Making his first varsity start Saturday, James Vidoni delivered two huge sacks for a fired-up Wolf defense. (John Fisken photos)
Senior captains Uriel Liquidano (63), Jacob Martin (32) and Clay Reilly (2) celebrate bringing The Bucket back to Coupeville.
The even-year magic continues.
Kicking off Jon Atkins first season as head coach in style, the Coupeville High School football team crushed visiting South Whidbey 41-10 Saturday night, claiming The Bucket for the third time in five years.
The opening night non-conference win means the Wolves have already matched last season’s victory total and gives them Island bragging rights for a year.
After winning the showdown with their closest rivals in 2012 and 2014, 2016 offered Coupeville another taste of gridiron magic.
Only this time, it was a total rout.
Using a big-play offense and a bruising defense, the Wolves put the game away early, then emphatically stepped on the Falcons late in the game.
Up 20-0 after one quarter, Coupeville stretched the lead to 34-0 late in the third quarter, and they did it by controlling both sides of the line.
With a vengeance.
Letting their pads do the talking, CHS ripped open huge holes, then unleashed their weapons in all directions.
Setting the tone early was senior running back Jacob Martin, the team’s soft-spoken, rock-solid leader.
For three years he has sacrificed, blocking for others, doing the dirty work.
Saturday night it was his turn, and he answered the bell, big-time.
Taking a hand-off from quarterback Hunter Downes early in the first quarter, Martin exploded through an opening, shook off a would-be tackler and rumbled 39 yards for the first score of the season.
Leaving a trail of Falcons in his dust, the only thing which could have possibly caught up with him was the shouts of one of his former coaches, Charles Clark.
“I see you #32! I see you!!,” the well-liked gridiron guru exclaimed as he pumped both fists in the air from the top row of the bleachers.
Martin wasn’t done, either, later romping to the end zone on a 66-yard second quarter touchdown run in which he ping-ponged his way through the Falcons, then hit another gear and was gone, baby, gone.
In between his scoring strikes, Martin’s QB had his way with the Falcons, as well.
Returning to the field after missing much of his sophomore year with an injury, Downes scored on a one-yard keeper, following right behind Julian Welling’s crushing block, then spun an 18-yard TD pass to birthday boy Hunter Smith.
Up 27-0 coming out of the half, Coupeville offensive coordinator Brad Sherman, returning to coach at the school where he owns the passing records, set up Downes for the kind of play he once pulled off.
Double-pumping a Falcon rusher into the parking lot, Downes fired a BB that dropped right on to the fingertips of a sprinting Smith. 54 yards later the junior receiver was dropping the ball into the referee’s hands after scoring yet another touchdown.
South Whidbey, which hurt itself with a number of penalties, finally got on the board late in the third, but only when Coupeville committed a rare miscue.
A snap on a punt went a good ten feet over Clay Reilly’s head and sailed through the end zone for a safety, netting the Falcons two points and one of their few happy moments of the night.
South Whidbey notched its only touchdown early in the fourth, on a four-yard scramble by young QB Wesly Crain, then tacked on a two-point conversion.
The solace was brief, however, as on the ensuing kick-off, Coupeville opened up a final can of whup-ass.
Smith, who also picked off two passes on his cake day, punctuated things with his third touchdown of the night.
Taking the kick, he drifted slowly for a moment, waited for his blocks to develop, then hit warp speed and pierced a hole on the left side.
One moment he was perfectly still, the next he was but a blur, covering 70+ yards as the Falcons could do little but half-heartedly wave at him as he flew by.
While the frequent scoring was a genuine highlight, Coupeville was just as imposing on defense, with a number of players stepping up to have huge games for defensive coordinator Ryan King.
Senior Uriel Liquidano was a beast unleashed, spending most of his night gently cradling frightened Falcons as he slammed them to the turf after shedding would-be blockers.
Welling spiked a pass into the bleachers to force a turnover, Martin roared up the gut to destroy the suddenly-exposed QB for a sack that netted a loss of ten yards, and James Vidoni left some dents in some Falcon face masks.
The junior defensive end, making his first varsity start, unloaded on South Whidbey, delivering two crushing sacks that brought the Wolf faithful to their feet.
CHS frosh Sean Toomey-Stout, who at 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds gives up five inches and 90 pounds to Vidoni, was a revelation on special teams, blowing up return men like he had been shot out of a cannon.
All in all it was a game Coupeville’s new head coach will treasure.
“Our line played really, really well tonight,” Atkins said. “They sustained their blocks and made big holes for our guys.
“We wanted this to be the start of something big, something that will last a long time. When they look back 10 years from now, we want them to remember a night like tonight.
“Now we just need to keep moving forward.”
As the clock ticked down, Martin sought out his fellow senior captains, Reilly and Liquidano, and the four-year veterans embraced as a trio off to the side.
For a moment, it was just the three of them, and then they pulled Downes and Smith and others into their circle and the celebration really took off.
It may not stop for a very long time.
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