Coupeville Sports

Wyatt Fitch-Marron gets things kicked off. (Julie Wheat photos)

They stood their ground.

Playing the defending state champs Saturday — on the day Orcas Island celebrated Homecoming — the plucky Coupeville High School boys’ soccer squad gave its all against the juggernaut.

“Great game. Orcas won 8-0, but we played so much better than our first game against them,” said CHS coach Jim Kunz.

“We were organized and kept good coverage.

“We drove the ball down the field for quite a few shots. Unfortunately, none made it to the back of the net.”

While the deadly-efficient Vikings rattled home a collection of goals, Coupeville’s back line stood tall.

“Defense gave them a great fight with Sam Richards in the goal,” Kunz said.

“One of Sam’s many fantastic saves ended with his arms around the ball while an Orcas player tried to kick it through his chest.”

Wolf goalie Sam Richards leads the handshake line.

Also possibly helping the hometown team a bit was a lack of a full ref contingent, which caused some of the calls to be skewed.

“We knew going into this game that it would be extremely tough,” Kunz said. “Unfortunately, there was only a center ref and one line ref.

“Many offsides situations weren’t called and some of those resulted in goals, which was very disappointing,” he added.

“We had the line ref in the second half and Orcas got called offsides time and time again.”

Coupeville, which has a very young roster this season, sits at 2-5 at the halfway point of the season, with four of its final seven regular season games set to go down at Mickey Clark Field.

The first of those home games arrives Friday, Oct. 10, when CHS hosts Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood.

“I’m excited to see our Wolves playing as a team,” Kunz said. “I imagine we’ll be giving some opponents a run for their money over the next few weeks.”