Mitchell Carroll had the biggest hit of the night, flattening Klahowya’s QB for a teeth-rattling sack. (John Fisken photo)
It was kind of classless, and sort of fitting.
Capping a chippy, flag-riddled game Friday night, the Klahowya High School football squad, the clubhouse leader in face mask and late hit penalties, chose the lesser of two paths in the final moments, opting to punch in a meaningless touchdown instead of taking a knee up by 10 with 25 seconds to play.
The move gave the visiting Eagles a 29-13 victory over Coupeville, and might give the illusion to those who weren’t at Mickey Clark Field that the game was a blowout.
Which is far from the truth.
And you know what? Whether you won 29-13 or 23-13, here’s a quick piece of advice, Klahowya. Port Townsend ain’t gonna be impressed, either way.
The Redhawks, who demolished winless Chimacum 58-0 Friday to run their record to 5-0 (they’ve outscored opponents 255-6) are rolling through the 1A Olympic League this season.
So the match-up between Klahowya (now 3-2 overall, 2-1 in league) and Coupeville (1-4, 1-2) was a consolation prize, with the winner taking the inside lane on the league’s #2 playoff spot.
As such, it was an orgy of hard hits, defensive gems from the Wolf secondary and a whole lot of tusslin’.
Flags dropped from the skies with more frequency than the third-quarter rain drops, and they stung both sides.
A whole lot of yappin’ and a whole lot of late and flagrant hits, from both sides, set the tone of the game.
And up until the final moments it was a game either squad could have won.
Zane Bundy’s second field goal of the night, a 32-yarder that he whacked about 42 yards, pulled Coupeville to within 17-13, a score that held until the game’s final six minutes.
Klahowya broke through for good when Eagle quarterback George Harris blasted in from two yards out with 6:01 on the clock, capping a drive that was greatly aided by a face mask penalty on the Wolves.
Catching a mini-break when Klahowya misfired on the PAT, Coupeville took over down by 10 and started to make things happen. And then didn’t.
The Wolves had four consecutive gains, highlighted by an 18-yard pass from Gabe Eck to Ty Eck, erased by penalties.
Every time they surged forward, they shot themselves in the foot in the next breath, finally sputtering out and turning the ball over on downs.
The Eagles mixed in two short runs with Coupeville burning its final timeouts, then Harris whipped a 45-yard pass to drive the ball down to the five.
With no way to stop the clock, the Wolves could do little else but watch Klahowya take a knee and run out the game.
Except that wasn’t in the game plan, apparently.
To their credit, the Wolf defense immediately stepped back up and resoundingly blocked the extra point, preventing the Eagles from cracking the 30-point barrier.
Still, it’s hard not to look at Klahowya’s coaching staff and say, “Really?”
The game, the first at home for Coupeville after four straight road trips, had kicked off with a true back-and-forth feel.
The Eagles opened the scoring on a safety when a bad snap left Wolf punter Clay Reilly a sitting duck in the end zone, but the Wolves jumped right back into things on a five-yard scoring run from Wiley Hesselgrave.
Hesselgrave, who powered his way to 102 yards on the ground by repeatedly slamming head-first into would-be tacklers, paced Coupeville’s best running attack of the season.
The Wolves collected 217 yards as a team, with Lathom Kelley gutting out a season-high 91 to back up Hesselgrave.
Klahowya retook the lead on back-to-back second quarter touchdowns, but the opportunistic Wolf defense refused to buckle.
Sophomore Hunter Smith made off with a pair of interceptions, running his season total to four, while Hesselgrave also had a pick and Jordan Ford returned a fumble 20+ yards.
Bundy hit a 27-yard field goal at the halftime buzzer to cut the lead to 17-10, then provided the only scoring in the third quarter with his second field goal.
Kelley (14 tackles) and Hesselgrave (11) led the Wolf tackling machine, while the game’s best play might have come courtesy Mitchell Carroll.
The Wolf junior came crashing around the left side of the line to decimate Harris for a first quarter sack that rattled the Eagle quarterback.
He suffered the first of his three interceptions on the very next play, as Smith went airborne to rip the ball away from a Klahowya receiver.
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