Edmund Wilson leads the charge. (Jackie Saia photos)
The prairie was alive with the sound of goals.
Playing under the lights Friday, with an enthusiastic home crowd backing its efforts, the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad opened a new season with a bang, thrashing visiting Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood 7-2.
While the game is considered a non-conference rumble between Northwest 2B/1B League rivals — the schools will play again October 7 and that one counts in the battle for playoff positioning — starting 1-0 on the season left CHS coach Jim Kunz wearing a big smile.
“I saw a lot of good things tonight,” he said. “There are always things we can work on, but we have a strong team, and we’re getting stronger.”
Jim Kunz celebrates an opening night victory.
The Wolves returned virtually everyone from last year’s team, which fought for a playoff berth until the final day of the season, and have added a new batch of highly promising players to the roster.
Coupeville goes 22 players deep this time around, and almost everyone came up with a big play in the opener.
Leading the way was senior Sage Arends, who punched in two goals Friday, and has been the anchor for the team as it looks to ascend into the top half of the NWL, a 10-team conference which has accounted for four of the last five 2B/1B state titles.
“He stepped up at the beginning of the summer and led the way by getting his teammates to practice together,” Kunz said. “Sage is like having a mini coach out there and always comes to me with possible plays and new ideas.
“He wants the best for his team and all of his teammates and has gone way beyond to be a true leader for us.”
Sage Arends sets the pace.
It was Arends who broke the seal on the season, slapping home a shot which spun off the goaltender’s hands and into the net less than four minutes into play.
From there Coupeville kept peppering the rival netminder, pushing the lead out to 4-0 as Edmund Wilson and Wyatt Fitch-Marron found the back of the net while Arends knocked in his second score of the night.
The shots came from all angles, with Wilson drawing the goalie out of the net, then dancing past him, while Fitch-Marron connected from long range on a booming shot which delighted the appreciative fans.
Cedar Park Christian spent very little time on the attack in the first half, and when the Eagles did briefly boot the ball in the direction of Wolf goalie Sam Richards, the CHS defense quickly swarmed to deny.
Led by Brian Thompson, who spent the night rampaging from one end of the field to the other, the Coupeville defense was in lock-down mode for most of the game’s 80 minutes, frequently snatching the ball away from CPC players before they could even square up to shoot.
The Eagles did slip a goal into the net, the first of two scored by Mickael Mbuyu, but the Wolves responded emphatically to make it 5-1 at the half.
Sawyer Rudat notched his first high school goals Friday night.
With the game in stoppage time, Sawyer Rudat won a battle in front of the net, scoring Coupeville’s fifth goal approximately 0.4 seconds before the ref’s whistle sent the teams to the locker room.
The second half was more of the same ol’, same ol’ for the Wolves, with Malachi Chapa and Rudat beating the goalie to stretch the lead out to 7-1, before Mbuyu struck late.
Shiloh Sandlin replaced Richards in goal for the second half, and played well, while, admittedly, not facing a ton of shots.
That allowed Richards to head out towards the middle of the field, where he upended an Eagle or two with nicely aggressive sliding tackles, joining fellow Wolves like Edmund Kunz, Chayse Van Velkinburgh and Alton Hansen in bedeviling the visitors.
With his two goals on opening night, Arends pushed his career total to 12 tallies, while Wilson notched his ninth.
Rudat, Fitch-Marron, and Chapa all were first-time varsity scorers.
Coupeville plays its first three games at home this season, welcoming La Conner to Cow Town September 15 and Friday Harbor to Whidbey September 17.
Overall, CHS is slated to play nine of its 15 regular season tilts at Mickey Clark Field.
