Coupeville’s young football team ran into a veteran squad from a much larger school, and that equation resulted in a 41-0 loss at Sequim Friday, Sept. 11.
Sequim held Coupeville to less than 100 yards in total offense, forced eight punts and rolled to its second one-sided win of the season.
A week earlier, Sequim thumped Chimacum, Coupeville’s next opponent, 43-6.
Coupeville (0-2) begins Olympic League play when it meets Chimacum (0-2) at Port Townsend’s Memorial Field at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18.
Chimacum fell 33-28 to Forks Friday.
Sequim, which has three times as many students as Coupeville, held the Wolves to only 86 yards of offense.
Thanks to six sacks, Coupeville finished with a minus 37 yards rushing.
“We struggled to pick up their blitzes,” coach Brett Smedley said.
“Our running game had a lot of missed assignments in regard to blocking,” he added. “This is something that we will continue to clean up.”
When the protection held up, the air attack was on target, as three different passers completed 75 percent of their throws (21 of 28) for 123 yards.
Sophomore Hunter Downes tossed 19 passes, completing 16 for 100 yards; he had one interception.
Freshman Gabe Eck hit four of eight passes for 13 yards, while senior C.J. Smith completed his only throw for 10 yards.
Wiley Hesselgrave caught five passes for 56 yards, Hunter Smith grabbed eight for 24 and C.J. Smith three for 26.
Jacob Martin was the leading runner, tallying 12 yards on seven carries.
Lathom Kelley, Coupeville’s top rusher and tackler in the opening game at South Whidbey, was injured early and did not get a carry.
Smedley said Kelley “should be fine moving forward.”
Freshman Ty Eck paced the Coupeville defense with eight tackles, freshman Chris Battaglia had six and senior Mitchell Losey five.
Battaglia and senior Brenden Gilbert recorded sacks.
Sequim took control early, scoring two touchdowns in each of the first two quarters.
“Sequim is a very good team, they are a senior-lead team with a ton of experience,” Smedley said. “We are a very young team at a lot of key positions. With that comes mistakes. We are making mistakes and learning from them. I am extremely encouraged by the progression of our team as a whole and look forward to next week’s game at Chimacum.”
