Fortune smiles on Coupeville

Coupeville High School’s football team has experienced a string of bad luck in recent weeks including losing a couple of key players due to injury and being forced to forfeit two games because of an academically ineligible player on the roster.

It was about time something went right for the Wolf Pack and Friday afternoon at King’s High School everything came together.

The fates were smiling on the beleaguered red, black and white when James Smith rushed for two touchdowns and Steven McDonald ran for another score in the fourth quarter, and Coupeville came away with a much deserved 24-14 victory.

The first league win of the 2007 season is even more important

because it assures the Wolves the class 1A number-one seed from the Cascade League into the sub-district playoffs. “That was the one we knew we had to have,” coach Ron Bagby said. “You’d like to have had all of those other ones, but this was the one that gave us the number-one seed.”

Coupeville will be hosting the first game in the sub-district playoffs and Bagby said it will probably be against Friday Harbor.

“We played them so close last year in the sub-district,” he said. “They are not as strong as they were last year and they are certainly a team we can play with. If we play well, we’ll beat them.”

Against King’s the Wolves put the first points on the board in the opening quarter on a 1-yard Smith run. Gary Manker’s kick made the score 7-0.

King’s responded early in the second period on a 74-yard pass from Jeff Mason to Nick Swanson to tie the score, but a 25-yard Manker field goal gave the Wolves a 10-7 halftime advantage.

Smith scored his second TD

on a 2-yard run in the third quarter to up the lead to 17-7, but a 55-yard Mason to Swanson connection in the fourth quarter kept the Knights in the game.

“Those two passing plays were big ones for them,” Bagby said. “We stopped them and stopped them on defense and then they managed to break them off.”

Bagby said offensively the Wolves played a good game.

“Dillon Hall ran the ball well

for us and so did Justin Adams.

We even put Steve McDonald in and he also ran well,” Bagby said. “Those guys picked up the slack and we rushed for a couple hundred yards.”

McDonald’s 18-yard dash put the final points on the board and the game out of reach.

Hall led Coupeville’s rushing attack carrying the ball 24 times for 109 yards, McDonald had 45 yards on 13 carries and Adams toted the ball four times for an additional 26 yards.

Smith was 5-for-9 passing for 26 yards and threw one interception.

Davion Watkins and Smith led the defense with eight solo tackles each and Alex Evans had seven.

Coupeville hosts Lakewood for homecoming Friday.

“Lakewood has a good team and they throw the ball,” Bagby said. “They have some athletic kids and they usually put a lot of points on the board when they come to town. Hopefully, we’ll be able to slow them down and put some points up ourselves.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Mickey Clark Field.

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