Logan Downes threw three touchdown passes Friday as Coupeville claimed a third-straight victory. (Angie Downes photo)
They’ve been waiting.
They’ve been working.
And now, they’re celebrating.
The last time Coupeville and Friday Harbor met on the gridiron — Oct. 28, 2021 — the visiting Wolverines pulled out a mud-encrusted win in triple-overtime, ending any playoff hopes for the host Wolves.
Jump forward 338 days, improve the weather a lot, add a dash of Homecoming fervor, and the final result was much different Friday night.
This time around, Coupeville had three different players crash into the end zone with touchdowns, fueling a crowd-pleasing 35-3 win.
The victory, the third-straight for the Wolves, lifts them to 2-0 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 4-1 overall.
It also gives Coupeville the chance to control its own destiny in terms of winning a conference crown and advancing to the postseason.
The Wolves are a game up on Friday Harbor (1-1 in NWL play) and two up on La Conner (0-2), with one more match-up against both teams on the schedule.
Coupeville plays non-conference foes Bellingham and Cascade (Leavenworth) the next two weeks, then closes the regular season with a home game against La Conner and a road trip to Friday Harbor.
A win in the home finale against the Braves will clinch at least a share of a league title, the first for the CHS football program since 1990.
But that’s all set to play out in October. First, the Wolves put an emphatic final exclamation point on September.
The Wolves head to the field. (Barbi Ford photo)
And Coupeville did it despite opening on a rare cold streak, suffering an interception and a lost fumble, before punting the ball away on its third possession of the game.
If the Wolf offense was a bit out of sorts, its defense was not, however.
CHS stuffed Friday Harbor repeatedly in the early going, with Mikey Robinett ripping a runner into two pieces, Tim Ursu deflecting passes, and Scott Hilborn chasing down the quarterback in the backfield.
With neither team able to break through, and the clock running down late in the first quarter, it looked like the night would be a defensive struggle, much like the previous meeting.
To which Tim Ursu quietly said, “Time for big daddy to bust this thing wide open.”
Snagging a punt, the Wolf senior bolted up the right sideline, shedding would-be tacklers with each step, Friday Harbor’s chances of containing him vanishing like the sun as it dipped below the trees.
40+ yards later, Ursu was comfortably resting in the end zone with the first of what would be three touchdowns for him on this evening, and the rout was on.
Coupeville’s defense, coming off of a shutout over La Conner, kept hitting on all cylinders, immediately snuffing out Friday Harbor’s next drive thanks to strong individual plays.
First, Hilborn brought down a runner with a sensational diving tackle as the Wolverine tried (and failed) to make it to the sideline.
Then, on fourth down, Jonathan Valenzuela broke up a pass to get the ball back into his team’s hands.
Zane Oldenstadt and the Wolf defense were in fine form. (Michelle Glass photo)
This time out, Coupeville’s offense responded immediately, driving 60+ yards down the field thanks to a mix of helmet-rattling runs from Dominic Coffman and Logan Downes dropping precision passes into the hands of receivers like Daylon Houston.
The final one of those throws was a pretty lob to Hilborn, who laid out to pull the ball down in the right corner of the end zone.
CHS settled for a 14-0 lead heading into the extended halftime, before blowing the game open with another two scores in the third quarter.
Downes, wheeling and dealing, tied his career high with three touchdown passes, finding Ursu on 23-yard and 33-yard scoring strikes after halftime.
The best catch of the night might have come from sophomore Hunter Bronec, who went up between two defenders along the sideline and somehow came away with the ball.
As the play unfolded, PA announcer Willie Smith could be heard semi-screaming “No! No!! No!!!” from the moment Downes dared fate by trying to thread the ball through a gap of about two inches.
When Bronec descended from the skies, ball death-gripped in his hands, Smith smiled and nodded.
“Well, he is like 6-10, so I guess you can throw it up there…”
Now, Bronec is listed on the roster at 6-2, but catch him in the moonlight, with his classmates nailing all the lyrics to John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (even after the music stopped!) and anything is possible.
Freshman Chase Anderson tacked on extra points after both touchdown passes, going 5-for-5 on the night when his foot mashed the ball skyward.
The second of those TD lobs was set up by another bull rush from Coffman, as the Homecoming King blew up multiple defenders, flexed at his teammates and retired for the night.
In his place, young gun Johnny Porter hit an open hole and tacked on a 28-yard scoring run to cap Coupeville’s offensive explosion.
Though there was still one more scoring play left to unfold, as Friday Harbor prevented the shutout with a late field goal.
It was a beauty of a blast, a 37-yard cannon shot off of the foot of Wolverine sophomore Victor Velasquez which had to be admired even by hardcore Coupeville supporters.
“Kid’s got a leg!” said CHS head coach Bennett Richter afterwards, as he dumped out water bottles and marinated in the victory.
Winning big, winning on Homecoming, and winning against their biggest league rival kept the celebration going, and the Wolf gridiron guru was grateful for the support his team has had.
“It was great to have those stands so full, with the crowd at our back,” Richter said. “The amount of support the town has shown to our guys at these last three home games has been awesome.”
Coupeville’s next game will come a little faster than normal, with a lack of refs in the region moving it from Friday, Oct. 7 to Thursday, Oct. 6.
The Wolves head into that non-conference home tilt with Bellingham on a roll, having outscored Sultan, La Conner, and Friday Harbor 111-16 during the three-game win streak.
On the season, CHS is up 180-84 in the scoring column, with Hilborn and Ursu leading the pack with eight touchdowns apiece.
4-1 and ready for more. (Michelle Glass photo)
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