Coupeville Sports

Cole Payne elevates to haul in a Ramon Booker pass. (John Fisken photos)

Payne catches a rampaging Redskin runner.

What do you say about a 58-0 loss?

As little as possible.

Things went badly for the Coupeville High School JV football squad right from the start Monday, when visiting Port Townsend broke through the line and ripped off an 80-yard-plus touchdown run on the first play of the game.

Only 19 seconds had run off the game clock (under the direction of tennis ace Brian Norris, standing in for dad Joel Norris, the maestro of varsity game clock management), and, after the ensuing two-point conversion, an 8-0 deficit that was just the start of the pain.

But there were bright moments during a game that ended with a running clock and falling rain splattering on a decently-sized crowd of Wolf fans and an ever-optimistic group of cheerleaders such as Bella Cedillo, Lainey Dickson and Fiona Bernhardt, who never left their posts and remained loud and proud until the final seconds.

Even with Wolf quarterbacks Ramon Booker and Joel Walstad spending most of the game scrambling away from Redskin tacklers, Coupeville did have some success with its passing attack.

Cole Payne and Anthony Bergeron were the primary targets and both pulled off dandy plays, with the duo also sparkling with big defensive plays.

Payne worked relentlessly on both sides of the field, combining slashing runs and big-time catches under considerable pressure with some nasty licks while trying to stop Port Townsend’s run-heavy offense.

Bergeron made one beautiful catch where he touched the skies, out-jumping two defenders, and also picked off a pass while in the secondary.

Also showing promise were the Mitchells, as freshman Mitchell Carroll teed off on the Redskins, while sophomore Mitchell Losey ran hard, busting through several tackles on a strong 11-yard run in the first quarter.

Topping it all off was the hustle and helmet-crackin’ hits of newcomer Colin Belliveau. How new is he? Even his coaches weren’t 100% sure of his last name at first.

After seeing him light up Port Townsend runners on back-to-back plays near the end of a blowout loss, they’ll learn his name, however.