Coupeville Sports

Cole Payne lays down the law: “We’re gonna run right through there, 200 times!!” (John Fisken photo)

Boom! Chew on this, Langley.

Three days after a Homecoming loss, the Coupeville High School JV football team went South Monday and used a bruising ground game to earn some redemption, shredding South Whidbey 14-13.

The second win in a row for the Wolves, it was sparked by Jacob Martin’s feet, a ferocious offensive line and a ton of big-time plays at just the right moments. Maybe even better, it was that genuine article, a TEAM win.

“Most important to me is the willingness to put the WE before the ME,” said CHS coach Dustin Van Velkinburgh. “We did a lot of that tonight as we saw kids who deserved time on the field take a step back and told us coaches to use others as THEY felt it gave us a better chance to win.

“Watching these kids wanting to play for one another and fight for one another is very rewarding,” he added. “And I could not be more proud of them.”

Martin, just a freshman, ran wild, rolling up close to 200 yards and scoring both a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

Running behind five sophomores who “controlled the line of scrimmage and opened gaping holes all night long,” he also benefited from the blocking of wing Cole Payne and big, bad Xavier Clark, who saw his first action at fullback and was “a human battering ram.”

When they went to the air, the Wolves got huge catches from a variety of players, with Tyree Booker, Anthony Bergeron and Mitchell Carroll hauling in key receptions.

Bergeron put Coupeville on the board early, when he hauled in a five-yard touchdown pass from Joel Walstad, while Booker was a two-way star, breaking up what could have been a Falcon touchdown right before the half.

He and his teammates stepped up their biggest when the spotlight was brightest, stopping South Whidbey three times inside the five-yard line with less than two minutes to play.

Coupeville then brought extreme pressure on the Falcon kicker, who shanked a field goal try wide left.

“The defense played a very well rounded game,” Van Velkinburgh said. “Nice to see things starting to click and every position at one point or another made great and important plays.”