Wolves pound Braves in opener

A big second quarter that featured four intercepted passes, one of which was returned 32 yards for a touchdown, carried the Coupeville Wolves to a crushing 49-14 defeat of the La Conner Braves Friday evening.

The Wolves dominated the non-league action from the opening kickoff to the delight of the home town fans packed into Mickey Clark Field for the first game of the 2007 season.

“We played pretty good and I’m happy,” coach Ron Bagby said. “That’s kind of the way you want to start the season.”

Clay Hughes ran the opening kickoff back 73 yards for a Coupeville touchdown, but the play was called back on an illegal block.

Undaunted, senior quarterback James Smith directed a nine-play 82-yard drive, capped by a 12-yard touchdown toss to Alex Evans, to put the Wolves on the board.

Gary Manker followed with the first of his seven extra points to make the score 7-0.

“I think we came out strong in our first game,” Evans said. “It’s good to start off like this as a senior.”

Hughes scored on a 12-yard scamper with 1:28 remaining in the first quarter to put Coupeville ahead 14-0 after the first 12 minutes of play.

“Something new this year is we are really spreading out the offense,” he said. “I really think this makes us a better team because they don’t know what’s coming.”

Smith hit Steven McDonald with a 41-yard touchdown strike on the first play of the second quarter and at the 10:16 mark, McDonald picked off an errant Kenny Ketcham pass and returned the ball 32 yards for another score and a 28-0 lead.

“Those touchdowns felt good,” he said. “We had a lot of guys step up tonight and play really well.”

Nearing the end of the second quarter, but not before Smith scored on a 12-yard run, Bagby began taking starting players out of the game.

“It wasn’t one individual that stood out more than anyone else,” Smith said. “We had five or six guys score tonight. Everyone was flying around and making tackles on defense and our offensive line did a great job. I don’t think there was any penetration.”

The Wolves’ reserves played the entire second half.

La Conner got on the board with 53 seconds left in the third period when Ketcham connected with Max Alotrico on a 40-yard scoring pass.

In the final period, Coupeville quarterback Jason Bagby directed two scoring drives.

The sophomore scored the first one on a 7-yard run and Justin Adams put the final points on the board on a 23-yard dash with 2:11 remaining in the game.

La Conner scored its final points on an 8-yard run by Brandon Drye.

Coupeville had 330 yards in total offense, including 230 on the ground.

Adams carried the ball 12 times for 85 yards and Hughes had 10 carries for 63.

Smith was 6-for-8 in passing good for 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“We still have some things we need to work on like our special team play,” coach Bagby said. “We also had some penalties that shouldn’t have happened, but overall I’m pretty pleased. We had the opportunity to play a lot of our younger kids tonight and that was good.”

Coupeville returns to action Friday, Sept. 7, traveling to Concrete for another non-league game. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Coupeville 49, La Conner 14

First quarter

C — Alex Evans 12 pass from James Smith (Gary Manker kick) 8:46

C — Clay Hughes 12 run (Manker kick) 1:28

Second quarter

C — Steven McDonald 41 pass from Smith (Manker kick) 11:47

C — McDonald 32 interception return (Manker kick) 10:10

C — Smith 12 run (Manker kick) 5:12

Third quarter

LC — Max Alotrico 40 pass from Kenny Ketcham (Matt Burlingame pass from Ketcham) :53

Fourth quarter

C — Jason Bagby 11 run (Manker kick) 10:07

LC — Brandon Drye 8 run (Pass failed) 3:55

C — Justin Adams 23 run (Manker kick) 2:11

La Conner Coupeville

First downs 6 15

Rushes-yards 31-72 36-230

Passing yards 105 100

Comp-Att 9-20-4 1 6-8-1 2

Fumbles-lost 2-1 3-0

Penalties-yards 6-41 5-45

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — La Conner: Drye 9-49, Unknown 1-12, Ketcham 6-7, Thostenson 9-6, Burlingame 2-6, Anderson 1-minus 3, Moreau 3-minus 5. Coupeville: Justin Adams 12-85, Clay Hughes 10-63, Mike Churchill 2-36, Ben Lawrence 3-30, James Smith 4-14, Steven McDonald 1-14, Jason Bagby 2-8, Ian Smith 1-6.

PASSING— La Conner: Ketcham 4-14-4 1 74, Unknown 5-5-0 31. Coupeville: Smith 6-8-1 2 100, Bagby 0-0-0.

RECEIVING — La Conner: Thostenson 3-34, Alotrico 1-40, Willey 1-14, Zavala 3-11, Anderson 1-6. Coupeville: McDonald 2-43, Evans 2-32, Kyle Wilcox 2-25.

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