Jake Mitten, seen here in an earlier game, scored four touchdowns Wednesday in an overtime thriller. (John Fisken photo)
It was a thriller that kept you guessing until the final play.
A rainy day turned halfway nice, if predictably windy, Wednesday afternoon, allowing Coupeville and Chimacum ample opportunity to wage a knock-down, drag-out middle school battle on the gridiron.
By the time it was done, with the visiting Cowboys pulling out a 35-34 thriller in overtime, there had been something for everyone.
Big pass plays, last second escapes, even a Wolf coach wiping out on the muddy sideline and crashing into the team bench.
The game ended when Chimacum’s line shoved Coupeville’s defense back into the end zone on an extra point conversion run, giving the Cowboys the slimmest of margins.
With the game knotted at 28-28, after Chimacum had pulled off a fourth-down miracle with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter to force the extra period, the two squads took turns trying to punch the ball in from the 10-yard line.
The Wolves had the ball first in OT and hammered the ball in on fourth and goal, with Jake Mitten plunging around the right side for his fourth score of the afternoon.
But, on the ensuing extra point attempt, the Wolves couldn’t get the snap down for kicker Sage Downes and Chimacum players swarmed through the line to smush holder Dakota Eck.
With the ball in their own hands, the Cowboys took one play to score a touchdown — on a run up the middle — and one play to end things, ramming home the game’s final point behind a cloud of dust.
The frantic overtime action capped a game with five lead changes, and a miracle at the end of regulation.
Coupeville had gone ahead 28-20 with three-and-a-half minutes to play thanks to a three-yard scoring run from Mitten and a successful PAT kick from Downes.
Middle school football rewards teams with two for a kick and one for a run or pass on extra point plays — the opposite of high school action — and with Chimacum down by eight and going into the wind, things looked good for the Wolves.
The Cowboys had two miracles (a big one and a very important small one) still in their pocket, however.
First, they slipped a tiny, but quick receiver behind the defense on fourth-and-everything from the 30-yard line, and his TD reception with 47 seconds to play pulled Chimacum to 28-26.
Then, despite kicking into the wind, a burly Cowboy drove the ball through the uprights — by the slimmest of margins — to knot things up.
Somehow, despite there being less than a minute to play in regulation, both teams got the ball back before the buzzer sounded.
Coupeville went four and out and gave Chimacum the ball with 15 seconds to play, then dodged a bullet when Cade Golden tipped away a potential game-winning pass.
With regulation run down, and a ferry awaiting the Cowboys, there was serious discussion at midfield on whether to call the game a tie.
To the delight of players on both sides, and the surprise of onlookers who have grown accustomed to middle school games not being allowed overtime action, the refs shut off the clock and let the teams decide the game on the field.
While Coupeville would have liked to have held on for the win, the Wolf coaches were thrilled to see two similarly-sized schools get a chance to go at it, with neither side backing down.
“They played with their hearts and for each other; loving it!!!,” said CMS head coach Bob Martin. “It was a good day!”
The Wolves stung Chimacum several times, starting with their opening drive.
After watching the Cowboys eat up nearly seven minutes of clock while marching to a touchdown after taking the kick-off, Coupeville responded with its own score in less than 75 seconds.
Eck broke free for a 31-yard sprint to daylight, then Golden hooked up with Mitten on a 25-yard pass play to put CMS on the doorstep.
From there, it was all Ben Smith, as he took a hand-off and scampered around the left side for a two-yard touchdown run.
Mitten dropped a perfect conversion pass into Golden’s waiting arms for the extra point and the Wolves were up 7-6 and off to the races.
Coupeville’s next two touchdowns came through the air, with Golden flinging the ball into the overcast sky and Mitten hauling it in, then churning away for extra yardage.
The first went 32 yards, the second 75 yards.
In between Golden picked off a Cowboy pass — the only turnover in a very cleanly played game.
Thanks to weather issues that erased a game from earlier in the season, the two teams will reunite in a week, this time at Chimacum.
The Nov. 2 clash will bring the middle school football campaign to an end.
