“Good evening, my name’s Jonathan Thurston and I’ll be droppin’ highlights all game long.” (John Fisken photo)
He wasn’t messing around.
Jonathan Thurston played ferociously all night Monday, refusing to back down against the big boys from Anacortes.
Even in the final seconds of a 44-14 JV football loss to the 2A school, the Coupeville High School junior went down fighting, trying to pull in a pass through double coverage, then smacking one defender’s hands away after the Seahawk got extra handsy.
While his team may have lost — and the game was much closer than it sounds for a very long time — Thurston was electric, hauling in a pair of touchdown passes on offense, then flipping to defense and snagging an interception.
Flying from sideline to sideline, his bright orange shoes leading the way, he showed why he’s become a fan favorite at Mickey Clark Field.
Thurston got the pro-Wolf crowd on its feet early, slipping behind the Anacortes defense to haul in a Shane Losey pass, then hitting the jets for an 83-yard scoring play.
After Jake Hoagland crashed through the Seahawk line to cash in the two-point conversion, Coupeville had an 8-0 lead with just a minute and forty five seconds having ticked off the clock.
Call the game at that moment and the smallest 1A school in the state would have had a beautiful upset.
Unfortunately, Anacortes, not having to catch a ferry like some other schools, was content to stick around and use their superior beef to eventually wear down the ever-scrappy Wolves.
Three first-quarter touchdowns, all coming on basically the same play — running right at the Wolf defense like a battering ram — staked the Hawks to a 22-8 lead that they would never relinquish.
Coupeville didn’t fold, however, holding Anacortes scoreless in the second quarter, with Ethan Marx knocking down a pass at a key moment and Tavian Woolett picking off a potential touchdown pass at the halftime buzzer.
The Wolves couldn’t score themselves, though, despite putting together a fairly sustained drive.
With Losey completing tosses to Thurston, Cameron Toomey-Stout and Hoagland, and Anacortes committing two fairly boneheaded penalties, CHS was on the move.
Hoagland kept the drive alive with a gorgeous fourth down catch in which he planted his toes a millimeter inside the sidelines as he hauled in a pass under duress, but an interception two plays later doomed things.
Getting the ball back after a punt, Losey kept slinging, and Hoagland busted a catch for 42 yards, taking the ball down to the five.
The Wolves, who spent the night hitting on the big play but coming up short on small ones, couldn’t punch the ball in, though, letting Anacortes escape one more time.
While the game slipped away a bit in the second half, with a couple of scores making things seem more lopsided than they had been, Coupeville wasn’t done with adding some new hits to the highlight reel.
Hoagland went airborne for a sweet mid-air catch that netted 20 yards, Thurston hauled in a five-yard scoring strike and Axel Partida and James Vidoni both came up with bone-rattling defensive stops.
The biggest roar (and biggest ensuing groan) came when the Anacortes quarterback coughed up the ball and Wolf freshman Matt Hilborn caught the bouncing ball in mid-stride.
Flying down the field, #80 brought the ball back 84 yards for a touchdown.
Or, at least everyone, including at least one ref who signaled a score, thought he did.
The ultimate call came from another ref whose seeing eye dog went missing mid-game, who declared Hilborn down on about the one-inch line.
While Losey and Thurston would hook up for the second time mere moments later, that score was rightfully Hilborn’s.
Even the seeing eye dog could tell you that.
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Coupeville Sports 