Hunter Smith, cold-blooded killer. (John Fisken photo)
Wolf volleyball star Hope Lodell and gridiron giant Julian Welling are all smiles after the win. (Ally Roberts photo)
Hunter Smith, with the adrenaline shot right to the heart.
The Coupeville High School sophomore wasn’t alive when Pulp Fiction hit movie screens, but he went all John Travolta on Chimacum Friday night, plunging in the needle and saving a huge football win for the Wolves.
Smith’s interception with just 32 seconds to play sealed a wild 28-26 win, the first-ever for CHS head coach Brett Smedley, and lifted the Wolves into a first place tie in the 1A Olympic League.
Coupeville (1-2 overall, 1-0 in league play) sits atop the league along with Port Townsend (3-0, 1-0), which crushed Klahowya 52-6.
The Wolves will hit the road for a fourth consecutive week next Friday, Sept. 25, when they will meet the high-powered RedHawks in a battle for sole possession of first.
Port Townsend, which entered this week ranked #10 in the state polls, has outscored its first three foes 145-6.
While it will be a daunting task, it’s one to think about on another day.
Tonight, if you hear the roar coming across the water as Coupeville players and fans return on the ferry, there’s reason. Big reason.
Facing a team that is better than its (now) 15-game losing streak might indicate, the Wolves, who were missing several starters, spent the night battling from behind, then surged into the lead in the late going, only to almost have it all ripped away.
Having reeled off 16 straight points, capped by a Zane Bundy field goal, Coupeville staked itself to its biggest lead of the game at 28-20.
Refusing to go down easily, the host Cowboys closed the gap on a touchdown with under a minute to play.
Coupeville blunted the damage by preventing Chimacum from converting on a two-point conversion that would have tied the game, but the Cowboys got a break when they recovered the ensuing onside kick.
With the ball in its hands, Chimacum came up firing only to have Smith, who was the only freshman to earn All-League honors last year, come up huge.
That dagger capped a wild and woolly affair in which the lead changed hands at will, often in the matter of one play.
Coupeville opened the scoring on a touchdown pass in which freshmen twins Gabe and Ty Eck hooked up.
But before the Wolves could really celebrate, Chimacum blocked the PAT and returned it the length of the field for a score of its own to grab a 7-6 lead.
Ty Eck would score again, but the Wolves trailed 13-12 at the half.
The strongest run of the game for Coupeville came in the second half, when the Wolves put together three straight scores to turn a 20-12 deficit into a 28-20 lead.
Wiley Hesselgrave slammed in for one touchdown, then Smith snagged another through the air, before Bundy converted on the first field goal of his short high school career.
