Under pressure: Falcon football falters against Wildcats

Published 5:13 pm Tuesday, September 27, 2011

EVERETT — Insult was added to injury during South Whidbey’s 59-17 loss to Archbishop Murphy on Friday night.

The injuries were spread throughout the game and varied in severity.

South Whidbey’s starting senior running back Sam Lee was sidelined with a rib injury in the first quarter. Senior lineman Seth Eckert pulled a hamstring in the second quarter and did not return. Even a Falcons cheerleader was hurt.

The Wildcats’ defense was what stopped the Falcons and shocked their coaches, despite the offense scoring 52 of the 59 points.

“I wasn’t as impressed with their offense as I was with their defense,” said Falcons co-head coach Mark Hodson. “You get into a game like that, where you’re so outmatched in every position — there’s no shame in losing.”

Lee was knocked out of the game and onto the sidelines in the first quarter. He caught a pass out of the backfield on a screen to his own 36-yard line. As the pile of Wildcats (2-0 in Cascade Conference; 4-0 overall) stood up, Lee stayed down.

“I’ve had some rib injuries in the past and I’ve been practicing with it all week,” Lee said. “I hoped it wouldn’t be a factor. They stuck me in the right spot and I went off to the sidelines.”

South Whidbey was forced to punt two plays later.

Punter Mason Shoudy booted the ball to the 25-yard line where Wildcat punt returner Cameron Guy called for a fair catch, then dropped it and Falcon linebacker and fullback Aaron Curfman recovered it on the 20-yard line.

“We have one of the best long snapper’s in the conference in Daniel Sage,” Hodson said. “Mason has been a great surprise as a punter. He’s letting it fly.”

Curfman’s dive on the ball extended South Whidbey’s tally of recovered punts to three in four games. The only game the Falcons (1-1; 2-2) have not recovered a muffed punt was against Granite Falls — its only home game of the season so far.

More than that, South Whidbey has not allowed any return yards on punts.

“That’s one of our highlights to the season so far,” Hodson said. “When our punter goes out we know we have a chance to recover.”

That punt recovery set up Falcon junior Cameron Coupe to score South Whidbey’s first points. Coupe kicked a 31-yard field goal in the first quarter. It was the lone highlight in the first half, as the Falcons trailed 7-3.

“I was extremely happy about that,” Hodson said. “He’s gone to a great kicking camp the last two years and he’s really developed as a great kicker. It’s something he could do post-high school.”

Coupe returned two weeks ago from an ankle injury and resumed his field goal and kickoff duties, however he has yet to return on defense as a cornerback, or on offense as a receiver.

The insult came late in the second quarter.

Archbishop Murphy led 35-3 after an interception return by Eneliko Tevaga with three minutes remaining in the opening half. That was the second interception of the half thrown by Falcon sophomore quarterback Nick French, who finished with 63 passing yards and zero touchdowns.

He was harassed, hurried and hit all game by the swarming Wildcats’ defenders. All he saw from the pocket, or what remained of the pocket, were the Wildcats’ colors.

“Black and red,” French said.

The backfield was a similar sight for French’s tailback Lee.

“Archbishop Murphy is a really aggressive team,” Lee said. “They get their pads down, they rip through and they get a lot of people to the ball.”

The Falcons had great field position on the ensuing kickoff return.

Nash Grimm, a Falcon junior, returned it 34 yards to the midfield line. South Whidbey went four downs without gaining 10 yards to turn the ball over with 43 seconds remaining.

Rather than run the ball or take a knee to let time expire for the halftime break, Archbishop Murphy’s coordinators called for big passing plays.

The first was deflected by South Whidbey senior cornerback Alex Horn.

Then Wildcat running back Alex Galgano, who finished with 192 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries, ran 19 yards on a screen to the Falcons’ 38-yard line.

A face mask penalty moved the ball 15 yards closer to the end zone. The Wildcats almost scored another touchdown, but a holding penalty on Archbishop Murphy recalled a 23-yard touchdown run by Hans Vanderwel.

A pass near the end zone by Wildcat junior Camden Buchanan was dropped by sophomore Ryan Dorney as Falcon senior safety Avery Buechner hit him. Wildcat senior running back Alex Kramer carried the ball to the 11-yard line.

Then Archbishop Murphy called a timeout with 3.3 seconds left to bring on the field goal unit, which scored and gave the Wildcats a 38-3 lead at halftime.

“When you play against a really good team like that, you’re going to get better, even though it doesn’t look like that,” Hodson said. “That whole second half of that game was an extended practice for us.”

There was no slowing the Wildcats. In fact, the game’s speed increased as a mercy-rule of sorts went into effect for the second half. The game clock only stopped for scores, timeouts and injuries, and kept ticking down during out-of-bounds plays and first downs.

The Wildcats continued their attack in the third quarter. Galgano scored on a 40-yard run with 11 minutes left.

French threw his second interception as the pass was deflected into the hands of a Wildcat.

The turnovers didn’t bother South Whidbey’s coaching staff, however.

“You take a sophomore quarterback in there, and his eyes are wide open,” Hodson said.

“Nick’s doing a good job evolving into a really good quarterback. He was in a tough spot. For the most part, I wasn’t even worried about that stuff.”

That led to Tevaga scoring on a seven-yard run, giving the Wildcats a 52-3 lead.

Archbishop Murphy had one final score with its second-string units in the game. Curfman fumbled on the Wildcats’ 42-yard line, where the home team recovered it. Buchanan threw a 20-yard pass to the Falcons’ 38-yard line.

The next play, Wildcat freshman David Loveless scored a 38-yard touchdown run.

In the fourth quarter, the Falcons second stringers played shutout football, however large their deficit was. French connected with Buechner on a 15-yard pass to the Wildcats’ 38-yard line.

“We’ve got a great relationship,” French said about Buechner. “Avery being the other quarterback in the group, he’s really taught me a lot and not just in football, but life skills as well.”

A play-action pass allowed Curfman to scramble 38 yards through the middle of the defensive line, across to the left sideline and into the end zone.

South Whidbey trailed 59-10, but the Falcons played like it was the first quarter. Falcon sophomore Jose Chavez had a tackle for loss on Loveless on a fourth-down play at the 33-yard line. French threw to senior Taylor Todd for a 12-yard pass and a first down. Curfman rushed for three yards to the 17-yard line and gained an extra 10 yards on a face-mask penalty.

“Honestly, I was just ready to go and make history,” French said. “Everybody was saying ‘They’ve never lost a conference game before.’ I was ready to go. I was ready to do it. Hopefully in the next few years we’ll do it.”

On the next play, Curfman scored on a seven-yard carry through the middle of the defense. Coupe scored both point-after-touchdown kicks.

The loss, grim as it was for the Falcons, was not in vain. After the game, Hodson told his team to “feel the loss for 12 hours, then move on.” They gathered at the school Sunday to watch film and prepare for Friday night’s home game against King’s.

“The most important things that we took out of it were we are 1-1 in conference and the season’s far from over, and all the rest of the games are winnable for us,” Hodson said.