Malachi Somes played superb defense Friday. (Parker Hammons photo)
There was rain, and there were tears, and both mixed freely in the mud.
Coupeville’s Mickey Clark Field, which had been rockin’ most of the night Friday, was somber at the end, as a football game which had been dominated by the Wolf defense ended with a sickening gut punch for the prairie faithful as Friday Harbor pulled off a stunning fourth-quarter comeback to beat CHS 21-20.
The loss, coming in a game the Wolves led 20-7 with four-and-a-half minutes to play, drops Bennett Richter’s squad to 0-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 1-7 overall.
With the win, Friday Harbor (2-0, 3-5) clinches the conference title and earns District 1’s top seed to the 2B playoffs.
A Coupeville triumph Friday would have forced a tiebreaker half-game between the two teams in La Conner on Halloween, and a win there would have allowed the Wolves to host a playoff game the following week at Oak Harbor’s stadium.
Instead, the Wolves are now slated (for the moment at least) to hit the road Saturday, Nov. 8 to face the #3 team from District 4 (likely Napavine) in a loser-out, winner-to-state game.
There is still some fine print to be worked out on the various playoff scenarios, though the ending to Friday’s rumble in the rain solidified Friday Harbor’s pathway.
Trailing 20-7 after giving up a pair of third-quarter touchdowns, the Wolverines rebounded to play the fourth quarter to near perfection, mixing key runs with a flurry of flags thrown at the Wolves.
Coupeville had a chance to ice the game, up two scores and with the ball in its hands but came up short on a fourth-down run deep in Friday Harbor territory with seven minutes left on the clock.
It would be the final time the Wolves would possess the pigskin, as the visitors drove for two scores and recovered two onside kicks thanks to some help from the slick playing surface.
The first drive benefited greatly from a personal foul penalty on Coupeville, with Friday Harbor’s Cyrus Rollins punching into the end zone on a 10-yard run. The PAT sailed through the uprights, and the score was cut to 20-14.
Cue onside kick #1, the ball skittering away from the Wolves, and the visitors almost immediately were back on offense.
Wolf defenders Malachi Somes and Chase Anderson came up with big stops, but facing third-and-seven from the 22-yard line with 34 ticks to play, Friday Harbor got another assist from the refs, who issued another personal foul to CHS.
That set up Friday Harbor down on the six-yard line, with time draining away, and Wolverine quarterback Jackson Feliz found a crack in the defense to score the game-tying touchdown.
Coupeville crashed the line hard on the PAT, but kicker Joseph Holt converted for the third time in as many tries, then ran off to be mobbed by his teammates on the far sideline.
With 11 seconds left to play, the Wolves, and their fans, still harbored hopes of snatching victory back from the jaws of defeat with a last-second miracle.
Instead, the wet grass bit Coupeville hard again, with the onside kick squirting away to be recovered by Friday Harbor, sealing the game.
The dispiriting finale capped a game that the Wolves otherwise dominated.
Chase Anderson scored two touchdowns and completed a two-point conversion pass against Friday Harbor. (Marquette Cunningham photo)
CHS drove 65 yards on 10 plays on the game’s opening drive, with Liam Blas blowing through the defense on a six-yard scoring run to put the first points on the board.
The drive featured a 12-yard run for Blas, a 10-yard pass from Anderson to Davin Houston, and a 10-yard scramble for Anderson, but the only down note came on the PAT attempt, when Friday Harbor broke through to block the attempt.
That early 6-0 lead held up for most of the first half, with the defenses stepping up to force multiple punts and make off with interceptions.
Friday Harbor had a chance for a touchdown slip through its fingers when a wide-open receiver muffed the catch, while Wolf lineman Ira Volpentesta saved another by chasing down a Wolverine from behind, snagging his foot and dropping him a step or two from paydirt.
That proved to be huge, as Coupeville then held despite their foes having first-and-goal from the six-yard line.
Volpentesta and Josh Stockdale collected key tackles, while Anderson came roaring up the middle, destroying the line and hauling down the ballcarrier on fourth down to keep the shutout going.
Two drives later, Friday Harbor finally broke through right before the half, with Duncan Bogart crashing in from the one-yard line before Holt pushed his PAT try through to make it 7-6.
In a preview of what was to come, the Wolverines recovered the ensuing onside kick, before kneeling down to send the teams to the locker room.
But much as it did in its win against South Whidbey, Coupeville responded to a score right before halftime by coming out and thumping on people in the third quarter.
Houston picked off a wayward pass to open the second half, before Anderson bolted in from 26 yards out, ducking through the defense, then exploding out of a scrum to push the Wolves back in front.
While Coupeville’s PAT try was again blocked, keeping the score to 12-7, the Wolves decided to mix things up the next time they had the ball.
Power running from Blas and Houston, following big blocks from lineman such as Riley Lawless and Camden Glover, set the stage, with Anderson scooting in from a yard out for his second touchdown of the game, and ninth of the season.
Anderson followed his run by pegging a pass to a diving Houston as CHS pulled off a two-point conversion for the first time this season, and the score was sitting pretty at 20-7.
While a lot of the air was sucked out of the stadium by how the final seven minutes played out, the aftermath of the game showed the positive impact Wolf head coach Bennett Richter and assistants Bobby Carr and Alex Turner have had on the program during their run in Cow Town.
Bennett Richter patrols the sidelines. (Jackie Saia photo)
Richter, a mix of old school rock-em, sock-em football and new school hug-your-players-and-make-sure-they-know-they’re-loved, stood tall in the slashing prairie rain, offering quiet words of praise to his hurting players.
Afterwards, he went home to his own family, which includes a precocious lil’ girl who’s already ready to be a Wolf athletic legend, and a wife (and fellow coach) about to deliver their son.
But before he left the gridiron, that patch of grass that 50 years ago was named for Mickey Clark, one of Coupeville’s most devoted athletic supporters, Bennett made sure the young men he guides knew two things.
That a loss, even a last-second one, does not define them.
That they will be remembered for how they played, how they fought, how they gave everything they had until the last second ticked off the clock.
Secondly, that he cares for them, as players, yes, but as men, too. That he is proud of them, always.
And in the end, that matters more than what a scoreboard says.
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