Coupeville Sports

Kenzie Perry

They’re back, just not all of them.

After a break brought on by the high school season, the GU18 Whidbey Islanders select soccer team returned to the pitch Saturday in a game marred a bit by rust and missing players.

With goalkeeper Kenzie Perry controlling as much of the damage as possible, the Islanders fell 3-0 to the visiting Tracyton Pumas.

“While every player individually had moments of inspired and skilled play, as a whole there were too many uninspired moments and way too many mistakes,” said Islander coach Sean LeVine. “Defensively, where our team is historically pretty solid, we made too many errors that they capitalized on.”

The Islanders were playing without Ayla Muller (ACL surgery), Jacki Ginnings (concussion) and Bailee Olson (foot injury).

The absence of Muller, who is out for the season, meant Perry was in goal the entire game, instead of rotating out into the field. That limited Whidbey a bit.

“Kenzie was handcuffed to the goal for 90 minutes. She is a great keeper, but she is also a beast of a forward and it hurts us offensively to not have her on the field,” LeVine said. “However, she kept the score from being 0-6.”

Perry made 10 saves, while the three shots that found the back of the net came on “great shots.”

Also stepping up strongly were Becca Pabona, Selena Medina and Jacalyn Hefflefinger. With the missing players, Pabona was playing out of position at right defender, and sparkled as usual.

As did her two teammates.

“Selena combines skill and aggression and gave us our best chances offensively, while Jacalyn has a motor that never stops,” LeVine said. “Jac plays hard from whistle to whistle and is a good example for her teammates.”

The Islanders’ next match is 11 AM Jan. 5 at Ft. Nugent Park, then the squad kicks off State Cup tournament play after that.