Lily Leedy’s first goal put Coupeville soccer ahead to stay Thursday night. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Backed by a raucous student section Thursday, the Coupeville High School girls soccer squad scorched visiting Granite Falls 4-2.
The non-conference win was a nice bounce-back for the Wolves after a rough game Tuesday, and also nice payback for games in recent years when very-physical Tiger teams left CHS players bruised, battered, and concussed.
This time out, the former North Sound Conference rivals played an exciting, evenly-matched game in which a few players hit the pitch, but without malice lingering in any of the hits.
Now 2-2 on the season, Coupeville hits the road for three straight games, not playing at Mickey Clark Field again until Oct. 7.
The Wolves took advantage of playing in front of their home fans, drawing energy from their fellow students, who were on top of their chanting ‘n cheering game.
Coupeville struck early, thanks to Audrianna Shaw.
Given a free kick, the Wolf senior crunched a shot which moved left to right, found an opening, and disappeared into the corner of the net less than four minutes into the game.
“Just call her Audri ‘Airbender’ Shaw!”, said jubilant Coupeville Athletic Director Willie Smith as he watched the goal curve to pay-dirt.
Granite Falls would net an equalizer in the 11th minute, when Evelynn Fuller beat Wolf goalie Anna Myles, but after that Myles went into lock-down mode.
With a big boost from rough ‘n ready defenders like Nezi Keiper, Mary Milnes, and Carolyn Lhamon, the Wolves clamped down on the Tigers, blunting their best efforts.
Then Lily Leedy struck.
Set up by a pass from Eryn Wood, the senior midfielder broke free down the left side and slapped home the first goal of her varsity soccer career, handing Coupeville a lead it would never lose.
Up 2-1 heading into the second half, the Wolves pushed hard, rattling shots at the harried Granite goalie.
The Tiger netminder made one exceptional kick save, and another pretty-good deflection where she punched at the ball, while Coupeville gunner Sophie Martin just missed on a big boomer to the right side of the net.
But Martin kept coming, and was not to be denied.
She bounced a goal off the cross bar early in the second half, with the ball dropping and crossing the line, before flinging itself back out onto the field.
It was in the net long enough to count, however, which was all that mattered, stretching Coupeville’s margin to 3-1.
Granite Falls slipped a shot past Wolf goalie Maylin Steele with 12 minutes to play, cutting things back to a one-goal affair, but Steele, like Myles before her, was solid 99.2% of the way.
Denying the visitors several times, with a couple of really-sweet saves dropped in to fire up her fellow students, Steele held the line.
Then Martin delivered the final exclamation point, deflecting a rebound off of a Shaw shot back into the net with a little over two minutes to go.
Her bold shoes flashing under the stadium lights, she pumped her fists and ran into history.
No mere goaltender can stop Sophie Martin.
With two goals Thursday, Martin has three on the season and eight in her CHS career, moving her into a tie with Sage Renninger for #6 on the all-time Wolf girls scoring chart.
Martin passes Mallory Kortuem, Marisa Etzell, Alexia Hemphill, and Micky LeVine, and now sits four goals behind #5 all-time scorer Avalon Renninger.
Shaw’s game-opening goal was her third of the season, and fourth of her career.
Beyond the goals, Coupeville was solid in all aspects of the game, with role players such as Katelin McCormick, Ava Mitten, and Reese Wilkinson all bringing top effort.
And then there was Noelle “Bring it on!” Daigneault, basking in the glow of her teammates appreciation of her yellow card, and Sophia Milasich earning the undying respect of the media by handing out post-game brownies.
With Coupeville’s next two games against Northwest 2B/1B League rivals Friday Harbor and La Conner, Coupeville wanted to be back in stride before hitting the road.
Consider it mission accomplished.
“We needed to turn the ship around, and did,” said CHS coach Kyle Nelson. “A good game, and a good win.”
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