Preston Epp and friends won their second-straight game. (Thomas Studer photos)
A win is a win is a win.
We’re still early in a new school sports year, one in which Coupeville High School volleyball and football are still seeking the thrill of a varsity victory.
So, while a come-from-behind 3-2 soccer triumph Tuesday against host Grace Academy in Marysville might not have been the prettiest, a W is still a W.
The Wolves will take the non-conference win against a league school (don’t ask…) improve to 2-1 on the season and move on to Saturday’s home clash with heavy hitter Orcas Island.
While knowing they’ll probably be putting in some work at practice tomorrow.
“It was ugly, then pretty, then ugly, then pretty,” said CHS coach Robert Wood. “Lots(!) of lessons learned by the second team as well as the first.”
Coupeville started most of its second squad Tuesday, something which threatened to backfire as the Wolves fell behind 2-0 to their hosts.
Cue the bench shuffle.
“Down 1-0 … made me very unhappy,” Wood said. “Made some changes in positions.
“Down 2-0 … made me angry,” he added. “Made some substitutions.”
Eventually a fire was lit under the Wolves, and they responded, crashing home three unanswered goals to claim the victory.
Senior Nick Guay connected on his second and third scores of the season, with Cole White setting up the first goal and Ayden Wyman picking up an assist on the second.
The gamebreaker came off of the foot of White, who snared “a long punt from Cael (Wilson) that he collected nicely to put in the far corner” for his second goal of his final CHS campaign.
Coupeville almost notched a fourth score, as Wyman launched “a smoker of a shot from 25 yards that their keeper made a fantastic save to keep out.”
The junior sharpshooter, who tallied 13 goals in two seasons of leading the Wolf girls, now starts for the boys’ varsity as the team went co-ed after the girls’ program was unable to field enough players for a full roster this fall.
Wyman’s laser was denied at the last second by a Grace Academy netminder who “made a high jump, catching it in midair, landing on his back, but holding it out of the goal.”
“It was a highlight shot and a highlight goal save,” Wood said.
While Wyman narrowly missed career goal #14, Guay got #10 and #11, moving into a tie with Zane Bundy for #7 all-time on the CHS boys career scoring chart.
White’s score was the sixth of his run with the Wolves.
Coupeville also got a stellar play in the net from Josh Lujan, who didn’t give up on a tricky save.
“Josh got a hand on it but failed to contain it,” said Wolf coach Kimberly Kisch. “He then jumped on top of the ball.
“He was right on the line, so we all had to look to the ref to see if it was going to be called a goal or not,” she added.
“Everyone was quiet for a second, then erupted when they realized Josh got the save.”
Quentin Simpson-Pilgrim and Coupeville play four of their next five games at home.
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