Top-ranked Lakewood runs over South Whidbey in final conference game

Published 5:27 pm Friday, November 4, 2011

South Whidbey took another shot at evening its record Friday night against Anacortes in a district crossover match.

The Falcons played the Anacortes Seahawks (3-4 in Northwest Conference, 3-6 overall) after the Record went to press. South Whidbey hosted the game at Waterman Field.

Playing at home may help the Falcons, who are 2-2 when playing in Langley.

“Having home field advantage is going to play a big factor,” said Falcon senior co-captain Avery Buechner. “I really think we can throw against these guys a lot.”

Anacortes was difficult to gauge based on its overall record. The Seahawks defeated the Bellingham Red Raiders 42-27 this season. Bellingham blanked South Whidbey in the season opener 17-0 for its only victory this season.

The Falcons, however, played without junior kicker Cameron Coupe and sophomore quarterback Nick French.

In action last week, the Falcons faced their final regular season opponents at Lakewood.

Any talk about South Whidbey losing with a good effort vanished after Friday night’s 35-7 loss to Lakewood.

It was a thumping and the Falcons’ leaders knew they came out flat against the Cascade Conference’s best team.

“We started warmups wrong,” Buechner said. “I feel like everyone went in thinking, ‘They beat Archbishop (Murphy), what can we do?’”

Lakewood led 27-0 at halftime, and ran away with the game. Cougar running back Justin Peterson scored four touchdowns in the first half, including one receiving score.

South Whidbey’s defense that shutout Coupeville only six days earlier allowed almost 300 total rushing yards.

“It was just a lack of effort, I feel,” Buechner said. “They drove down the field, they just never scored from like five yards out. They’d get to our 30- or 40- (yard line), then just ran it in.”

The Falcons scored late in the fourth quarter on a long run by sophomore quarterback Nick French.

Yesterday was the last game for the Falcons (3-4, 4-5 overall) — a district crossover game that won’t qualify the winner for the playoffs.

“This is it for two-thirds of our team. I don’t see any less than going out every practice,” Buechner said. “We (seniors) had our last Monday (this week), which is weird to think about.”