Coupeville Sports

   Wolf defenders like Teo Keilwitz, seen in an earlier game, held up strongly in the first half Monday. (John Fisken photos)

They hung with the big dogs for a half.

The Coupeville High School boys soccer squad put up a strong fight for the opening 40 minutes Monday, but a rain of second-half goals by host Klahowya proved to be too much to handle.

Trailing just 1-0 at the break, the Wolves fell 5-0 to the Eagles, who won their 17th straight 1A Olympic League game.

The streak is the third-longest across all league sports, trailing just Coupeville girls basketball (27-0) and Klahowya girls soccer (20-0).

With the loss, Coupeville drops to 2-3 in league play, 3-7-1 overall, and slides back into third-place in the standings.

It trails Klahowya (5-0, 7-2-1) and Port Townsend (2-2, 4-4), while holding a game-and-a-half edge (and a tiebreaker) on Chimacum (0-4, 2-6).

The Wolves return home to play three straight on their own field, starting with a visit from Chimacum Thursday.

The regular season ends on the road April 28 at Port Townsend.

Playoff info hasn’t been posted yet, but if things stay as they have in the first two years of the league, the top three schools will advance to districts.

Monday’s clash with the league’s titan was close for a half, then the Eagles took advantage of their speed on turf to blitz the Wolves, who normally play on natural grass.

“After break they came after us a bit harder and were able to put a few goals in to open up their lead,” said Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson.

Still, even in a loss, there were positives for Coupeville.

Ethan Spark, William Nelson and Aram Leyva, among others, had strong shots on goal which were rejected by Klahowya’s keeper, and the Wolves continue to show progress as a team.

“We keep improving and I really liked the effort the boys put out there,” Kyle Nelson said. “We had a few good opportunities and came close to putting in a goal of our own.”