Freshman Sean Toomey-Stout made off with his first high school interception Friday night. (John Fisken photo)
The beginning, awesome.
The end, stellar.
The middle, needs some work.
The Coupeville High School football team opened strongly and finished strongly Friday night, but got burnt by seven unanswered touchdowns and fell 47-14 to visiting Nooksack Valley.
The non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 1-2.
CHS kicks off its seven-game Olympic/Nisqually League schedule with a trip to Tacoma to face Charles Wright Academy next week.
Friday night’s tilt against the Pioneers started so promisingly, with Coupeville getting a strong kickoff return from Matt Hilborn, then marching right down the field for a game-opening touchdown.
Everything was clicking, with strong runs from Clay Reilly and Jacob Martin, split around two quick strikes from Wolf QB Hunter Downes.
First the junior signal caller tossed an 11-yard pass to Hunter Smith, then Downes connected with speed demon Cameron Toomey-Stout on a 34-yard reception.
The last Nooksack defender managed to knock Toomey-Stout out at the two-yard line, but Coupeville promptly stuffed the ball in two plays later.
Downes took the one-yard plunge to pay dirt behind a tooth-rattling lead block from Julian Welling.
Up 7-0 two-and-a-half minutes into the game, with clear skies and Wolf announcer Willie Smith spewing prime one-liners on the PA system, things looked rosy.
Then everything fell off a cliff for a bit.
Nooksack tied the game up just two plays later, when six-foot-five Pioneer QB Casey Bauman launched a rocket down the left sideline that hit his receiver in perfect stride.
Who that receiver was, no one knows, as a whole chunk of Nooksack’s jersey numbers didn’t match up with their roster.
Which didn’t matter much, because a few minutes later the heavens opened, rain began to fall and all the rosters become a sodden pile of of ink-streaked garbage anyway.
With CHS using temporary bleachers for a year, there’s no press box this season, and Willie Smith and timekeeper extraordinaire Joel Norris were left, well … high and dry would be the exact opposite of reality.
Huddled under a makeshift, at best, pop-up cover, they played chicken with using electronics in the rain, while fighting through a haze of darkness caused by the flimsy awning.
Which was probably for the best, as they only half-witnessed Nooksack rip off four more first-quarter touchdowns, the final one coming on a 28-yard pass with no time left on the clock.
The Pioneers tacked on two more scores in the second quarter to close the half, a time period where the high point for the Wolves was the two times Nooksack’s kicker shanked his extra point attempts.
Coupeville did have two standout plays of its own amid the carnage, however.
Hunter Smith laid out a Pioneer punt returner, lighting him up a millisecond after he snagged the ball, while Reilly pulled off a fake punt and turned it into a 45-yard sprint to daylight.
Just like with Cameron Toomey-Stout’s reception, though, the last Pioneer in the way managed to save the touchdown, and this time Coupeville fumbled the ball away two plays later.
With a running clock, a sodden crowd, and a severely compromised announcing crew, it would have been easy for the Wolves to write off the second half.
Instead, they took CHS coach Jon Atkins‘ halftime remarks to heart, and finished the final 24 minutes with their best sustained play of the night.
Freshman Sean Toomey-Stout made off with his first career interception while Reilly was a two-way beast, scoring on an 11-yard run and making tackles left and right.
With fired-up seniors Reilly and Martin leading the attack, Coupeville held Nooksack scoreless in the second half, twice forcing the Pioneers to turn the ball over on downs.
That put at least a small smile on Atkins face afterwards.
“They got the message and finished strong,” he said. “We finished positive, showed a lot of intensity and won the second half. Now we’ll build on that.”
While praising several players, Atkins offered a special shout-out to his freshman warrior.
“Sean is really earning his varsity time,” he said. “He played all four quarters tonight, got his first pick, and was flying around.
“He’s making a play for being top dog in his family.”
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