Coupeville Sports

Lathom Kelley carried the rushing load for CHS Monday night. (Melissa Zimmerman-Losey photo)

It was not the most pleasant of evenings.

With a gusty, cold, highly persistent wind slicing through the scattered, but very loyal, fans in the stands and a pack of officials who seemingly had just discovered they had flags and wanted to throw them as many times as they could, Monday night’s Coupeville High School JV football game was a bit of an ordeal.

Those who did stay until the bitter end of a narrow 14-6 loss to visiting South Whidbey were treated to some smash-mouth running by freshman back Lathom Kelley, an interception (and nearly two more) by Anthony Bergeron and a touchdown-saving tackle by Mitchell Losey in which he caught the Falcon runner from behind and whipped him down like a cowboy preparing to brand a calf.

Plus, there were the rich, velvety tones of play-by-play men Caleb Valko and Kole Kellison, who, sheltered from the wind in the press box, had a great time doing a running comedy routine.

South Whidbey jumped on Coupeville quickly, scoring a touchdown less than a minute into the game on a short run to the left. The Wolves grabbed a brief bit of redemption, however, blocking the extra point attempt.

After Bergeron’s interception blunted a second Falcon drive, Coupeville put together a drive sustained by runs from Kelley and Wiley Hesselgrave, a nice pass from Dalton Martin to Matt Hampton and a key face mask penalty on South Whidbey. Kelley then plunged in with the game-tying score with about four minutes left in the first half.

The Falcons threatened in the waning moments of the half, but after Bergeron almost nabbed errant passes on two straight plays, Carson Risner blew through the line and sacked the flustered quarterback to end the half.

A tight game then fell apart on the opening kickoff of the second half, when Coupeville fumbled a pooch punt that was caught by the wind. With the ball back in their hands, South Whidbey used a series of short runs to batter the Wolf ‘d’, before punching in what would become the game-winning score.

Coupeville had one last opportunity, when they recovered a fumble in the game’s final three minutes and began to drive for a potential tying score. Unfortunately, just as they seemed to be in rhythm, the over-active refs threw a big flag on the Wolves and, driven back a considerable distance by the zebras, Coupeville eventually turned the ball over on downs.