ANACORTES – Wide left. And, when the Seahawk 31-yard field goal attempt in overtime was missed, The Pioneers picked up their first win of the year, a 24-21 victory on Friday night.
In the varsity debut of senior quarterback Cody Coppinger, it was his legs, not his arm, that sparked the Nooksack Valley offense. The 6-foot-3 185-pounder ran for two touchdowns, as well as a team-high 121 yards on 22 carries.
In fact, the Pioneer offense ran strong between the tackles all game, totaling 272 yards on the ground. Junior speedster Jordan Silva finished with 107 yards rushing on 13 carries, one of which was a dazzling 70-yard touchdown in the third quarter which saw tremendous effort to get over the goal line. Senior running back Scout Whittern picked up 44 well-earned yards on nine carries.
The Nooksack Valley defense did well against the run, as Anacortes averaged just 3.3 yards per carry for the game, and the Seahawks managed to only complete 29% of their passes. Unfortunately, for the Pioneers, the completions went for big gains, which helped Anacortes stay in the game.
After a 7-7 tie at halftime, a 14-14 tie at the end of the third, it only made sense that the game would go into overtime tied at 21.
The Pioneers possessed the ball first, and were able to drive down to the 13-yard line, where they settled on the 30-yard field goal by the left-footed Whittern.
Just like in year’s past, Whittern serves as the kicker on longer field goal attempts while getting a break on extra points. Senior Jeff Boykin was very steady, making all three of his attempts on points after touchdowns.
Anacortes then had its turn to posses the ball, but the Seahawk field goal attempt on fourth down was missed, and the game was over.
Nooksack Valley freshman defensive lineman Duke Halaapiapi had quite a game, totaling 7.5 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and two passes batted down. Whittern had six tackles from his safety position, and he broke up a team-high four passes.
The Pioneers (1-2) will travel to Blaine (0-3) to take on the Borderites on Thursday at 7:00.
Nooksack Valley 24
Anacortes 21
NV 0 7 7 7 3 – 24
ANA 7 0 7 7 0 – 21
ANA – 9 yard touchdown run (kick good)
NV – C. Coppinger 3 run (Boykin kick)
NV – Silva 70 run (Boykin kick)
ANA – 40 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
NV – C. Coppinger 33 run (Boykin kick)
ANA – 18 yard touchdown pass (kick good)
NV – Whittern 30 FG
NV ANA
44-272 Rushing Att-Yards 38-124
3-9-0 Comp-Att-Int 7-24-0
12 Passing yards 186
Individual Leaders
RUSHING – NV: C. Coppinger 22-121, Silva 13-107, Whittern 9-44. ANA: N/A.
PASSING – NV: C. Coppinger 3-9-0-12. ANA: N/A.
RECEIVING – NV: Silva 1-4, Kingma 1-6, Kimball 1-6. ANA: N/A.
