Wolf freshman Hunter Smith (4) continued his strong play, recovering a fumble Friday night. (John Fisken photo)
Good news first.
The Coupeville High School gridiron squad is in a three-way tie for first place in the 1A Olympic League at the halfway point of the season.
Bad news?
The Wolves are there because they played their worst game of the season — by far — falling 49-6 at Klahowya Friday night.
The loss, combined with Port Townsend lighting up Chimacum 56-0, left Coupeville, Klahowya and Port Townsend at 2-1 in league play, with Chimacum bringing up the rear at 0-3.
It’s a true tie, as well, with each of the three schools in first having beaten one of the others while losing to one of the others.
Things will shake out over the next three weeks, as the Wolves (3-2 overall) pursue a playoff berth and get their second crack at their three new league rivals.
Coupeville travels to Port Townsend (3-2) next Friday, Oct. 10, visits Chimacum (0-5) the following week, then hosts Klahowya Oct. 24 for Homecoming.
The Wolves wrap the regular season with a non-conference game at Concrete, reigniting an old-school rivalry, on Halloween night.
Playing their first road game of the season after opening with four straight at home, the Wolves had their chances Friday night.
Klahowya, which dropped down from 2A before this season and is one of the three biggest 1A schools in the state, fumbled the ball away on its first two possessions.
Unfortunately for Coupeville, the Eagles stiffened their own defense, shutting the Wolves down both times as well.
Klahowya then broke things open with a fury in the second quarter, rolling up five straight touchdown drives to take a 35-0 lead into the half.
Konner Langholff was Mr. Untouchable, strolling past the Wolf ‘d’ three times on scoring runs of seven, six and 13 yards.
The sudden assault was punctuated when Klahowya senior Austin Sargent blew up the CHS line en route to an 89-yard scoring run of his own.
For the game, the Eagle duo combined for 332 yards, with Langholff garnering 193 yards on 18 carries and Sargent rambling for 139 on just five carries.
The hosts capped their incredible second quarter run with a 34-yard scoring pass from George Harris to Nate Hough, who tipped the ball to himself and snagged it over a Wolf defender who went to the ground.
After Klahowya tacked on two more rushing TD’s in the second half, Coupeville avoided the shutout when backup quarterback CJ Smith hit Ryan Griggs on a nine-yard scoring strike late in the fourth.
The junior shared QB duties with starter Joel Walstad, who was at less than 100% after suffering a hip pointer in last week’s win over Port Townsend.
Smith hit on 7 of 10 passes for 87 yards, while Walstad struggled for the first time this season. The senior, who entered the game in the top five for 1A passers, completed just four passes for 32 yards.
Josh Bayne hauled in three passes for 47 yards, while Griggs (3-28), Mitchell Carroll (2-15), Smith (2-12) and Jacob Martin (1-17) all chipped in.
The Wolves, coming off of a game in which they rushed for 350+ yards, were held to 150 on the ground.
Bayne got the majority of those, carrying the ball 14 times for 91 hard-earned yards.
Wiley Hesselgrave (4-36), Martin (4-15), Walstad (1-4), Smith (1-3) and Mitchell Losey (1-1) rounded out the ball carriers.
Coupeville was missing its second-leading rusher, junior Lathom Kelley, who was sidelined with a shin injury.
The defense, which was missing senior captain Aaron Wright, also out with an injury, spread out the tackles.
Bayne led the way with six, while Hesselgrave, Griggs and Oscar Liquidano each had four.
Matt Shank (3), Isaac Vargas (3), Gabe Wynn (2), Dominic Dausey (2), Martin (1), CJ Smith (1), Jake Lord (1), Josh Lord (1) and Hunter Smith (1) all tracked down runaway Eagles and wrapped them up.
Hesselgrave blew through the Klahowya line to haul down Harris for a six-yard loss on a sack and recovered a fumble to cap a strong all-around performance.
Dausey and Hunter Smith also snagged fumble recoveries.
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