Jerry Helm plays “Amazing Grace” to honor former Wolf Adam Garcia and the victims at Marysville-Pilchuck. (John Fisken photos)
Wolf seniors (l to r) Aaron Wright, Matt Shank, Carson Risner, Josh Bayne, Oscar Liquidano, Isaac Vargas and Joel Walstad.
It was heartbreaking.
Real. Immediate. Crushing in the moment.
But Friday was a day awash in genuine heartbreak. A day when Marysville-Pilchuck should have sent its football team to Whidbey Island to play Oak Harbor before a school shooting tragically reshaped the day for all involved.
So, in the end, having a high school football game stolen away from you in the final seconds is not the end of the world.
Yes, Coupeville came within one minute and 14 seconds of clinching a playoff berth, before a questionable ref’s call gave Klahowya renewed life.
And yes, the Eagles rose to the moment, scoring twice in those final 74 seconds to escape with a wild 42-35 win and leave Wolf Nation deflated.
But, as much as it meant to the young men on the field, and to the fans in the stands and overflowing across the track and on to the grass in every direction, it was just a game. A very good one at that.
A Homecoming game that started with an emotional tribute to former Wolf Adam Garcia, who was murdered in Oak Harbor at age 21 last week.
Kenney Chesney and Brad Paisley songs led into a moment when the Coupeville players went over to hug Garcia’s relatives, then Central Whidbey firefighter Jerry Helm followed a moment of silence with a haunting bagpipe performance of “Amazing Grace.”
A game that had everything — huge touchdown plays, bone-crunching sacks that blew up the quarterback and forced fumbles, frequent lead changes and two or three moments at the end that will linger for a long time.
The first came with Coupeville clinging to a hard-earned 35-28 lead and Klahowya facing fourth and ten from the Wolf 15 with less than a minute and a half on the clock.
Eagle quarterback George Harris fired a ball into the end zone, the Wolves defended it almost perfectly, the ball hit the ground and the roar from the pro-Coupeville crowd could be heard for miles.
CHS would run the clock out and two weeks later be in the 1A playoffs.
Except, from the corner, a ref who had done little all game dropped a flag and took the first jab at Wolf Nation’s psyche.
The call was pass interference, though there was no contact and seemingly no reason to think twice about the play.
Given a reprieve (and five extra yards it probably shouldn’t have had) Klahowya took advantage, with Harris zinging a game-tying TD pass on his second attempt at fourth down.
The ball came in low, very low.
How low?
From many angles, it looked like it might have skipped into the Eagles receiver’s hands, but, in the high school world of no instant replay, the ref’s arms shot up and the lead was gone.
With the ball back in its hands, Coupeville chose to come back all guns firing. Not content to run out the clock and head to overtime, the Wolves went to the air repeatedly in the final minute.
And it worked, big time. Until it didn’t.
Wolf quarterback Joel Walstad hit three different receivers on consecutive passes, tearing off chunks of yardage and quickly moving Coupeville into game-winning territory.
Josh Bayne snagged a 19-yard strike. CJ Smith hauled in a short pass, then side-stepped defenders and turned it into a 22-yard catch-and-run. Then Wiley Hesselgrave went airborne and made a sensational snag on a 20-yard bomb while splitting defenders.
With the ball at the Klahowya 25, Coupeville sent in a running play, only to have its signals scrambled.
Running for his life, Walstad refused to go down easily (he had repeatedly evaded Eagle tacklers and kept plays alive all night long) and made a bid for a fourth straight big pass.
Unfortunately, the ball, heaved towards the left sideline, landed on the fingertips of a Klahowya defensive back, who brought the ball back 75 yards for a game-busting pick six with just 24 ticks on the clock.
Even then, with defeat having sucker-punched likely victory, Walstad never buckled, hitting two passes after the kickoff, before the clock ran out on him and his team’s postseason chances.
With the win, Klahowya (4-4 overall, 4-2 in Olympic League play) will join Port Townsend (6-2, 5-1) in the playoffs.
Coupeville (4-4, 3-3) closes its regular season Oct. 31 with a non-conference game at Concrete.
The Wolves will likely pick up another home game against a team from the Nisqually Valley League that also missed the playoffs the following week.
While Friday’s game will be remembered for how it finished, it was, hands down, the most action-packed affair of the season.
The two teams went toe-to-toe in the first half, racking up a combined 56 points.
Down 7-0, Coupeville responded with back-to-back touchdown lobs from Walstad to Hesselgrave. The first covered 15 yards, while the second was a thing of beauty.
An Eagle rusher had Walstad’s jersey in his hands, only to watch the senior slip his grasp, spin and lob a little eight-yard gem into his receiver’s arms.
Coupeville added two more scores in the second quarter.
Bayne busted out a six-yard scoring run in which he started in one speed, then hit the corner and found three more speeds in three steps, then the Wolves got tricky.
Walstad pitched the ball to Hesselgrave, who stopped on a dime and threw a long pass that hung in the air for a half hour, before tumbling over and over and landing in Bayne’s grasp 46 yards away.
After battling to a 28-28 halftime stalemate, the team’s switched gears in the third and put on a defensive clinic.
Twice Hesselgrave came flying around the Klahowya line and blindsided Harris, knocking the ball loose both times with an audible pop. Matt Shank and Jake Lord snagged the resulting fumbles.
But even with the turnovers, the Wolves couldn’t break through in the second half themselves until they put together a 57-yard drive in the fourth.
Hammering away with short runs, Coupeville ground up yardage and the clock.
After a roughing the passer penalty kept the drive alive, Lathom Kelley, who played like a one-man wrecking crew while wearing a heavy cast on one arm, punched the ball in from the one with 3:28 to play.
The final three minutes was two exhausted teams standing in the middle of the field and punching like mad.
Harris jabbed with quick passes to his fleet-footed, hard-to-track receivers. Hesselgrave exploded around the end for a back-dislocating sack that set up the fateful fourth-and-ten at the 15.
It was a game that deserved a great ending, and, if you were a Klahowya Eagle, you got the one you wanted.
If you were a Coupeville Wolf, you did not.
But whether you jumped and screamed and dog-piled at the end, or mingled with fans and classmates who rightly praised you for leaving every last ounce of effort, sweat and commitment on the field, you got to play a game Friday night.
A very entertaining, very competitive game.
Some days that is enough.
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