La Conner youth football team plays for league championship Saturday

Some La Conner midgets have done big things this fall.

The La Conner youth football midget team has advanced to the league championship clash with Friday Harbor at Anacortes High School this Saturday after blanking Lakewood 6-0 in semifinal action last weekend.

Duron Cayou-Clark scored the game’s lone touchdown, propelling La Conner into the 1 p.m. Nov. 6 title contest.

La Conner and Friday Harbor split their two-game regular season North Cascade Youth Football League series. Friday Harbor shut out La Conner 44-0 when the teams met on San Juan Island. La Conner came back to avenge that loss with a 14-6 victory at home.

Similarly, La Conner had lost 19-0 to Lakewood before returning the favor last Saturday.

“The most satisfying part of this season,” said La Conner head coach Ernie Almaraz, who is assisted by Eddie Almaraz, Luis Almaraz and Ted Edge, “is how this team is able to come back.

“I remember our first game with Friday Harbor when we got beat and how on the ferry ride back Eddie and I talked and shuffled some things around to make it work,” Ernie Almaraz told the Weekly News, “and to our surprise the team bought into the program and went on a five-game winning streak.”

That included the rematch over Friday Harbor.

The La Conner team is comprised primarily of nine and 10-year-olds and includes Sophia Edwards, who has established herself as an impact player on both the offensive and defensive lines.

“Sophia’s presence and energy is huge for the team,” Danielle Reynolds, whose son, Ryan, is the team’s quarterback, said on Sunday. “She was unable to play the week before against Lakewood and the players didn’t know she was playing yesterday. When she got to the game, they all lit up and were so excited.”

Their coaches, meanwhile, have been equally excited by the team’s steady progress throughout the season.

“I was not expecting this kind of success,” Ernie Almaraz admitted. “The reason being is we have 15 players and nine of those are first-year players who have never played football.”

He said that level of success is due to a true team effort on and off the field.

“This year’s success,” he stressed, “is due to all my coaches teaching them to play the game and to the parents for bringing them to practice, staying for two hours and traveling to Friday Harbor, Granite Falls and Lakewood in the early morning for (Saturday) games.

“And two people I would be lost without,” he added, “are Danielle Reynolds, who is our team mom and is there to make sure someone is volunteering to bring snacks or printing off rosters or giving kids rides to and from games and Brad Reynolds, who always is gracious enough to film our games so we can study what we did wrong and adjust our game plan.”

That game plan worked to perfection in the playoff win over Lakewood. Jose “Yandel” Rosales-Rojas preserved the shutout for La Conner when he chased down a Lakewood ball carrier from behind and thwarted what would have been a game-tying touchdown.

Rosales-Rojas’ play was typical of the effort La Conner coaches have seen from their players.

“This year has been fun,” Ernie Almaraz said. “This group of players have heart and it’s been a pleasure coaching them.”