Coupeville Sports

“We can’t feel our legs!!” (Kali Barrio photos)

“My fingers are frozen this way!!”

If conditions were brutal Saturday, they were nearly unplayable Sunday.

Returning to the skating rink … uh … soccer field at Ft. Nugent, the Whidbey Islanders GU17 select soccer squad was barely able to play. After a tough 3-0 loss to Newport FC of Bellevue in the first of three State Cup tournament games, they might have wished they hadn’t.

Newport entered the game a huge favorite and did nothing to dispel that, pushing the action and notching two of their goals before halftime. The Islanders (1-2-1) changed up strategy in the second half, putting more attackers up front, but even then were unable to breach the visitors’ defense.

“I did expect that this team was going to be better than most teams we have faced and I was right,” said Islanders coach Sean LeVine. “They were bigger and older than 95% of our girls, but I also thought the ice rink we played on at Ft. Nugent would be an equalizer.”

Even getting the game started took a bit of time, as refs and coaches met and discussed postponing or cancelling the mid-winter game. For reasons that probably made little sense to fans who thought they were in Green Bay, the game went on.

“Field conditions were worse today than yesterday,” LeVine said. “The ground was very hard and slick. As the game went on, field conditions worsened as we witnessed more players sliding around.

“Field conditions are not the reason for the loss, though.”

Whidbey had scoring opportunities, but Newport escaped from harm’s way when Emily Miesle was tripped by the slick field as she went for one shot and Selena Medina crunched a second shot that was tipped over the bar at the last second by the goaltender.

LeVine singled out Jenn Spark for her play, which included a slide tackle on a speedy Newport player to save a one-on-one and a half volley, one touch shot off a throw in from Paige Waterman that just missed going in.