Coupeville Sports

CHS soccer snipers (l to r) Mallory Kortuem, Lindsey Roberts and Avalon Renninger scored two goals apiece Thursday night. (Photo by CoupevillePaparazzi.com)

The first one was nice, the second one even sweeter.

Doubling their pleasure, Wolf gunners Mallory Kortuem, Avalon Renninger and Lindsey Roberts scored two goals apiece Thursday as the Coupeville High School girls soccer squad thrashed visiting Sultan 6-0.

The runaway win, coming on a night when the CHS defense never allowed the Turks to take a single meaningful shot on goal, lifts the Wolves to 1-1 in North Sound Conference play.

They sit in a tie for third place in the six-team league, just a game out of first place, with eight more conference games left on the schedule.

Coupeville is 1-2-1 heading into a non-league game Saturday at Chimacum.

That meeting with their former Olympic League rival kicks off a stretch of four straight road bouts, as the Wolves don’t play at home again until Sept. 27.

Perhaps anticipating the two-week separation from many of its fans, Coupeville put on a fireworks display before leaving town.

The Wolves controlled the flow of the game — absolutely, positively and without any doubts — firing bursts of shots at the Sultan goalkeeper.

To her credit, she knocked down several, including punching away one wicked Genna Wright sizzler from in close, but the Turks had too many holes in their defense to keep the Wolves fully at bay.

Renninger broke the seal on the goal a little over 10 minutes into the contest, turning on a dime and bashing a frozen rope while sliding between two defenders.

After that, Roberts, a senior captain making one final run on the CHS pitch, took over.

First, she notched her debut goal of the young season, lighting up the scoreboard with a eye-popping run right through the heart of the defense.

Dodging at least four rivals on her charge, she juked the Turk defenders out of their spikes.

Deftly tapping the ball between her feet as she slid through the maze like the star of the ’80s arcade game Centipede hurtling downward to rob a player of yet another quarter, Roberts finished things off by drawing the goalie out of the box, then bashing the ball under her leg.

Showing off a different side of her game, Roberts set Kortuem up on the next goal, sliding the ball between defenders, then stepping back and nodding in approval as her teammate slapped a shot into the corner of the net.

Putting a final punctuation mark on a first half to remember, Roberts pounded her second goal of the night, and 15th of her career, with a little over six minutes to go before the break.

Taking a ball from Ema Smith, Roberts faked with one foot, then dropped the hammer with the other, proving she can kill with every part of the body.

While the second half featured a little less offense, as the Wolves pulled back the reins a bit and gave younger players valuable field time, both Renninger and Kortuem found time to pop in second goals of their own.

Renninger’s came on another laser shot from the top less than two minutes into the half, while Kortuem closed out the scoring after emerging with the ball from a scrum of players in front of the net with a little under six minutes to play.

While Coupeville scored seemingly at will, the Turks were firmly held in check by the Wolf D.

CHS goalie Sarah Wright spent more time admiring the sunset than having to deflect shots, with the few times she touched the ball coming mainly when she chased down wayward shots which rolled out of bounds.

That was largely due to the efforts of her defenders, as Tia Wurzrainer, Natalie Hollrigel, Mary Milnes, Maddy Hilkey and Co. constantly frustrated Sultan’s would-be shooters, roughing them up, stripping the ball, and otherwise being very unaccommodating.

The stellar play on both sides of the field brought a smile to coach Kyle Nelson’s face.

After the game, he spent a few moments talking with former soccer manager Sebastian Wurzrainer, who was gazing a bit wistfully at the shiny new press box after years of battling rabid bees while working the mic in the old, ramshackle hut that stood atop what is now the road stands.

Once he was caught up on Wurzrainer’s college life, the Wolf pitch guru returned to marinating in the victory.

“I told the ladies, we’re new to this league, and this was a statement win,” Nelson said. “It gives us an idea of where we belong.

“It’s still early and there is always room for growth and things to work on, but we are showing great improvement.”