Freshman Tony Garcia scored in his first high school soccer game Saturday, helping lift Coupeville to an 8-0 rout of Chimacum. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
It went just about as expected.
Despite playing with a patchwork lineup Saturday, the Coupeville High School boys soccer team routed visiting Chimacum 8-0 to officially open the spring sports season.
Sparked by a hat trick from junior captain Aram Leyva, the Wolves torched the Cowboys for the 11th consecutive time over the past five seasons.
Now non-conference foes, the two schools met 10 times on the pitch during Coupeville’s run in the Olympic League between 2015-2018.
During that time, the Wolves broke double digits seven times, outscoring the Cowboys 91-13.
This time around, Coupeville settled for a few less goals, but pulled off its fifth shutout in its last six games with Chimacum.
Admittedly, Wolf senior goalie Dewitt Cole didn’t have to work especially hard for the bagel job, with the Cowboys only able to muster a single shot on goal in 80 minutes of action.
Coupeville kept the ball on the attack for much of the game, and when Chimacum did get it across midfield and into Wolf territory, the CHS defense immediately snuffed things.
A big factor in the smothering defense was a rare appearance in the backfield by goal-scoring phenom Derek Leyva.
Trying to ease his sharpshooter into the season, without putting too much strain on Leyva’s brace-clad knee, Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson stationed the junior on the back side of the field, with orders to take it easy.
And, with the exception of one goal-scoring run late in the game, which pleased his fans even while offering a bit of agitation to the CHS coaching staff, he listened.
Even playing at 50%, Leyva towered above his foes, and he controlled his side of the field with a few deft moves here, a slide to the side there.
Chimacum couldn’t get the ball past him (or fellow defenders like Sam Wynn), and the Cowboys certainly couldn’t take the ball back once it was on Leyva’s toe.
Once the ball was back on the move, punched up from the back or launched half the field, the Wolves attacked, attacked, and attacked some more.
While eight shots got past the Chimacum goaltender, Coupeville could have easily doubled the score with just a bit more precision.
The Wolves whacked shots from the left, the right, up top, even almost from mid-field, sending the Cowboys scrambling.
One shot hit the crossbar and ricocheted off, several more just slid past the opening, and at least three went high into the air, and would have been successful field goals in football.
Spurred on their fans, who included a group of CHS female soccer players camped out in the press box, the Wolves played opportunistic ball, and it paid off.
“Go, Chris, go, go, go …. YEEEEEEESSSSS,” was the call from Avalon Renninger, when Chris Cernick broke through for the first goal of the season.
It came in the game’s 13th minute, after Aram Levya sucked the defense in, then dished the ball into the middle and onto Cernick’s waiting foot.
The lanky Wolf junior, coming off a breakout season on the basketball court, swung from his heels and pegged the ball into the corner of the net, giving Coupeville all the scoring it would need.
Not content to play a thriller, the Wolves kept hammering away, however.
Aram Leyva notched the first of what would be three goals on the day when he broke free, pulled in a pass, then slapped home a shot as the goaltender meekly fell to the ground.
From there, the scores kept coming in the first half.
Freshman Tony Garcia skipped in a ball while on a run up the right side, Aram Leyva bulldozed his way through two defenders for his second goal, then Sage Downes angled in a ball off a breakaway.
While the frequent goals were a first-half highlight, the two plays which will probably be remembered longest didn’t involve anyone scoring.
At one point, a teeny-tiny dog came barreling on the field, looking for a tasty treat or at least a good chase.
Aram Leyva almost corralled the wayward pooch, but it broke free and then went on a zig-zag run, much to the delight of Renninger and fellow booters Mallory Kortuem and Natalie Hollrigel in the booth.
“Look at that cutey go! Dog’s got moves!!”
Once the ball was back in play, Aram Leyva flipped the script from cute to painful, hammering a pass which came right back to him … thanks to it caving in the face of a Chimacum defender.
The ensuing crack was loud enough to make people think someone was duck hunting nearby, followed by the hapless Cowboy keeling over to kiss the sweet, sweet grass.
“Dude’s dead…”
Spoiler, he wasn’t, and managed to get up and stagger off the pitch, but was later heard asking if anyone got the licence plate number of the semi-truck which hit him.
After all the fireworks offered in the first half, the game was fairly tame after the break.
Coupeville sprayed a bunch more shots, Cole made his one, and only, true save with 18 minutes to play, and then the Wolves tacked on three more goals late in the game.
Aram Leyva completed his hat trick, rising above the masses to mash in a header off a nice corner kick from Downes, before Derek Leyva strolled up-field and banked in a shot of his own.
The final capper came courtesy Downes, who, moments after airmailing a shot all the way out to the highway, turned down the volume a bit and went to the left foot, tapping in his second goal on Opening Day.
The win, and the way it played out, were especially nice since Coupeville played minus some of its top players.
Only half of the 14 players listed on the varsity roster saw action, thanks to a busy Saturday full of SAT tests and Science Olympiad competitions.
That enabled JV players such as Garcia, Ben Smith, Zach Ginnings, Andrew Aparicio, and Eli Kastner to get substantial game time.
