Coupeville Sports

She’s a saint. An umbrella-bearing saint. (Robert Pelant photo)

There are many things about Thursday night’s Coupeville High School girls’ soccer game that we could talk about.

The rain that came at the start, went away for awhile, then returned with a vengeance for the second half.

The way a senior-dominated team continued to fight and scrap, sliding across the grass and banging balls off of people’s faces long after their final home game had slid out of their grasp. With eight girls wearing the red and black for the final time in front of their parents and classmates, they battled valiantly in a game that was closer than the 5-0 score in favor of Granite Falls might indicate.

The rain, which, when it started coming, came and came and came some more.

The surreal sight of dozens of little yellow goldfish crackers, strewn across the bleachers where they had come to rest after one student’s misadventure with opening a bag had gone terribly, terribly wrong. As the rain poured down, the goldfish soaked up the water and grew twice their size before gently crumbling apart.

The unmistakable vocal stylings of football player turned press box announcer Kole Kellison, who once again added his own understated flair to the proceedings.

We could talk about all these things, but I begin by paying tribute to Christy Marx.

And why you ask? Because she’s the mom of one of those seniors (Haley Marx) who went down playing their hearts out? Well sure, but the real reason — she came with two umbrellas and she GAVE ME ONE OF HER OWN FREE WILL, SO I’M NOT DROWNED RIGHT NOW.

The woman is a saint.

On the field, the Wolves played Granite Falls almost to a standstill for much of the first half. The Tigers finally breached the net with just under nine minutes before the half on a ball that hit CHS goalie McKayla Bailey’s arms and popped out of her grasp at the last second.

A long, booming shot well over Bailey’s head with three minutes to play ran the score to 2-0, then, with the rain slashing down in the second half, things got sloppy and Granite Falls tacked on three more goals.

But, even to the end, the Wolves scrapped. Senior defender Anna Bailey sacrificed her body repeatedly, while her running mate, Kelsey Miranda, subtly hip-checked a dangerous Tiger into the first row at one point.

As the final seconds ticked down, few Wolf fans had fled the rain, and they continued to cheer their young women, who honored themselves by never hanging their heads and leaving their last ounce of strength on the field.

While the won-loss record (1-14 with a road match-up against King’s still looming) has not been what they might have liked, they have never given in and remained a team to the end. It was a point driven home by their coach, Dan d’Almedia.

On his Facebook wall he posted: “Learned something from my team tonight. Thought a 5-0 final against Granite Falls would have spoiled our senior banquet. Absolutely not. Laughter, tears and thoughtful farewells turned that loss into the biggest win in program history. Cream rises again!”

Well, when they have moms like Christy Marx, what do you expect?