Coupeville Sports

Wolf defender Cody Menges gets his head in the game. (John Fisken photos)

Tanner Kircher controls the flow of the game.

Abraham Leyva has had a lot of great days for the Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad.

But Monday he did something that was new even for him.

Raining down three goals on visiting Forks, Leyva notched a hat trick using only his head, propelling the Wolves to their first win of the season.

The 3-0 shutout of the Spartans, in which CHS goalie Connor McCormick rarely had to even move, lifts Coupeville to 1-4-1 on the season.

Leyva, who now has eight goals in six games — and has scored in every contest this season — lifted his prep career total to 33 goals (he had 11 as a sophomore and 14 as a junior).

His first score came just four minutes into the game, as the Wolf senior broke free in the middle of a scrum and used his noggin to bounce the ball into the back of the net.

After that Leyva tallied another in the game’s 13th minute and topped things off with a final score three minutes into the second half, not using his legs either time.

Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson, always understated and impeccably dressed, just smiled and shook his head softly when talking about the performance.

“That was pretty special there,” he said with a chuckle. “A hat trick on the head is a rare occurrence.”

With the Wolves thoroughly controlling the flow of activity, McCormick was rarely called on to exert himself in the net, only moving (slightly) a few times to pick up a stray ball or two.

His defenders, led by rampaging force-of-nature Tanner Kircher and rock-solid Cody Menges, Uriel Liquidano and Garrett Compton, were lights out all afternoon.

And when Leyva wasn’t scoring, Coupeville came close to turning the game into a blowout, as Sebastian Davis and Zane Bundy both had great looks at the net, only to miss by the slimmest of margins.

JV pulls out win:

The second game was a donnybrook, as both teams took their best shots at each other and the game came down to a truly last-second shot clanging off the goal stand.

The Wolves struck first, with JT Quinn slipping in a runner in the game’s 20th minute.

Forks answered with their own score right before the half, then things got interesting in the second half.

Zack Nall, sliding down from the varsity squad to give the Wolf JV enough bodies, banged home a go-ahead goal with 17 minutes to play.

The Spartans retied things up with just four and a half to play, but stone-cold-killer Nall dropped another shot into the net in the game’s final minute.

Desperate for one last tie, Forks came hot and heavy at Wolf goalie Jose Marcos, who was patrolling the net in the second half after Brian Roberts turned in a strong first half.

With the stadium clock stopped and all eyes on the ref and his magic watch, the Spartans ripped a liner that came up two inches to the wrong side.

As the clang from ball hitting steel was still ringing through the air, the ref let loose with his whistle, ending play and sending the Wolves into a celebration that was part relief, part joy.

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