Gavin Knoblich recovered a fumble and laid down some licks as Coupeville’s defense dominated Friday in a 13-0 win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Nothing broke through Coupeville’s defense Friday night, not the rain, and certainly not Vashon Island.
Well, maybe the deer, but we’ll talk about them later in the story. First to the highlights.
Laying a lickin’ on the visiting Pirates, with big plays from stars and support crew alike, the Wolf football team stuffed Vashon 13-0 in a driving rain storm.
The win, coming in both the first home game for new coach Marcus Carr, and the first varsity gridiron contest played in front of the school’s snazzy new covered grandstand, lifts CHS to 2-0 on the season.
The Wolves got there by essentially punching Vashon in the face, then kneeing the Pirates in the groin once they crashed to the wet turf.
Metaphorically.
Now, I’m not saying Coupeville played unfairly or dirty. Cause it didn’t.
The Wolves picked up just a handful of penalties, and the worst call, for “spearing” on a play where the ref lost his seeing-eye dog in the drizzle, was flat-out bogus.
I’m just saying, on this night, Coupeville honored the spirit of every Wolf who bit his mouth guard in half and went out and whacked someone.
This was for ’90s icon Nick Sellgren. For modern-day beast Wiley Hesselgrave. For Robert “Fat” Engle and the guys who played wearing leather helmets with no face guards in the 1920’s.
Every Wolf lined someone up, hit ’em and let the spit fly where it would on this night.
You knew Sean “The Torpedo” Toomey-Stout would go airborne at some point, launching and obliterating everyone in his path.
That’s a given.
And you knew Alex Turner would rise up, rip a dude’s head off his neck (metaphorically), then dance away into the night.
That’s also a given.
But did you expect Ben Smith to bring down a receiver by knocking him backward, then spinning out his foot, “Karate Kid“-style, to complete the take-down tackle … an act completed as Smith himself landed on his back?
Or, for freshman Miles “Turducken” Davidson to come flying in through an open hole, pop the QB just as he released the ball, and force a wobbly pass that was promptly picked off by Andrew Martin?
After releasing the battered Vashon QB from his grasp, and possibly whispering “aspirin, you’re going to need a lot of it tomorrow, buddy,” Davidson flapped off the field, doing his best turkey dance.
The nickname?
It starts with a tight uniform, then a coach with a sense of humor, who responds to a request for a replacement jersey with “Why? I like it. We’ll call you Turducken … three layers of boy stuffed into one jersey.”
Now, Davidson has embraced the nickname, earning his feathers on a play which caused papa Michael to rattle the bleachers with a proud bellow loud enough to trigger a tsunami warning 50 miles down the coast.
Coupeville’s defense was overpowering, from Ryan Labrador and Dane Lucero blowing up runners behind the line, to freshman cornerback Xavier Murdy breaking up anything thrown his way.
Tack on picks from Toomey-Stout and Martin and fumble recoveries by Gavin Knoblich and Turner, and Vashon likely finished the game with less than 100 yards of offense.
Like a lot, lot less.
Which was great, because Coupeville’s offense, while much more effective at picking up chunks of yardage, had some issues getting the ball in the end zone.
On the opening drive of the game, the Wolves came out and immediately moved down the field with authority, momentarily raising the idea that they would pile up points all night.
But it wasn’t to be.
After a nice kick-off return from Toomey-Stout, Coupeville QB Dawson Houston hooked up with Shane Losey on a picture-perfect 30-yard bomb down the sideline.
Toss in another pass, which was snagged and flipped back on a pitch to “The Torpedo,” and CHS was knocking on the door.
But a pass over the middle on fourth and goal from the seven-yard line narrowly missed its target, and Coupeville’s best scoring opportunity until late in the third quarter evaporated.
The Wolves had the ball five more times in the first half, but couldn’t fully get into gear.
Toomey-Stout brought the fans to their feet when he lobbed a pass that bounced off of Losey’s back and right into the waiting hands of Knoblich on the final play of the half, but, while it provided oohs and ahs, no points came along for the ride.
Coupeville looked like it had broken through on its first possession in the third quarter, only to have a Toomey-Stout touchdown run called back on a holding penalty.
Enter Chris Battaglia, a rugged senior who missed week one and immediately made up for it with hard-nosed running in week two.
Dragging Vashon tacklers behind him, he battered through the defense, crashing into the end zone on a five-yard smash-mouth run up the gut with four-and-a-half minutes to play in the quarter.
While the Wolves were unable to pull off a two-point conversion run, the 6-0 lead would be enough.
Not that they didn’t try and add to it.
A fumble at the one-yard line on the next possession kept the game close, but Coupeville’s defense got nastier as the rain turned fiercer.
The Wolves forced three of their four turnovers in the fourth quarter, a stretch where the Pirates picked up positive yardage on just ONE play in 12 minutes.
Holding the ball on their own 44-yard line with 1:04 to play, and still just up 6-0, the Wolves looked to the sodden heavens for a sign.
It came from the bushes instead, as three deer, a mom and two babies, suddenly ambled across the field, stopping play.
A moment later, a fourth saucy invader appeared and sauntered across the wet grass, stopping for a nibble or three, not giving a dang at all about Friday Night Lights.
The deer had barely vanished into the mist, with Knoblich in hot pursuit, when Toomey-Stout turned out the lights.
Taking a hand-off from Houston, the speed demon junior tore down the right sideline, running over several Vashon defenders, shedding several others, than hitting open air and flipping on the jets in his shoes.
Toomey-Stout’s 56-yard run to touchdown heaven, his third scoring jaunt in two games, seemed likely to be the exclamation point on the night.
Except, Murdy, making his high school debut, promptly mashed the crud out of the ball on the PAT kick, launching it through the rain to splash down somewhere up around Oak Harbor.
Not only did it perfectly split the uprights, but the sonic boom it caused as it went by almost blew over those same uprights.
Cue the oohs and ahs, and a few strains of “Good God, Almighty!!!” from the normally seen-it-all group of coaches and former Wolf stars camped in the new press box.
The X-Man arriveth, and he brings with him Turducken and the boys, an undefeated squad who made Vashon’s tears flow like the rain.
The legend grows.
