … NK fell to Hockinson 7-2 in state 2A game in 2014, their only loss in a 10-1 season

Oct. 2 — Sequim at Centralia, 7 p.m.

Notes: Tigers edged SHS 34-28 in overtime last fall, the first of three straight OT games for the Wolves … went 5-4 in 2014  … teams have played just twice (2A state playoff game in 2008)

Oct. 9 — Sequim at North Mason, 7 p.m.

Notes: Sequim got by Bulldogs 26-20 last fall, with quarterback Miguel Moroles scoring his fourth rushing TD in OT to close it out … Belfair team was 3-3 in league (third), 4-6 overall in 2014

Oct. 16 — Port Angeles at Sequim, 7 p.m.

Notes: Riders won at home 20-14, topping Sequim in OT for their 2nd straight Rainshadow Rumble win … Riders also beat Wolves 6-0 in three-way tiebreaker to end SHS’s 2014 season … PA has advantage in all-time series at 52-20 and six ties … SHS has onlyplayed Port Townsend (88 games) more times

Oct. 23 — Olympic at Sequim, 7 p.m.

Notes: Trojans shut out Sequim last fall, 39-0. They went 5-1 in league (second to NK) and 7-5 overall … Oly fell 48-13 to Ellensburg in first round state match-up

Oct. 30 — Sequim at Bremerton, 7 p.m.

Notes: After shootout in 2013, Knights won defensive struggle 14-13 last fall … was Bremerton’s only league win last year (1-5, 4-6 overall) … Knights own 9-6 all-time series lead

Sequim High School football 2015       season preview

Head coach: Erik Wiker (12th year)

2012 record: 4-5, 2-4 in Olympic League (tied, fourth place); 0-1 in tiebreaker

Key returners: Chris Whitaker (RB, MLB), Ben Hughes (WR, FS), Bailey Early (WR, CB), Nathan Allison (T, DE), Ethan Richmond (WR, FS), Kane Stoddard (CB), Nick Faunce (QB, WR), Gavin Velarde (WR), Arnold Black-Langston (RB, DE), Brandon Stamper (RB, OLB), Mark Feeney (RB, OLB), Jack Ellison (C), Matthew Schock (DE, C), Zach Hebert (T, NG)

Senior-heavy Sequim looks for redemption, league crown

by MICHAEL DASHIELL

Sequim Gazette

Call it a bit of payback.

Two years ago, head coach Erik Wiker saw a sophomore class-heavy Wolves squad take their lumps in a winless (0-10) campaign.

This year, those sophs are seniors — about 20 strong, 15 more than last fall — and Wiker says they are ready to improve on last year’s four-win season. In all, the

Sequim coach notes there will be just one player position on either side of the ball without varsity game experience.

“They were tired of getting beat up,” Wiker says. “We’ve never had that many (seniors). It’s a blessing this year. It definitely helps with leadership.”

The Wolves’ offense likely will need it after losing their on- and off-the-field leader in all-Olympic League first team quarterback Miguel Moroles to graduation. Moroles was 91-of-132 for 1,083 passing yards and nine touchdowns. He also ran for 772 yards (7.6 yards per carry) and 11 scores.

Wiker and the Wolves’ coaches have a pair of inexperienced quarterbacks vying for the starting job in senior Nick Faunce and freshman Riley Cowan.

“They both have a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses; these are definitely more pocket passers,” Wiker says, noting Sequim’s two most recent QBs — Moroles and Jack Wiker — were more apt to run than Faunce or Cowan.

The Sequim coach says that, particularly in the first two or three games, the pair will share reps at quarterback, but that Cowan may see more action because Faunce also is one of the team’s better options at wide receiver.

Whoever makes the throws also will have top receiver Bailey Earley back on the field, a 6-foot 4-inch target who caught a team-high 37 passes for 428 yards and five touchdowns last fall on his way to a first team all-league pick, plus Ethan Richmond, the team’s No. 3 option at receiver in 2014.

The Wolves get a slew of senior running backs returning, including Brandon Stamper, Mark Feeney and Arnold Black-Langston, plus fullback Chris Whitaker and all-purpose player Gavin Velarde. Whitaker was third on the team in rushing (203 yards) while Velarde was fifth (159) and Stamper sixth (139). Despite weighing in at more than 200 pounds, Black-Langston may be the fastest of the group, Wiker says.

Several Sequim running backs suffered major injuries last season — including Whitaker’s broken leg — but all are back on the field minus Ty Jones, the Wolves’ fourth-leading rusher.

That host of experienced rushers gives the Wolves some good options as the team goes back to a more traditional spread offense.

Boosting that offense will be an upper classmen-laden offensive line with stalwarts like Jack Ellison, Matthew Shock, Nathan Allison and Zach Hebert leading the way.

On the other side of the ball, Whitaker — an all-league first teamer — heads a linebacking corps that also features Feeney and Stamper, each of whom Wiker says has a “nose for the ball.”

The secondary lost all-league first team defensive back Dylan Lott, so returners Richmond, Ben Hughes, Kane Stoddard look to anchor the backfield.

Looking ahead

The 2015 schedule is a near mirror-image of 2014, with home-and-away dates flopped. That means the class 2A Wolves opens with a pair of non-leaguers against 1A foes Chimacum (Sept. 4) and Coupeville (Sept. 11) before starting Olympic League play.

Last season, Sequim won those games by a combined score of 87-39.

The Wolves went on to rack up four wins and lost three others in heartbreaking fashion, two in overtime. Coming off a winless 2013 season, the Wolves earned a playoff tiebreaker berth in 2014, one they lost to Port Angeles 6-0.

“A lot of football is confidence,” Wiker says. “If we go and play (powerhouses like) Lynden and Meridian, we don’t have a season like the last one.”

While league champ North Kitsap and runner-up Olympic managed to separate themselves from the pack last fall, it was a mad scramble between North Mason, Kingston, Port Angeles and Sequim for third and fourth places.

Wiker expects a true dogfight for a league crown this fall

“I think it’s going to be a lot like that (last season),” he says. “I think everybody’s in it.”

Reach Michael Dashiell at editor@sequimgazette.com.