Jake Pease had a key fumble recovery and knocked down several passes Friday as Coupeville crushed La Conner 40-6. (John Fisken photo)
After scoring three touchdowns, Cameron Toomey-Stout was carried off the field by fellow senior Jake Hoagland. (Jim Hoagland photo)
What a difference a year makes.
A lot of the faces may have changed on both sides of the ball, but Coupeville remembered.
Striking with a cold fury from the very first play, literally, the Wolves reclaimed gridiron dominance from old-school rival La Conner Friday, thrashing the visiting Braves 40-6 to earn sweet payback for being on the opposite side of a rout last season.
This time around, Coupeville scored four different ways (pass, run, kickoff return and pick-six) and reignited memories of the days when it was known as the Big Red Machine.
With the beat-down of La Conner coming on the heels of an emotional win over South Whidbey, the Wolves are 2-0 for the first time since 2009.
That was the final year of Ron Bagby’s three-decade run at the helm of the CHS program, and current coach Jon Atkins becomes the first of his four successors to match the ol’ ball coach.
“That was fun!,” Atkins said as players and fans celebrated in a teeming mob off to the side.
“The whole team played really well, and our defense was spectacular,” he added. “We challenged them to improve on (giving up) 30 points a game (last year), and they are stepping up.”
Coupeville will get a big test next week, when it travels to Nooksack Valley for its final non-conference game.
The Pioneers are also 2-0 after beating Blaine and Granite Falls, and they feature one of the best QB’s in 1A in Montana State recruit Casey Bauman.
“Nooksack is a really good team, and that will give us a good measuring stick,” Atkins said. “I think we’re a good team, too, so we’re really looking forward to that.”
For the moment, though, the Wolves can bask in the afterglow of one of their most impressive wins in recent memory.
A victory which was all but assured in the first 13 seconds of the game.
That’s all it took for Coupeville to go nuclear on La Conner, as human highlight machine Cameron Toomey-Stout hauled in the opening kickoff, then dodged, darted and danced 70+ yards to the opposite end zone.
The silky senior, who had a game for the ages (you’ll hear his name again in this story, many times) sliced through the Brave defense with ease on the play.
He bounced off one would-be tackler, knocked another on his tush, lost a third with a ballet-style twirl, then gunned it like a madman, leaving everyone, even his own blockers, to watch his #11 vanish into the horizon.
The crowd was barely settled into the (limited) seating, announcer Willie Smith was just clearing his vocal cords and the rout was on.
Not taking the foot off the gas pedal, Coupeville added two more touchdowns in the first quarter to thoroughly deflate La Conner.
After big gains from Chris Battaglia (a 19-yard bull run) and Sean Toomey-Stout (an 11-yard sprint to the outside) softened up the Brave defense on the Wolves next possession, Cameron Toomey-Stout popped back in to blow things up.
Wolf QB Hunter Downes lofted a gorgeous ball into the furthest part of the right corner of the end zone, where CTS laid out, pulled the ball in, and somehow, against all the laws of physics, managed to keep both feet in-bounds while being assaulted by a defender.
That it turned out to be only the second-best catch of the game from Cameron tells you how out of his mind he was on this night.
La Conner’s only saving grace at this point was Coupeville’s early inability to convert after the touchdown (a blocked PAT and a failed conversion run left the score at 12-0).
Putting together their only sustained drive of the night against a hyped-up Wolf defense, the Braves marched down field, and looked, for a moment, like they might have a fighting chance.
Then that chance ended. Violently.
On one play, CHS senior lineman Julian Welling blew up a Brave runner with such stunning ferocity that Wolf fans didn’t know whether to cheer or inquire about his next of kin.
A moment later, Hunter Smith drove the final stake through La Conner’s barely-beating heart.
Facing a second and two from Coupeville’s eight-yard line, the Braves, for reasons known only to themselves, decided it would be an ideal time to have their freshman quarterback try to slip a pass past Smith.
It was a bad decision.
A really, really bad decision, the kind which haunts coaches sweat-encrusted dreams for years.
Smith, who is capping one of the great football careers in Cow Town’s history, picked him clean and was off to the races, taking back a pick-six 90+ yards.
On the La Conner sideline, an offensive coordinator headed off the field, preferring to walk home rather than have to explain his thought process.
On the Coupeville sideline, however, it was bedlam, as players pummeled each other and electricity crackled through everyone sporting red and black.
And it just got better from there.
The Wolves tacked on another touchdown in the second quarter, on a 12-yard pass from Downes to Smith, and should have had another on a pick-six from Sean Toomey-Stout with just 15 seconds to play in the first half.
A questionable holding call erased that score, sort of the ref’s way of whispering to the Wolves, “Please, stop hurting them!!”
It was a first half for Coupeville in which everything seemed to go right.
One moment Cameron Toomey-Stout (remember him?) was hauling in a sensational 26-yard snag on a third-and-23.
“Go, Go, Gadget!!,” screamed Willie Smith as CTS made his arms stretch out to three times their normal length.
The next moment, it was Jake Pease, with a head of steam, shedding blockers, slamming into the Brave QB, forcing the ball to pop loose, then having the presence of mind to do The Worm and launch forward, recovering the fumble.
Frankly, La Conner could have packed up its gear at halftime and gone home early. Nothing was going to change.
But, both teams returned to the field, and after giving up their first, and, so far, only points of the season on the second half’s first possession, Coupeville closed the game out like a boss.
Matt Hilborn plunged in from one-yard out to counter La Conner’s score (the drive was triggered by a 39-yard pass from Downes to Cameron Toomey-Stout), then Coupeville closed the game with a final dagger.
It came on a 10-yard heave into the right corner of the end zone, Downes third TD strike of the night. That gives him six on the season and 24 for his career.
His target? You might have heard of him … guy with the initials CTS.
With the game a romp, Coupeville got a chance to give their young guys work, with Dawson Houston replacing Downes at QB in the latter stages, and Jean Lund-Olsen ripping off a nice run on a carry to the right side.
Defensively, the Wolves never stopped coming, as Dane Lucero shredded the La Conner QB’s last nerve, whipping him to the ground on a fourth-down sack.
James Vidoni also laid some wood on a runner and Shane Losey erupted through the line for another sack.
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