Coupeville Sports

   Sage Renninger set up the winning goal in a 3-2 thriller Tuesday night. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Playoff ticket? Punched.

While the postseason brackets haven’t been released yet, three teams have advanced out of the 1A Olympic League every year the conference has been active.

If that stays true, and there seems to be no reason it won’t, the Coupeville High School girls soccer squad has clinched one of those slots.

Riding a late goal from breakout freshman star Genna Wright, the Wolves escaped with a nail-biting 3-2 win over visiting Chimacum Tuesday night.

The victory lifts CHS to 4-1 in league play, 6-4 overall and pulls it within a half game of league leader Klahowya (4-0, 9-0).

Port Townsend (1-3, 2-6) and Chimacum (0-5, 0-6) round out the standings, and, with the loss, the Cowboys can’t finish ahead of Coupeville.

If both teams were to take opposite paths and somehow end up tied at 4-5 in league play at the end of the season, the Wolves would own a tiebreaker for winning the season series.

While Tuesday’s game wasn’t a romp like the first time the schools played — back then Coupeville strolled to a 7-2 win — it showcased the Wolves at their gritty best.

Kalia Littlejohn found the back of the net early in the game to stake CHS to a lead, but the plucky Cowboys responded with a pair of goals to shake things up.

“After that we settled down and got our defense in order,” Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson said.

Littlejohn banged home her 15th goal of the season midway through the first half to knot the game at two, and that’s where it stayed for quite some time.

Coupeville had numerous second-half opportunities, but the Cowboys escaped time and again, until Sage Renninger broke the defense.

The senior captain rifled a “well-taken corner kick” and put it on Wright’s toe, allowing the young sharpshooter to flick it past the net-minder with “a great finish.”

It was Wright’s eighth score of the season, leaving her just two shy of the team single-season record for goals by a freshman.

That mark of ten goals was set two years ago by none other than Littlejohn.

Now midway through her junior season, Kalia’s two-goal night Tuesday pulls her to 33 career goals, two back of older sister Mia, who scored 35 from 2014-2016.

With the win, the Wolves, who have back-to-back non-league tilts against 2A schools Port Angeles and Sequim up next on the schedule, improved to 3-1 in one-goal games this season.

While he might have preferred another romp, a win is a win, especially when it comes against a rival, something Nelson could appreciate.

“Another league victory, so it was a good night, even if it was close,” he said.