Lillian Ketterling unleashes her Leg o’ Death and Destruction. (Monica Grant photos)
These are the games that help build character for a young team on the brink of greatness.
They sting in the moment, but down the road, the chances are great the Coupeville High School girls’ soccer squad will look back and see where they persevered through adversity and came to prosper because of it.
Coming off a heartbreaking tie against La Conner, in which the Braves punched in the tying goal in stoppage time while getting away with roughing up Coupeville’s goaltender, Wednesday’s trip to Friday Harbor also ended with a sucker punch.
This time out, the host Wolverines snapped a tie with a goal (again in stoppage time), followed a half second later by the ref’s whistle, handing CHS a 2-1 loss.
The defeat drops Coupeville to 2-2-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-2-2 overall, and for the moment, drops Jasmine Ader’s booters into fourth place in the seven-team conference.
Mount Vernon Christian (5-0-0 for 15 points) sits atop the standings, followed by Lopez Island (3-2-1 for 10 points), Friday Harbor (3-2-0 for nine points) and the Wolves (eight points).
La Conner (2-1-1 for seven points), Providence Classical Christian (1-4-0 for three points), and Orcas Island (0-5-0 for zero points) round out things.
Coupeville, a very-young team which is currently without injured veterans Tamsin Ward and Taylor Marrs, still has six league games left to play, however, including a rematch with Friday Harbor in the regular season finale.
First though the Wolves head to Bremerton Saturday for a non-conference clash with Crosspoint Christian, which sits at 5-2.
Playing on Friday Harbor, CHS got its score from freshman Hazel Goldman, who knocked in her team-leading fourth goal of the season.
That held up almost until the end, but a few missed opportunities in the final minutes made life tough for the Wolves.
Coupeville had multiple corner kicks as the clock ticked away, but despite having all the momentum, barely missed on nailing what would likely have been a game-winning goal.
With the clock frozen, Friday Harbor launched one final fast break and slid in the dagger.
“A hard-fought game with small mistakes that cost us big,” said CHS assistant coach Jerry Helm. “Lots of good take aways, just need to finish.”
Emma Cushman sends the soccer ball off on an adventure.
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