ABERDEEN — A young Forks squad dug out of an early hole in a rowdy atmosphere in its season opener to knock off Class 2A Aberdeen 65-54 on Friday.
“[Aberdeen] started pretty hot,” Spartans coach Rick Gooding said. “We are young and we are going to have to play a litttle more uptempo.
“They made some buckets and broke our press and it was 16-4 [early] and I was wondering if this was what we were going to be.”
Forks settled down and got a balanced team effort for the remainder of the game, Gooding said.
Two players making their varsity debuts had big nights.
Junior Raymond Davis led Forks with 15 points.
“It was nice to get 15 out of Raymond in his first game,” Gooding said. He’s super athletic and he made some jumpers and got to the rack.”
Junior Skyler Steffen had 11 points in his first-ever high school game after dealing with injuries as a freshman and sophomore.
“He came off the bench and had 11 which was awesome,” Gooding said. “He’s been battling injuries his whole high school career. He tore his ACL when he was a freshman and then came back and had really bad shin splints, fractures in his legs, so he wasn’t able to play.”
Gooding said Trey Baysinger scored nine of his 13 points after halftime and point guard Tony Flores had a great night distributing the ball.
“He had the ball in his hands a lot and made good decisions,” Gooding said.
Gooding also said Carter Windle, Riley Pursley and Oscar Gonzalez contributed to the team’s defensive efforts.
“We want those guys to run around and lose their breath in our press and cause chaos without being chaotic,” Gooding said.
“It was a great environment for a first game. Aberdeen has a rowdy crowd, our Forks fans travel well and it was a great Friday night. I tell the kids that games and practices should be the best two hours of our day and that was true [Friday night],” Gooding said.
Forks (1-0) hosts Neah Bay on Tuesday.
Forks 65, Aberdeen 54
Forks 18 14 15 18 — 65
Aberdeen 21 8 11 14 — 54
Forks (65) — Davis 15, Baysinger 13, Steffen 11, Flores 10, Olson 6, Gonzalez 5, Pursley 3, Windle 2, Farias, Kasson-Steffen.
La Conner 83, Neah Bay 66
LA CONNER — The Braves controlled the fourth quarter, outscoring the Red Devils 31-14 to turn a tied game into a comfortable win Friday.
Captain Claplanhoo led Neah Bay with 18 points. Michael Shaw added 12 points and nine rebounds and Darrin Horejsi chipped in 11 points and eight boards for the Red Devils (0-2).
Neah Bay visits Forks on Tuesday.
La Conner 83, Neah Bay 66
Neah Bay 16 15 21 14— 66
La Conner 21 24 7 31— 83
Neah Bay (66) — Claplanhoo 18, Shaw 12, Horejsi 11, Halttunen 9, Lovik 8, Aguirre 7, Soeneke 1, Croy, Vitalis, Chambers.
La Conner (83) — Baker 22, Jolly 20, Olson 18, Cram 13, Porter 7, Knudson 3.
Crescent 46, Lake Quinault 31
AMANDA PARK — The Crescent Loggers got 20 points from Brendan Bergstrom and held Lake Quinault scoreless over the entire first quarter in a 46-31 season-opening win.
Bergstrom shot 61.5 percent (8 for 13) from the field. No one else from the Loggers scored more than five points, but eight different Crescent players scored as the Loggers showed a deep bench behind Bergstrom. Hayden Ferrel and Mason Owens led the team with eight rebounds each. Ferrel also added six steals on defense.
Crescent got out to an 8-0 lead after the first quarter and outscored Lake Quinault 18-12 in the fourth to put the game away.
Crescent (1-0) played Wishkah Valley on Saturday. The Loggers next play at Forks at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Crescent 46, Lake Quinault 31
LQ 0 11 8 12 — 31
Crescent 8 11 9 18 — 46
Crescent (46) — Bergstrom 20, Ferrel 5, Owens 5, Sage 4, Ritchie 4, O’Neel 4, Ward 2, Hale 2.
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Compiled from team reports. Email scores to sports@peninsuladailynews.com or phone 360-417-3525.
