Coupeville Sports

     Kole Kellison, seen here in a game earlier this season, made several spectacular saves Wednesday.

“Hey ref, have a nice trip back to Cedarcrest on the school bus with the team!”

The mood was not a happy one Wednesday, as Coupeville High School boys’ soccer fans announced their displeasure with the three-man referee crew loudly and often.

From a highly questionable call that set the visitors up with a game-busting penalty kick to a yellow card being issued to Josh Wilsey after he seemed to be the one getting roughed up, a fair amount of calls seemed to go against the Wolves.

Though even the most ardent of fans would have to admit that the 4-0 loss couldn’t totally be laid at the feet of the refs.

For one thing, being blind, they wouldn’t see anything at their feet…

The defeat, Coupeville’s ninth straight to open the season, wasn’t for a lack of effort. Goaltender Kole Kellison made numerous saves, some brilliant, and the goals that did get past him weren’t easy shots to snuff.

The Wolves scrapped on defense, with Brett Arnold, Luke Pelant and Danny Savalza frequently putting their bodies in harms way, but the team’s season-long offensive struggles continued. Despite a couple of brief looks at the net, Coupeville was blanked for the sixth time this year.

Trailing 1-0 in a hard-fought, evenly-matched scrap, the Wolves got knifed in the back with 18 minutes to play in the first half.

Out of the box and fighting for his life, Kellison blocked a shot, ended up on the ground and went after the ball as a Cedarcrest player went to kick it.

To everyone but the ref, it appeared the Cedarcrest striker slipped and went down on his own, but Kellison was whistled for a penalty, setting up a penalty kick as the Wolf fans howled.

The resulting score seemed to break Coupeville’s spirit for a bit, but it regrouped in the second half, which became much, much rougher, with players from both teams thumping on each other.

Cedarcrest’s third goal was a spectacular one, as a laser shot went off the top bar and shot straight back to a Cedarcrest player, who buried the rebound in the corner of the net on a truly beautiful goal.

By that time, though, Wolf fans had had enough of the refs and were not in the mood to appreciate the rival artistry.

Wilsey went to the bench after his yellow card, followed by a flop of epic proportions by a visiting cream puff, who did a cartwheel after being brushed by a Wolf and then popped up and made a dramatic, Oscar-worthy show of crying as, for once, the ref ignored him.

Of course, if the ref was blind, maybe he just didn’t see his theatrics…