Braves blanked by Coupeville in lopsided grid loss

During La Conner High School’s NW2B football game at Coupeville Friday night a disoriented deer sauntered onto the field.

But Bambi had nothing to fear.

It was a young and injury-riddled Braves team that was in Coupeville’s crosshairs instead.

The host Wolves (1-2), paced by four long touchdowns by Scott Hilborn, extended La Conner’s scoreless streak to three games with a convincing 51-0 league triumph.

Hillborn scored on a 48-yard option pitch in the first period, returned a punt 51 yards in the second quarter for a TD and reached paydirt twice in the third frame, once on a 49-yard pass reception from quarterback Logan Downes and later on an elusive scamper from midfield.

Downes, Dominic Coffman and Johnny Porter added touchdown runs for the victors while Daylon Houston rounded out the Wolves’ scoring with a pass interception return and three conversion kicks.

Two other Coupeville touchdowns were waved off by penalties.

“We’re trying to be more explosive,” an understated Coupeville head coach Marcus Carr told the media afterward, “and everyone ran hard tonight.”

On the opposite sideline, first-year La Conner head coach Charlie Edwards lamented a second consecutive lopsided conference shutout loss for his club. The Braves were blanked 61-0 a week earlier by Friday Harbor.

La Conner fell 21-0 to 1A Sultan in its season opener and has since been plagued by nagging injuries that have kept the Braves from overcoming heavy graduation losses off the team that captured a league title during last spring’s five-game modified campaign.

Edwards was the defensive coordinator of that La Conner squad, whose head coach, Jeff Scoma, departed in June for Stanwood High.

“We shot ourselves in the foot early,” Edwards, a La Conner alum, said of the rough outing at Coupeville. “We had a good run in the second quarter when we moved the ball and made a few defensive stops.

“Then,” he said, “we had a few key players injured.”

Edwards said his youthful roster is making strides, though not necessarily ones that show up immediately on the scoreboard.

“The hardest part,” he told the Weekly News, “is seeing the pain in my players’ eyes. As a coach or a parent, I want to take that pain away. I feel as a coaching staff we are working hard and doing the right things to grow these players on the field, but more importantly in the classroom and in the community.”

La Conner next plays at Bellingham, a non-league game Oct. 8. Kickoff is 8 p.m.

In the meantime, Edwards said the Braves will work on the building blocks necessary to sustain a successful program.

“Respect, character, responsibility, hard work and aspiring to better every day are all things that we talk about every day,” he said.

The Braves will host Coupeville in a rematch Oct. 15, a week before sailing to Friday Harbor to complete the second half of their league schedule.