Coupeville Sports

   Aram Leyva (left) smiles because he knows he can’t be stopped on the soccer pitch. (John Fisken photo)

Mercer Island has money, Cow Town has skills.

Sparked by its Coupeville mercenaries, the North Whidbey Deception boys’ soccer squad pulled out a 2-1 victory Saturday afternoon.

The victory propelled the booters to 5-1 on the season and keeps them within shouting distance of winning a league title.

In typical fashion, the future Wolf stars gave their opponent a brief bit of hope, then crushed said hope, hard.

Mercer Island punched in a goal off of a penalty kick to take the early lead, then the Coupeville contingent took control of the game, teaming up to score both of North Whidbey’s goals.

Aram Leyva set up the equalizer, dropping the ball behind the Mercer Island defense.

Running mate Matthew Kelley took it from there, drawing out the goalie before banging home the ball with his left foot.

Not content with a mere tie, Whidbey got the winning goal on a play set up by Coupeville’s Jake Mitten.

The lanky CMS seventh grader popped the ball into the general area of the goal, leaving it there for Leyva and Kelley to converge on.

Corralling the ball a millisecond before it skipped out of bounds, Leyva spun and shot a rocket off of the goalie’s hip, banking it in like a pool hustler taking money from a patsy.

After that, it was all up to the Deception defense, and it went into lock-down mode, sending the richniks back to their mansions crying sweet tears of regret.