Cameron Toomey-Stout picked off two passes Friday as Coupeville blanked South Whidbey 18-0. (John Fisken photo)
Wolf fans came out in force, making the trek to Langley to cheer on their team. (Kim Bepler photos)
Sean Toomey-Stout’s fan club responds to his game-busting fourth quarter 57-yard touchdown catch and run.
Wolf QB Hunter Downes holds The Bucket after Coupeville beat South Whidbey for the third time in four years.
The Bucket stays in Cow Town.
Coupeville’s gridiron seniors will depart having beaten arch nemesis South Whidbey three times in four seasons after upending the Falcons 18-0 Friday night in Langley.
The season-opening non-conference win, arriving on the night SWHS renamed its football field in honor of former longtime coach Jim Leierer, gives the Wolves back-to-back victories in the clash of Island rivals.
Coming on the heels of a 41-10 win in Coupeville last year, CHS head coach Jon Atkins improved to a flawless 2-0 against the Falcons.
Overall, the Wolves have won four of the last six meetings, also winning in 2012 and 2014 under Tony Maggio.
This time around it was a tale of two defenses slugging it out, as the game went 38+ minutes without a score.
Coupeville, having held South Whidbey out of the end zone on nine consecutive possessions, finally broke the game open early in the fourth quarter.
The Wolves, with the ball in their own hands for the ninth time, struck when QB Hunter Downes dropped a gorgeous throw on a dime into the waiting hands of Hunter Smith in the left corner of the end zone.
The scoring throw, coming at the 9:54 mark of the fourth quarter, instantly changed the flow of the game.
Three plays later Jake Pease jumped on a fumble recovery for CHS, and then Downes and his receiving corps went back to work in the blink of an eye.
On the first play after the fumble, Downes threaded a short pass into the arms of Sean Toomey-Stout, who promptly blew up the tiring Falcon defense.
Shedding would-be tacklers with every fleet-footed step, the speedy sophomore ducked, bobbed, weaved, then hit an extra gear and was off to the races, leaving everyone in his wake as he roared 57 yards to the waiting end zone.
While Coupeville’s ensuing two-point conversion failed (the Wolves were 0-2 on conversions and had an extra point attempt blocked after touchdown #3), a 12-0 lead was more than enough for the riled-up CHS defense.
After forcing another turnover on downs — Smith read a fourth down pass perfectly and knocked it away from the receiver at the last millisecond — Coupeville capped the scoring with a KO punch.
Sitting at its own 11-yard line with the clock running under three minutes, the Wolves went semi-conservative, with Downes slapping a hand-off into Smith’s never-gonna-fumble hands.
While CHS would have settled for a couple of yards, a cloud of dust and a chunk of change run off the clock, Smith had other ideas.
Spinning to the right, he hung motionless for just a second, perhaps giving older brother CJ time to cock an eyebrow in appreciation up in the stands, then bolted to daylight.
Running like the state meet-bound track sprinter he can never be (he loves baseball too much), the silky senior ripped off 89 yards in a few effortless strides, only slowing at the end as he flipped the ball to the ref a moment before he was mobbed by his teammates.
Smith, who broke Chad Gale’s school career receiving yardage record on his opening catch of the game, a 12-yard snag early in the first quarter, also busted out a 52-yard reception right before halftime.
It was a game of big plays for Coupeville, even when it was struggling to break into the scoring column.
Matt Hilborn pulled off a replay-worthy catch, hauling in a 21-yard bomb from Downes while simultaneously splitting two defenders and executing a picture-perfect slide.
Meanwhile, Sean Toomey-Stout tore off 32 yards on a reversal early in the third quarter, while big brother Cameron was lights out in the defensive backfield.
The elder Toomey-Stout made off with two third-quarter interceptions (the second eventually set up the Wolves first touchdown), while also chasing down wayward Falcons on both sides of the field.
While the picks were huge, his explosive tackle on a fourth quarter kick-off, in which he went airborne and just about ripped the cleats off the guy unlucky enough to touch the ball first, drew much hootin’ and hollerin’ from a collection of former Wolf coaches in the crowd.
And he wasn’t the only Coupeville defender to earn oohs and ahs.
Jake Hoagland shut down a Falcon drive, jumping on a fumble, while Dane Lucero ended another South Whidbey possession by chasing down the rival QB in the backfield on fourth down.
Falcon signal caller Greyson Clements was an elusive target all night, prone to scrambling away for a few yards here, a few more there.
But, when they could get their hands on him, Lucero and fellow linemen Julian Welling and Trevor Bell rode him down into the grass with a cold fury.
As his players soaked in the win, Atkins pointed to the play of his defense as key.
“Getting a shutout in the first game is big time; our defense played huge for us,” he said. “That was great to see.
“It took us a little while to get going (on offense), but once we started executing and staying with our blocks, things got better,” Atkins added. “We just need to go forward, fix the little things, and keep working.”
Coupeville returns home next Friday, Sept. 8, when it hosts La Conner, which is ranked #6 in the state among 2B schools. That game will be the season-opener for the Braves.
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