Coupeville Sports

   Wolf QB Gabe Eck scored his first high school touchdown Tuesday night. (John Fisken photo)

From 18 straight losses to the playoffs, in a matter of weeks.

Give Chimacum some credit — even if the Cowboys are going to get creamed in three days — it made a remarkable turnaround and deserves to enjoy this moment.

Capping a resurgence which included late-season wins over Coupeville and Vashon Island, Chimacum officially clinched the 1A Olympic League’s third and final berth to the football postseason with a 20-8 beat-down of the Wolves Tuesday night.

The tiebreaker was a half game played on a neutral field in Sequim.

With the win, the Cowboys (2-7) advance to play defending 1A state champs Cascade Christian in their playoff opener, which (barring a miracle) will also be their closer.

Still, it’s a big turn-around for a school that lost the last two games of 2013, all 10 games in 2014 and the first six of 2015.

The Cowboys broke that streak with a 14-9 win at Coupeville Oct. 16.

When both teams finished 1-5 in league play, the tiebreaker was necessitated.

The Wolves (1-8) will travel to Vashon Island Friday to close their season with a non-conference crossover game.

The Pirates (3-6) also missed the playoffs.

Tuesday’s tiebreaker was a scoreless affair for nearly 15 minutes.

Chimacum put together a solid drive to open things, but missed on a 31-yard field goal, while the Wolves, who were playing without leading rusher Wiley Hesselgrave, had trouble getting untracked on offense.

The Cowboys finally broke through with a four-yard touchdown run with 8:58 left to play.

Coupeville drove downfield and looked like it would punch in the tying score, only to stall out after having a first-and-ten from the Chimacum 11-yard line.

A Cowboy sack hurt badly, and the Wolves misfired on a fourth-down pass play.

Still, Coupeville remained within a touchdown until late in the game, when Chimacum punched in two scores.

The first came with 3:21 to play, then the Cowboys added another touchdown run two minutes later.

With nothing but pride left to play for, the Wolves prevented the shutout when Gabe Eck scored on a quarterback sneak with four ticks left in the tiebreaker.