Coupeville Sports

Jeremy Copenhaver doin’ what he does. (John Fisken photo)

For 54 minutes, it looked like a win.

Unfortunately, high school soccer games are 80 minutes long, and eventually a scrappy Coupeville High School defense fell under the onslaught of goal scorer extraordinaire Lucas Swanson Monday night.

With Swanson finding the back of the net three times in less than 30 minutes, visiting King’s came from behind to edge the Wolves 3-1 in a close, highly competitive game that CHS coach Paul Mendes hailed as “the best we played all season.”

“We are making progress and need to keep working hard to improve our game,” Mendes added.

Now 0-8 overall, 0-7 in Cascade Conference play, the Wolves will look to turn things around in the second half of the season. Five of their final eight games will be at home, with a sixth just down the road in Langley against South Whidbey.

Two bright signs pointing forward are the goal-scoring touch of sophomore forward Jeremy Copenhaver, who netted his second score of the season, and the solid play in the net of sophomore Joel Walstad, standing in for starter Kole Kellison.

Copenhaver opened the scoring on an unassisted play, dribbling by two players for a “close-range, well-placed shot” at the 22-minute mark.

“It was a good start for us, putting their defense under a lot of pressure early on,” Mendes said.

The Wolves clung to the lead until well after halftime, with the eventual game-winner not coming until there was just four minutes left on the clock.