By DAVID SVIEN
Special to the News-Times
How sweet it is.
Delivering a ferocious second-half beatdown to their archrivals Friday night, the Coupeville High School football squad turned frustration into elation.
When the Wolves exited Waterman Field in Langley, after serenading sticky-fingered receiving ace Malachi Somes on his 18th birthday, they carried with them several things.
First, a 35-6 win over host South Whidbey, fueled by a 28-point explosion after halftime.
And with that victory, their first in six games this season, the Wolves reclaim ownership of The Bucket, that slightly dented trophy which has only grown in stature over the past 16 years.
Win, and win convincingly, as Coupeville did while senior quarterback Chase Anderson ran for three touchdowns and tossed another, and you also earn the right to talk all sorts of smack for a full year.
365 days. Gird your loins, Falcon faithful.
It’s likely to be a painful year down South, where the Falcons fall to 0-4 after absorbing the non-conference loss and losing what may have seemed like an iron grip on ye olde trophy.
For Coupeville, and a jubilant coach Bennett Richter, gone is the frustration of a seven-year dry spell, a period in which the Falcons won six straight Island rivalry clashes (and the 2020 game was cancelled thanks to a pandemic).
“This is why we do this!! This is why I coach!!” the Wolf head man bellowed, before promptly being swept up into a never-ending series of back slaps, hugs, photo ops with the hardware, and, maybe, possibly, even a few well-earned tears of joy.
There was a time when CHS won the Bucket game four times in six years, with former coaches Tony Maggio and Jon Atkins each leading two squads to the promised land.
But recent history had not been quite so kind to the Wolves, as Falcon gunslingers like Kody Newman and Parker Collins made their names leading the blue and white gridiron warriors to a string of victories.
South Whidbey celebrated Homecoming Friday, but on the field, the good times ended for the locals as, for once, the hottest QB playing was wearing red and black.
Anderson did get picked off once in his final gridiron battle with the next-door neighbors, but other than that, he was at the top of his game, mixing big runs with dynamic passes as he shredded the Falcons time and again.
Especially in the second half.
The game began as a fairly tense affair, with a fast-moving, almost penalty-free first quarter featuring only two drives and no points.
South Whidbey took the opening kickoff and marched 63 yards down the field — as my new pen from the $1.25 store literally exploded in my hand — only to be shut down at the most crucial moment by a fired-up Wolf defense.
I always have a back-up writing utensil, however, and, apparently, the Wolves also have some heavy hitters willing to rattle a few noggins.
Somes and Riley Lawless came up with big stops along the way, but it was Josh Stockdale who pulled down the South Whidbey ballcarrier short of the sticks on fourth down to force a turnover.
With the ball in its possession for the first time, Coupeville stayed on the ground, with Anderson, Davin Houston, and Liam Blas churning up yardage and keeping the clock running.
The Wolves actually waited until the first play of the second quarter to end the drive, as Anderson bolted around the left side on a 15-yard dash to the end zone to slap the first six points on the board.
The teams exchanged punts on the next two possessions, before things got wild in the waning moments of the half.
Coupeville recovered a fumble off of a bad Falcon snap and was ready to blow things open, only to be stuffed several times inside the 10-yard line. Compounding matters, the Wolves pushed a field goal try wide left, and what could have been 14-0 or 10-0 remained stuck at 7-0.
If Richter already didn’t have angina at the moment, all he could do was watch in horror as South Whidbey, racing the clock, drove 91 yards in 45 seconds, connecting on a 30-yard scoring strike as the clock flipped over to 0:00.
The Falcons promptly muffed the PAT, however, thanks to an awkward snap, and the extra-long halftime show roared into view with the game sitting at 7-6 in favor of Cow Town.
If you were expecting more of the same in the second half, plot twist. Only one team came back out of the locker room ready to unleash total freakin’ destruction.
That would be the men in red and black, as Coupeville brought out the whoopin’ stick and methodically spanked its hosts over the game’s final 24 minutes.
Anderson bolted for another score, on a six-yard slash, but only after Houston spun everyone out of their shoes on a 12-yard reverse and Anderson, bobbing and weaving like Muhammad Ali in his poetry-spouting prime, zipped a 19-yard pass to Somes on fourth-and-10.
With Wolf defensive dynamos like Jackson Sollars and Camden Glover hitting from every angle and thoroughly shutting down the Falcons, the CHS offense methodically went to work, making the scoreboard numbers pop.
Houston brought the fans to their feet on a kickoff return where he muffed the ball, snagged the runaway pigskin on the run, and still managed to pick up 20+ yards. Followed by his own 22-yard touchdown sprint two plays later.
Up 21-6 heading into the fourth, Coupeville got a 21-yard touchdown pass from Anderson to Aiden O’Neill and an 11-yard scoring run from its QB to set the final score, but that wasn’t all the highlights.
O’Neill, back after missing most of his junior season with an injury, picked off two Falcon passes in the final frame, helping ensure no late-game heroics.
Fresh off the win, the Wolves get their next two games at home, with Adna set to visit Mickey Clark Field Saturday, Oct. 18, before Friday Harbor comes to Whidbey Oct. 24 for the regular-season finale.
That game will be Senior Night for O’Neill, Glover, Anderson, Marquette Cunningham, Somes, and Jayme Carranza.
