Coupeville Sports

Aram Leyva celebrated his birthday by banging home a hat trick Tuesday as Coupeville soccer romped to a 5-1 road win. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

First things first – they’re going to the playoffs.

The bracket for the boys soccer district tournament was posted Tuesday, and it shows five teams from the North Sound Conference qualifying, with the other three slots being filled by the Northwest Conference.

With Granite Falls having abandoned its program this year, that guarantees the five NSC schools still playing are all postseason-bound.

So, instead of fighting for a playoff berth, Coupeville will spend the next month vying for seeding and the chance to open the postseason at home.

Or, in the case of the Wolves, close to home up in Oak Harbor, since playoff games have to be contested on turf fields.

Five of eight teams will advance from districts to bi-districts, the last stop before the state tourney.

In any case, having already clinched a playoff ticket takes a certain pressure off of everyone.

Though, with the way the Coupeville booters are playing of late it might not have mattered.

Raining down goals from all sides Tuesday in Bothell, the Wolves battered host Cedar Park Christian 5-1 to claim their third win in their last four games.

Now 2-1 in league play, 4-3 overall, CHS moves into a second-place tie with South Whidbey (1-0, 4-1), a half-game off of league-leader King’s (2-0, 3-1-1).

Sultan (0-1, 0-5) and Cedar Park (0-3, 0-4) round out the Granite-less standings.

Coupeville, which has six regular-season games left, five of them conference bouts, gets a major challenge Friday when it travels down Island to Langley to face South Whidbey.

Tuesday’s game was close for a half, as the Wolves went to the break clinging to a 1-0 lead, thanks to a Derek Leyva score.

Things quickly turned in the second half, however, as birthday boy Aram Leyva ripped off a hat trick, peppering the CPC goaltender for three quick scores.

His cousin, Derek, popped back in to seal the offensive attack, rattling home his second goal of the night.

That leaves the Leyvas tied atop the season scoring stat sheet with nine goals apiece, while Derek hangs on to a 33-28 lead in career scoring.

Both Wolf juniors are hot on the heels of Aram’s older brother, Abraham, who graduated in 2016 with the program career scoring record of 45 goals.