Seniors Nick Streubel (left) and Jake Tumblin in their final moments as Wolf teammates. (Shannon Tumblin photo)
It was a good night to be a Wolf.
Capping their season with a good old fashioned butt-whuppin’, the Coupeville High School football squad ran for more than 400 yards Friday night as they crushed visiting Chimacum 54-0.
315 of those yards went to senior Jake Tumblin, but it was the one yard covered by fellow senior Raymond Beiriger that got the biggest roar.
Tumblin, back after missing a game with a concussion, carried the ball 23 times and scored four times, topping the 1,000 yard rushing barrier in just five games.
Hampered by injuries all season, when he was on the field, there was no more explosive running back in the land.
But while he ripped off scoring runs of 65, 12, 12 and four yards against the Cowboys, it was a long run where Tumblin went down at the one-yard line under his own power that set up the emotional heartbeat of the night.
That gave CHS coach Tony Maggio the chance to give the ball to Beiriger for the first time this season, rewarding an undersized, never-say-die kid for his unflagging commitment to the Wolf program.
After following his line into the end zone, a very happy #23 was lifted up and carried off by his teammates.
True to his nature, after the game, while teammates posed for pictures, Beiriger hustled equipment off the field before stopping to talk.
“It was the best moment for me in football, ever,” Beiriger said.
The skinny kid who everyone was always trying to get to eat a sandwich said “football has toughened me up” and now has plans to look into what it would take to get into movie stunt work after graduation.
The Wolves, who opened and closed their season with big shutout wins, finished 4-5, doubling their win total from a season ago.
Not bad for a team that was continually beset by injuries, with Tumblin, fellow running back Lathom Kelley, top linemen Nick Streubel and Carson Risner and starting quarterback Gunnar Langvold all missing chunks of time.
They took out a lot of frustration on an undermanned Chimacum squad, running at will through a porous defense. Josh Bayne backed Tumblin up with 71 yards on seven carries, Brett Arnold ran for a smash-mouth 34 on four carries and Langvold scored twice on quarterback keepers.
With the running game working to perfection, Langvold only went to the air once, but it was a beauty, as he hit Bayne in mid-stride with a laser for a key 13-yard gain.
With Risner in street clothes and his replacement at center, senior Joey Edwards, taken to the hospital mid-game with a concussion and separated shoulder, junior Matt Shank stepped in and stepped up.
Shank was virtually flawless while playing out of position on the line, while using his lanky basketball height to reach up and smack down a pass that Tumblin then picked off. He also blasted up the middle to blow up another play for a big loss.
That was a frequent theme, as Streubel and Oscar Liquidano caved in the line on a regular basis, while Wade Schaef stepped in front of a wobbly pass for a pick that he took back 40 yards for a touchdown.
The game was over by halftime, with Coupeville up 40-0 and the Wolves did their best to take their foot off the pedal as a running clock kept things hopping in the second half.
Frustrated at the end, Chimacum picked up a handful of penalties, with one player booted from the game by a suddenly irate ref.
For Coupeville, however, it was a night of pure fun.
Former players like Danny Savalza and Kole Kellison swung by the press box to gently harass Tom Eller, back behind the announcer’s microphone for the first time in years, while Andy Walker laid down a goosebumps-inducing performance of the “Star Spangled Banner” to kick the night off.
Oh yes, and senior Wolf cheerleader Mekare Bowen, who I have seen grow from an astonishingly talented little girl to an extraordinarily talented young woman, promised to bake me cookies.
That? That was easily the most important part of the evening, hands down.
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