The Coupeville High School football team can erase the memories of a winless Cascade Conference season, including a 35-0 loss at South Whidbey Friday, Oct. 21, with a strong showing in the playoffs.

The Wolves play Meridian Friday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. at Oak Harbor’s Wildcat Memorial Stadium in a play-in game to determine who will advance to tri-district.

After a rugged regular season, Coupeville won’t find the going any easier against Meridian. The 6-2 Trojans are ranked sixth in the state Associated Press poll and are coming off a 48-13 waxing of fifth-ranked Nooksack Valley.

Meridian lost to Nooksack 31-21 earlier this year, and its only other loss came at the hands of undefeated Sequim, which is the state’s No. 4-ranked 2A school.

If Coupeville upsets Meridian, it will move on in the playoffs and play on the road at a yet to be determined site. If the Wolves fall to the Trojans, it will conclude the season with a nonleague game at home next week against another non-playoff team.

Three lost fumbles and a handful of injuries made life miserable for the Wolves (0-7, 1-7) at South Whidbey (3-3, 4-4) last Friday.

Coupeville coughed up the ball on its first play, setting up South Whidbey for the game’s only first-quarter points. Moments later the Wolves lost the heart of its defense when Dalton Engle went down with a broken fibula.

Coach Jay Silver said Riley Boyd (broken arm), Brett Arnold (knee) and Dylan Warren (concussion) were also knocked out of the game as the Falcons steadily pulled away.

South Whidbey went up 14-0 at the break, then tacked on a TD in the third quarter and another two in the fourth.

Coach Jay Silver said, “If it could go wrong, it did. We lost every one of our regular linebackers. It would have been a different game if we would have had those kids out there.”

With the linebackers out, the Falcons rolled up the rushing yards, led by Patrick Monell with 178.

Meanwhile, South Whidbey limited the Wolves to fewer than 150 yards of total offense.