Ben Smith had an interception and a fumble recovery Friday night, though the reffing crew only upheld one. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Freshman Scott Hilborn (with ball), seen here in an earlier game, had two receptions Friday for 46 yards. (Stephanie Martin photo)
The refs were bad, often ridiculously so, that is true.
But they’re not the reason the Coupeville High School football team lost Friday night.
Give Friday Harbor some credit. They dictated play on both sides of the ball, abusing the Wolf defense and largely muffling its offense.
You don’t win 53-7, as the host Wolverines did, simply because the refs lost their rule book, their seeing-eye dogs, and their ability to form coherent thoughts.
Though that certainly doesn’t help.
However you cut it, Coupeville took a beating — often physically, as several key players were bruised and battered — and the Wolves will need to have short memories as they return home for a match-up next week with La Conner.
Now 1-2 during a season when all their games will be non-conference ones, CHS is not going to enjoy watching the game film from this jaunt to the far-flung San Juan Islands.
Friday Harbor rarely threw a pass, content to run, run some more, than keep on ramming the ball right through the heart of the Coupeville defense.
Four different Wolverine players hit pay-dirt with a rushing touchdown, with juniors Kyson Jackson (3) and Kaden Ritchie (2) combining to score the first five.
Toss in late scoring runs for Connor Haines and Mateo Blackmon, packaged around a defensive touchdown off a fumble recovery brought back 50+ yards, and Friday Harbor had little trouble scoring.
The hometown cheerleaders, who did push-ups for every point scored, got their own workout and may be as sore as Coupeville’s defenders are likely to be after the mauling.
There was a moment, very brief, when it appeared it might be a close game.
Down two scores, CHS found new life on offense and drove 62 yards in six plays for its lone score, cutting the margin to 14-7 with almost four minutes left in the first quarter.
The turnaround came thanks to a couple of precision passes from senior Wolf quarterback Dawson Houston, who hit three different receivers on the drive.
He opened with a slick pass to freshman Scott Hilborn, who made a sweet cutback on the ensuing run to shed several would-be tacklers en route to a 25-yard pick-up.
A catch over the middle by Sean Toomey-Stout picked up 19 more yards, before one of the few penalties called on Friday Harbor shoved Coupeville all the way down to the eight-yard line.
Houston pegged a ball to Gavin Knoblich, and the long ‘n lanky receiver reached behind himself while on the move to make a fairly sensational one-handed snag on the ball.
It was the third touchdown reception this season for the senior, and Coupeville was especially hurt later in the game when Knoblich went to the sideline after having his bell rung.
He never re-entered, and his absence put a huge crimp in the Wolf passing attack.
In the moment, after celebrating Knoblich’s catch, CHS added the extra point thank to a booming PAT kick off the foot of freshman Daylon Houston, and it looked like a back-and-forth affair might break out.
That was quickly squashed, however, as Friday Harbor scored the game’s final 39 points across the second and third quarters.
A short TD run by Ritchie pushed the deficit out to 20-7, and then the refs completely whiffed on a call which turned out to be a killer.
Unable to get its own offense moving downfield, Coupeville was forced to punt, and watched in horror as the kick was blocked.
That’s when things got weird.
As the ball came back down, a Friday Harbor player snatched it up out of mid-air, was hit and fumbled the ball, which was then recovered by Coupeville’s Ben Smith.
But, after a meeting of the “minds” by the reffing crew, Friday Harbor was handed the ball to the consternation of the Wolf coaches.
It wasn’t the most-livid the CHS staff would be – that came later, when Hilborn was decked on a blatant helmet-to-helmet shot while the entire reffing crew swallowed its whistles.
Until 15 seconds after the play was finished, when they handed out a penalty … to the Coupeville bench for protesting too much about the fact their freshman running back had just had his head ripped off on an illegal hit.
But while the refs certainly gave no favors to the Wolves, Friday Harbor does what Friday Harbor does – play hard every snap, hit ferociously on defense and pound away on offense.
Given the ball, they rammed it down the field, and there was little Coupeville could do on this night to stop the Wolverines.
When you collect less than 100 yards on offense as a team, while the other squad rips off 10 and 12-yard rambles on almost every run, you’re very, very likely to lose.
After Coupeville’s lone scoring drive, the Wolves only collected a handful of highlights.
Smith, bouncing back from having the fumble recovery taken away from him, pulled off his first high school interception, picking off a super-rare Friday Harbor pass right before halftime.
The Wolves also showed a nice bit of grit as a running clock blew out the fourth quarter.
For the one and only time in the game, Coupeville held Friday Harbor, forcing a turnover on downs, and they did it by stopping not a JV runner, but by stepping up and rejecting Ritchie as he tried to blast over the middle.
Wolf senior Andrew Martin, who gutted out a strong defensive effort in the trenches while battling through a variety of bumps, dinged knees and swollen hands, led the stand, body-slamming the Friday Harbor runner to the ground to end the drive.
Houston, who also delivered several long punts, completed five passes for 79 yards, accounting for virtually all of Coupeville’s offense, with Hilborn (2-46), Toomey-Stout (2-25), and Knoblich (1-8) his targets.
Martin was the top rusher, with 19 hard-earned yards against a Friday Harbor defense which offered few holes.
