This is a good guess at how Tony Maggio is going to look the rest of the night, after getting his first win as a head coach.
Christmas came early and Josh Bayne was Coupeville’s very own Santa Claus.
Starting at quarterback for the injured Gunnar Langvold, Bayne was electric on both sides of the ball Friday night, scoring touchdowns on an interception return and a 55-yard reverse that buckled the defense. With teammates Brett Arnold and Bryce Fleming each scoring twice and Jake Tumblin punching it into a gear never previously seen before on a sense-shattering 67-yard sprint to the end zone, the Wolves battered visiting Orcas Island every way humanly possible.
The final score of 47-14 left them dancing in the aisles, and yet the first win in the Tony Maggio era could have been even more of a blowout.
Blasting off both sides of the ball, the Wolves made short work of their undermanned non-conference foes. They ran virtually unchecked all night, busting tackles and sometimes carrying the Vikings along with them as they chewed up yardage.
Quick scores on runs by Arnold and Fleming staked Coupeville to a 14-0 lead. Orcas cut it to a one-touchdown lead with a score right before the end of the first quarter, but then the Wolves opened up a can of whup-ass in the second twelve minutes.
On fourth and four, Arnold blew up the defense for a 45-yard touchdown run, a spirited defense sparked by Caleb Valko, Nick Streubel, Carson Risner, Ben Haight and Danny Savalza started crushing a harried Orcas quarterback on a regular basis, and then wham-bam, Coupeville tossed in scores on a 32-yard run by Fleming and Bayne’s drive-blunting pick six.
The defense wasn’t done, either, with Bayne and Kole Kellison each picking off another pass as Orcas tried to go to the air in desperation.
And while the secondary was doing its job, the Wolf line set the tone for the night. Streubel erupted through two defenders to haul down a runner in the backfield for a loss at one point and Valko spent most of his night behind the Orcas linemen, as he routinely shoved them aside in pursuit of the ball carrier.
The only bump in the road were hard blows that knocked sophomore defensive end Aaron Wright and Arnold a bit loopy, but both players were able to leave the field under their own power and didn’t seem to have any lingering issues.
With a huge lead coming out of halftime, Coupeville refused to take its foot off the pedal. After softening up an already soft defense with a couple of quick jabs from Tumblin, the Wolves ran a reverse to Bayne, who motored half the field for his second score of the night.
Just to make sure no one had fallen asleep, Tumblin took off on the very first snap of the fourth quarter and outran the screams from his rooting section, as he broke the sound barrier, tiptoeing down the left sideline (as fast as you can humanly tiptoe, that is) for Coupeville’s final score.
Not even a string of ticky-tacky fouls in the late going — as the refs seemed to believe the only way to stop the Wolves was to throw yellow flags at them — could ruin the evening. By that time the Coupeville assistant coaches were poaching the player’s orange wedges three at a time and a giddy Savalza was about to commandeer a microphone to ask his girlfriend to Homecoming.
The Wolves had won, and all was right in the land for a night.
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