Jared Dickson (88) and Anthony Maggio (78) lead the Wolves into battle during Senior Night. The conditions were much rainier and less hospitable in Blaine. (Robert Pelant photo)
Hopefully Halloween is sweet for the Wolves, because huge chunks of the day before were pretty sour.
Playing in non-stop rain Tuesday night in Blaine that made it hard to hold onto the ball, the Coupeville High School football team fell 34-6 to Meridian in a game that, somewhat mercifully, was only a half.
The loss ended the Wolves playoff hopes (if they had won, they would have returned to the field to play another half, this time against Blaine), but they will pick up a final regular season game Saturday, Nov. 3.
Coupeville (2-7) will hop the ferry and play Chimacum (4-5) in a non-conference tilt at Port Townsend’s stadium at 5 PM.
Against Meridian, the Wolves fell behind early, trailing 13-0 after the opening quarter. It didn’t get much better from there.
Coupeville rotated three players — Jake Tumblin, Gunnar Langvold and Josh Bayne — through the quarterback position, but all three had trouble holding on to the slick ball, with one bobbled snap being picked up and returned for a touchdown by the Meridian defense.
Down 27-0, the Wolves, a run-orientated team, went to the air almost exclusively and Tumblin connected with Riley Boyd on a pair of dynamic throws.
On the first one, Boyd came back to the ball, then juked a couple of Meridian defenders out of their shoes on his way to a 40-yard catch-and run. Then he hauled in a big-time gut check of a catch, splitting two defenders and holding on to the ball for dear life as he got smashed from both sides.
Fellow Wolf receiver Wade Schaef also made a strong play, snaring a ball along the sideline a fraction of a second before he got knocked head-over-heels out of bounds. Undaunted by the blow, Schaef sprang back up, flipped the ball to the ref, then shot back onto the field, never missing a beat.
Langvold eventually connected with Wiley Hesselgrave on a short touchdown pass to get the Wolves on the scoreboard. After a two-point conversion fell just inches short, Coupeville successfully pulled off an onside kick, as Bayne dropped the ball into a gap and let a swarm of his teammates pound the stuffing out of the first Meridian player to touch the ball.
Unfortunately, the Wolves offense stalled, as running back Brett Arnold got lit up on a vicious hit that left him half covered in mud and limping gingerly, and Coupeville turned the ball over on downs.
From there, Meridian ran the clock out and retreated to the locker room to catch a few breaths before facing off with a fired-up Blaine squad whose fans accounted for the majority of the three-quarters full stands.
All the fans in the stands couldn’t help the host school, however, as Meridian stayed hot after its win over Coupeville, nipping the Borderites 15-14 to eliminate Blaine and earn the night’s one available berth to tri-districts.
[…] Here’s how it looked from the ‘Ville’s perspective. […]
To correct who made the only touchdown of the game it was number 89 Wiley Hesselgrave. The announcer of the game made a mistake and announced that it was number 88.
Thanks for the heads-up, Lori! I changed it. The Blaine announcer stumbled often last night. He announced the TD as being thrown by Jake Tumblin, but I could see that it was Gunnar. With the receiver, they were buried under a pile of wet, muddy bodies. Nice to know Wiley got his first varsity TD!