Reese Wilkinson and Coupeville swatted Sultan 3-0 Saturday. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Everything was on their side.
The weather. The emotion. And all the momentum.
Playing on a windy Saturday afternoon, the Coupeville High School girls soccer team seized the lead early and never buckled, blanking visiting Sultan 3-0.
The Senior Night win, which came against a non-conference foe, lifts the Wolves to 4-5 on the season.
Coupeville has two more road matches on the schedule — Oct. 20 vs. Mount Vernon Christian and Oct. 26 against Friday Harbor — and is still waiting to hear if a postponed home game with La Conner will be made-up.
Saturday, as the wind bent the trees and sent random balloons skittering the length of Mickey Clark Field, CHS honored seven seniors and foreign exchange student Leni Raduenz.
Lily Leedy, Mary Milnes, Katelin McCormick, Eryn Wood, Audrianna Shaw, Noelle Daigneault, and Sophie Martin form the core of Coupeville’s squad, with most having played the full four years.
Lily Leedy is part of a deep senior group.
PA announcer Ja’Kenya Hoskins read off her fellow senior’s farewell notes, while parents received flowers, and everyone huddled together for photos.
“Soccer has been a constant in my life ever since I began playing it,” Milnes said in her Senior Night soliloquy.
“Saying goodbye to it is bittersweet, but I have really enjoyed the experience.”
Then Milnes and her teammates went out and promptly whomped on the Turks.
Coupeville got on the board quickly, scoring in the game’s sixth minute, when Carolyn Lhamon launched a rocket from deep on a free kick.
With the wind behind her, the ball flew high and straight, eluding the grasp of Sultan’s lanky goalie, who was reaching higher than the normal netminder.
It wasn’t to be for the Turks, however, as Lhamon’s shot finished its journey nestled deep in the net, setting off a team-wide celebration.
The Wolves tacked on a second goal barely two minutes later, as freshman Ayden Wyman slapped a shot into the corner of the net.
From there, Coupeville continued to use their wind advantage, raining down shots as the first half unspooled, only to find Sultan’s goalie up to the task.
Wolf 8th grader Amaya Schaffeld had two strong looks at the net, but the Turks deflected both, with the second one being an especially-nice save on which the goalie punched the ball away at the last millisecond.
Meanwhile, Coupeville goaltender Maylin Steele had plenty of time to ponder the mysteries of the universe, as Sultan was unable to breach the wall of wind in their way to make many attacks on the Wolf side of the field.
As the first half wore down, the most-exciting play came when a small nylon tent suddenly appeared on the edge of the pitch, having been blown out of someone’s back yard at the nearby trailer park.
Catching the airborne express, the tent shot from one end of the field to the other in 0.4 seconds, with a pair of Wolf players suddenly springing from the bench to give chase.
The duo managed to nab the tent just short of it launching itself onto the highway, while Hoskins, nestled deep in the toasty-warm press box, marveled at the madness.
“It’s like a force of destruction down there!,” she said with a laugh.
When the two teams switched sides of the field at the half, it seemed like Sultan might take the advantage, but the wind eased a bit, and Coupeville’s defense remained stout.
Steele touched the ball a few more times than she had in the first half, but not by much, as Nezi Keiper, Lhamon, Milnes, and the back line denied entry to the Turks.
With the clock frozen at 2:00, and the game in that magical mystery land of “how much time is really left to play?,” Wyman popped back up to knock in one last goal.
With her two scores Saturday, the fab frosh vaults to three on the season, while Lhamon’s early rocket was the second score of her junior campaign.
Ayden Wyman is the bright future of the program.
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