Wolf QB Nathan Coxsey (left) tossed a touchdown pass Saturday and showed off his wheels with several crowd-pleasing runs. (Photo courtesy Erin Coxsey)
“I’m proud of the way our guys played. It’s a huge positive to see them grow game after game.”
Saturday’s gridiron rumble with visiting Ilwaco didn’t end the way Coupeville High School football coach Bennett Richter would have liked.
A narrow 12-6 loss to a non-conference opponent who made a 400-mile round trip drops the Wolves to 0-3 on the season heading into a bye week.
But there were enough positives from a young team with a limited number of players to keep Richter ready to return to work — after burning off some energy chasing his rambunctious daughter around the field.
The gridiron guru praised the play of young guns such as freshmen Diesel Eck and Maverick Walling while resolutely looking ahead.
Coupeville has no game next week, thanks to an opponent who dropped off the schedule after losing their coach, and will return to action with back-to-back home games October 2 and 9.
First up is Friday Harbor for the first of two meetings between the Northwest 2B/1B League archenemies, followed by the Battle for the Bucket (and Homecoming and Senior Night) with South Whidbey.
The break will give the Wolves a chance to heal up any bangs and bruises, and work some more on fine-tuning their on field product.
Facing off with an Ilwaco team which got to 2-1 with the road win, Coupeville battled until the final moments.
Down by six points in the fourth quarter, the Wolves marched from their own 19-yard line to Ilwaco’s 30 and had a first-and-10 with just under two minutes to go only to see the Fishermen pick off a pass to prematurely end what could have been a game-winning drive.
CHS flew to the ball on the ensuing four plays, with senior lineman Riley Lawless stuffing an Ilwaco runner for a loss, but the visitors got the yardage they needed on a fourth-and-four run and were able to kneel down to run out the clock.
The disappointing finish capped a game which featured a lot of bone-crunching defensive work, and not a lot of scoring.
Ilwaco came equipped with a band and mascots, with the latter putting on a halftime show with a harpoon-wielding scalawag chasing a shark across the turf, while Coupeville softball ace Ava Lucero brought the house down with her pre-game performance of the national anthem.
When her mic failed to work despite repeated tweaking, the two-time “Kapaw’s Iskreme Scooper of the Year” stepped back and let her voice do all the work, her soaring vocals filling Mickey Clark Field and seemingly guaranteeing her a repeat performance at other home games, if she wants to be Cow Town’s answer to Whitney Houston.
Riley Lawless (58) and Avery Eelkema head to the field. (Photo courtesy Mardi Eelkema)
Neither team scored until nearly 24 minutes into the game, as the defenses had the final word.
Wolf senior Davin Houston ended Ilwaco’s opening drive with an interception on a deep bomb, while Coupeville came up empty on its four first-half possessions.
The Wolves picked up yards on runs by Liam Blas, Nathan Coxsey, Richmond Bandong, and Houston, but ultimately turned the ball over on downs twice while coughing up the ball on a fumble and interception the other two times.
Coupeville delivered its own big hits on defense, with Lawless crashing through the line for a sack, Coxsey swatting away a pass, and Ayden Warren forcing a fumble which CHS snatched up.
The game was still knotted at zero-zero when one bad bounce proved fatal for the Wolves.
Having stopped Ilwaco at mid field, Coupeville forced a punt, only to have the ball pop out of the receiver’s hands and into the waiting fingers of a Fisherman coming at full tilt.
With a fresh set of downs and starting at the CHS 16-yard line, Ilwaco used a series of runs to soften the defense, then struck with just three seconds left on the second quarter clock.
Fisherman quarterback Haddox Hazen lofted a four-yard scoring strike to Connor Ryden, and while they failed to convert on the PAT, that was still enough to give the visitors a 6-0 lead heading into the half.
The teams exchanged turnovers to open the third quarter, with Warren forcing another fumble, before the Wolves finally found the end zone.
Houston busted off a 20-yard run, shedding would-be tacklers with every step, then two plays later hauled in a 24-yard touchdown pass from Coxsey, with the ball narrowly evading the arms of an Ilwaco defender.
Coupeville, like its opponent, failed to tack on the PAT, however, leaving the game at 6-6 heading into the final frame.
A five-yard scoring pass from Hazen to Michael Wright with just under nine minutes to play proved to be the difference, though the Wolves denied a two-point conversion pass to keep things close.
That set up Coupeville’s final drive, a 12-play series which featured Coxsey, starting at quarterback for the first time this season, scrambling three times, each time dodging Ilwaco players while picking up first downs.
The Wolf junior ripped off runs of 14, 10, and 19 yards, while also tossing short passes to Carson Grove and Houston, before Ilwaco’s defense rose up to make the decisive, drive-ending play.
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