Sebastian Davis scored twice Thursday in a 3-2 loss. (John Fisken photos)
Beauman Davis, seen here in his normal uniform, actually played for Port Townsend in the JV game.
Sebastian Davis has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
The Coupeville High School junior scored twice Thursday, both times knocking in loose balls off of deflected shots by Abraham Leyva, keeping the Wolf booters close in a narrow 3-2 loss to visiting Port Townsend.
His fourth and fifth goals of the season, they moved Davis into second on the squad in scoring, trailing just Leyva, who has hit the back of the net 12 times this year.
With big-time scoring threat Zane Bundy sidelined for the year with a leg injury — he worked the sidelines as an unpaid assistant coach, rockin’ a suit and tie combo that would put David Beckham to shame — Davis has filled a hole in Coupeville’s offense.
Still, his heroics were not enough to save the Wolves on this afternoon, and the loss stings, dropping CHS to 2-2 in Olympic League play (3-7 overall) and knocking them down into third place in the standings.
Coupeville trails Klahowya (2-0) and Port Townsend (2-1), and it’s a big distinction, as the league’s top two teams will get home playoff openers.
The Wolves are guaranteed a playoff spot if Klahowya bounced Chimacum (0-3) Thursday, as the Wolves would have a two-game lead (and the tiebreaker) with two to play.
But, if they don’t want to be the #3 seed and open on the road in a loser-out game, they’ll need to come strong in their final two conference games.
Those are May 4 (Senior Night) against Klahowya and May 6 at Port Townsend.
Having a full roster would help, as the injury-depleted Wolves played without Bundy, goalie Joel Walstad, midfielder Loren Nelson and defenders Aaron Wright, Keegan Kortuem and Oscar Liquidano.
In their place, younger players stepped up and pushed the Redhawks hard.
Junior goaltender Connor McCormick made several nice saves, including one from his knees and another that negated a terrible call by the refs that gave Port Townsend a wide-open chance it didn’t deserve.
With the guys with the whistles allowing the Redhawks to all but tear Leyva’s jersey off every time the nimble junior touched the ball, he had few great scoring opportunities.
But, while he wasn’t able to add to his goal tally, Leyva did set up both of his team’s scores, using his super-powered foot to blast free kicks that curved and banged off the goalposts.
The first time Davis, flying in from the left side, caught the ball and flipped it past a sprawling Redhawk goalie to open the scoring in the game’s 19th minute.
Port Townsend tied the game up eight minutes later, then got two second-half goals (the first coming barely 30 seconds into the half) to take the lead.
Attacking madly, Coupeville got one goal back when Davis and Leyva repeated their scoring play, but, even then, time was running out on the Wolves.
William Nelson had a half-decent look and crushed a laser with under six minutes to play, but the ball caught up an updraft and sailed a fraction too high.
Coupeville’s final desperation try came on a break-away by Leyva in the waning moments, but the Redhawks were able to scramble and get two defenders back just in time to throw off his ability to cut back inside and his shot went for naught.
JV loses odd one:
With Port Townsend having only seven JV players (counting their goalie), the teams played 7 on 7, instead of 11 on 11.
To get to even that, the Redhawks made a deal to acquire Beauman Davis for one game, and the Wolf junior played the game wearing a red jersey over his white CHS shirt.
The game was also cut by 10 minutes, since Port Townsend had no subs and their players were blowing hard.
And still, the Redhawks ran away with a 3-0 victory.
At least Davis didn’t score against his own teammates, which might have made the situation even more awkward.
The only question remaining is, does Beauman get invited to two soccer banquets this year, since he’s now, technically, both a Wolf and a Redhawk?
Coupeville Sports 