Senior Clay Reilly fought hard on both sides of the ball Friday, recovering a fumble and hauling in a 31-yard pass. (John Fisken photo)
Second verse, not as sweet as the first.
Coming off a big win in week one, the Coupeville High School football team was flying high headed into Friday night’s clash at La Conner.
Unfortunately, a big, bruising, highly-efficient and ultimately pretty cold-blooded Braves squad reminded the very young Wolves there’s still a lot of work to do if they want to compete with the big boys.
By the time La Conner was done rolling to a 53-6 win, punctuating it by choosing to score with just 14 seconds to play rather than take a knee, a fair amount of damage had been done.
The key will be how the Wolves, who have just three seniors on their roster, respond to their first setback of the season.
“I liked that we kept fighting all the way,” said Coupeville coach Jon Atkins as he stood on a somber sideline after the game.
“We knew going in this would probably be the best team we face this season and it would be a tough one,” he added. “Now we gotta bounce back and prove we can get a win after a loss and get right back on track.”
A big key for the Wolves as they head into week three, when they host Nooksack Valley, also 1-1, in the final non-conference game on the schedule, will be to cut down on turnovers.
Coupeville was stung in the first half Friday by two huge miscues deep in La Conner territory.
Trailing 6-0 and with the ball in their hands for the first time, the Wolves drove from their own 29 to the Braves 12, with a 31-yard pass play from Hunter Downes to Clay Reilly helping move the chains.
But with Coupeville knocking on the door of making it a tie game, or taking the lead, it coughed up the ball, losing a fumble on the nine-yard line.
La Conner took immediate advantage, pulling off an 84-yard touchdown pass just three plays later.
After the Braves tacked on another score on the first play of the second quarter, the Wolves suffered their other huge momentum-killer.
Putting together a solid drive, keyed by a long pass from Downes to Hunter Smith, CHS made a play for the end zone, only to have La Conner standout Budda Luna jump a route and pick off the ball.
With an open field ahead of him, he hurtled 89 yards to the end zone, putting the game on ice.
Coupeville finally got on the board with a little under seven minutes to play in the first half, when Downes cranked a ball down the right sideline and Smith outran his defender to snag the ball for a 48-yard touchdown strike.
It was the fourth touchdown of the season for the junior receiver.
That was about it for the large contingent of Wolf faithful who traveled over to La Conner, however, as, other than a few plays here and there, the rest of the night was fairly uneventful.
Reilly recovered a fumble deep in his own territory to end one Braves drive, Uriel Liquidano stuffed a play right at the line of scrimmage and drove the runner back for a loss, and Jacob Martin chased down a breakaway runner from behind, preventing a score.
Smith came dangerously close to breaking off a kickoff return for a touchdown for the second straight week, but got snagged at the last second and had to settle for a 55-yard jaunt when he wanted 75 yards.
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