Coupeville Sports

Angel Partida, seen here last season, scored twice Wednesday in Coupeville’s soccer opener. (Jackie Saia photo)

Right into the deep end.

The Coupeville High School co-ed soccer team kicked off a new season Wednesday by traveling to the mainland to face an Auburn Adventist Academy program which has qualified for the state tourney the past two years.

And the Falcons, who thrashed La Conner in their own opener, proved to be as tough as advertised, bouncing the Wolves 5-2.

But while Coupeville starts the new campaign at 0-1 after the non-conference loss, Wolf coach Robert Wood came away pleased with a lot of what he saw.

“Good first game. Strong, big opponents,” he said. “Pleased with the team.

“Starting games are always an unknown in high school soccer. Coming together two weeks ago, they look good … we just need to do it better across the board.”

Angel Partida punched in both of Coupeville’s goals, pushing his career total to three.

His scores came off nimbly slipping through the defense to redirect rebounds past the Auburn goalie after Preston Epp and Sage Arends rattled the netminder with shots.

“Good shots on target, and both heads up plays,” Wood said.

Coupeville now gets to spend most of the rest of the month at home, playing four of its next five games at Mickey Clark Field.

First up is a 1:00 PM Saturday showdown with Crosspoint (0-0-1), which played to a 1-1 tie with La Conner in its first game of the new season.

Admission is free.