Ben Smith rushed for 104 yards, and the winning touchdown, as Coupeville nipped La Conner Saturday in an overtime thriller. (Photo courtesy Deb Smith)
He worked for this. He fought for this. He prayed for this.
When Ben Smith played the final football game of his junior season, a road contest at Interlake back in November 2019, he had no clue the world would go topsy-turvy less than four months later.
As the pandemic overran every part of our lives, high school sports were largely put on the backburner.
For Smith, the possibility of not being allowed to play his senior season has haunted him, and driven him.
He worked out, he trained, he followed every Covid-related news story he could find. Even in the darkest moments, he believed.
Saturday night, Smith and his Coupeville High School gridiron teammates, coaches, families, and fans were rewarded for that faith.
Stepping onto the gridiron to face a rival school for the first time in 17 months, playing “fall sports” in the second week of April, the Wolves rose to the occasion.
Winning a war of attrition between two young, scrappy squads, Coupeville pulled off an electrifying 6-0 win in its Northwest 2B/1B League opener.
In a game which saw big plays on defense and offense (no matter what the score might indicate), the biggest was a one-yard bull run into the end zone by Smith to cap the first high school football overtime game seen in Cow Town in maybe forever.
It’s certainly been at least a few years, as the refs huddled to refresh themselves on OT rules, while at least one fan hollered at another, “Don’t go anywhere! This ain’t soccer!! We don’t go for ties!!!”
Or, maybe that was just playing on a loop in my own head…
Never know.
But then, after 48 minutes of two teams — longtime old-school rivals reunited with Coupeville’s move from 1A to 2B — standing in the middle of the ring and smashing each other to a pulp, the Wolves dropped the hammer.
La Conner got the ball first in overtime, awarded a first-and-10 from the Coupeville 25.
At which point the Braves held on to the ball for all of about three seconds.
The Wolf defense surged, 11 men strong, battering the ball-carrier on the first play, the pigskin popping free and hitting the turf, screaming “Freedom!” like Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart.
CHS freshman Zane Oldenstadt pulled off a sweet two-for-one special, wrapping up La Conner’s runner, while also reaching in and punching the ball free, with senior Dakota Eck pouncing on the suddenly-free ball.
Freshman Zane Oldenstadt came up big on both sides of the ball. (Photo courtesy Michelle Glass)
The lightning-quick turn of events handed the ball back to Coupeville, and there was no stopping Smith.
Completing a 24-carry, 104-yard performance, he plunged up the middle four straight times, his linemen driving the Braves onto their heels each time.
The first carry garnered four yards, the next two 10 apiece.
Then the final dagger went in, Smith crashing from right to left, punching a hole to the promised land, before sprinting off, his teammates chasing him to celebrate.
“This was the best game I’ve ever played in!!,” he said while bouncing with joy from well-wisher to well-wisher.
For Smith’s head coach, getting a win was big, but just returning to action was even bigger.
“Just being out there, being able to compete, play against another opponent, is huge,” Marcus Carr said. “Our defense was outstanding, and our young guys really stepped up.”
While it was a long time ago, the last Wolf team to play earned the program’s first winning record since 2005, then graduated a strong batch of seniors.
One of those departed guys, Sean Toomey-Stout, is now competing for a roster spot at the University of Washington, and the CHS coaches went and watched him participate in spring practices before their game.
Then they unleashed their newest batch of Wolves, who played with their own fiery abandon.
Alternating junior Cole Hutchinson and freshman Logan Downes at quarterback, Coupeville mixed in some precise passing with a fair amount of smash-mouth running on offense.
On defense, it was big plays and big hits, as the Wolves never allowed La Conner inside its 35-yard line during regulation.
Brian Casey, back in action after an injury cost him most of his sophomore season, made a big splash, roaring in to recover an early fumble.
After scooping up the ball, Casey moved to the sideline, the removal of his helmet revealing the most luxurious mane of golden hair in all the land, bringing an audible gasp of approval from scoreboard operator Joel Norris.
“Dude is rockin’ the killer hair!!”
Wolf sophomore Dominic Coffman may have shorter hair than Casey, but he also came up big on defense, crashing through La Conner’s line for a big-time sack deep in the backfield.
CHS stuffed the Braves on a fourth-and-one — a play upheld by a measurement from Coupeville’s all-star chain gang — with a bevy of players earning roars for other stops.
Miles Davidson, Isaiah Bittner, Josh Upchurch, and Kai Wong joined Smith in smashing runners, while Sage Downes, Tim Ursu, Scott Hilborn, and Daylon Houston chased down foes from behind, denying them crucial first downs.
While Coupeville’s defense was rock-solid, its offense was often inspired, yet came up just short of busting things wide open.
Unlike La Conner, the Wolves made it down inside the 20-yard line twice in regulation, only to have their momentum blunted by an equally-scrappy Braves defense.
The first time, Logan Downes zipped silky-smooth passes into the hands of Eck (20 yards) and older brother Sage Downes (16 yards), setting up a first-and-10 at the La Conner 18.
CHS stalled out there, though, then got unlucky on a big drive midway through the third quarter.
After softening the defense with a steady diet of Smith playing battering ram, the Wolves (almost) pulled off a stunning play.
Hutchinson found Sage Downes on the move down the left side of the field, and then things got weird.
Downes pulled in the pass, took a step or two, got hit, the ball popped free, the La Conner defender stopped his pursuit to try and convince the ref it was an incomplete pass…
Pause for a deep breath.
So then Downes picked up the ball and spun away, looking like he was on his way to a possible touchdown, only to be hit by a different Brave, with the ball getting away once again, only this time it was La Conner who recovered it.
And scene.
While the game remained scoreless throughout regulation, the action was never boring, and both teams played surprisingly smoothly considering the long layoff.
There were few penalties, and even though neither team could crack the end zone until overtime, Coupeville got folks excited right at the end of regulation.
With the ball in his hands and 17 ticks on the clock, Logan Downes scrambled out of the hands of a would-be sacker, picking up five yards on a play seemingly destined to lose 10 just moments before.
The Wolf 9th grader then put up a potentially game-winning bomb from the 38-yard line on the final play before overtime.
It disappeared into a mass of hands, as multiple La Conner defenders harassed a Wolf receiver, falling just short of providing a miracle ending.
Not that it mattered in the end, as Coupeville’s overtime domination was just a heartbeat away, sending the Wolf football faithful back to their cars with an extra skip in their steps.
The pandemic is still with us. Life is not yet back to normal.
But, for three hours Saturday night, Ben Smith and his classmates, those on the field and those in the stands, got to focus on something positive.
Take your wins, in a game or in real life, and hold on to them.
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