A strong defense, led by senior captain Teo Keilwitz, carried Coupeville High School soccer to a 2-0 win Friday night under the lights. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
You want pretty? Probably should have gone to a different game.
Want a victory, garnered by any means necessary? Then you were at the right stadium.
Playing under the lights Friday night, and missing three starters, including their leading scorer, the Coupeville High School boys soccer squad gutted out a 2-0 win over visiting Sultan.
And, in the end, the W, especially with it coming in a league game, is what mattered most.
“We got a win in a game that was a hard fight, and we were able to take advantage of Mother Nature a bit, so that was good,” said CHS coach Kyle Nelson.
“The guys worked hard and deserved the result.”
The win lifts Coupeville to 1-1 in North Sound Conference play, 3-3 overall.
The Wolves sit in third-place in the five-team league, a game off of King’s (2-0, 3-1-1) and a half-game back of South Whidbey (1-0, 4-0).
Sultan (0-1, 0-5) and Cedar Park Christian (0-2, 0-3) round out the standings.
Friday’s clash, played in a persistent, though not overpowering wind, fell on the chippy side.
Sultan has always been a soccer program which seems to pride itself on being physical, and the Wolves got into mini-scraps with the Turks more than once.
A few yellow cards were waved in the air before the clock ran out Friday, but Coupeville dodged any red cards, while controlling play on both sides of the field.
Starting goaltender Dewitt Cole carried a shutout into the second half, while facing only one truly legitimate shot on goal.
The Wolf defense, anchored by scrappers like James Wood, Teo Keilwitz, and Owen Barenburg, kept the Turks bottled up all night, refusing to give their goalie much to worry about.
Until he came down wrong on his leg after a brief bit of action in front of the net and had to exit the game about 10 minutes into the second half.
With his senior goalie stuck on the bench the rest of the way, Nelson turned to freshman Miles Davidson, who entered the game with PA announcer Eryn Wood giving him a rousing intro.
Once on the field, the man known simply as “Turducken” played lights out, making several scrambling saves and putting in a solid half-hour of scoreless ball.
Coupeville had collected both of its goals in the first half, thanks to Sage Downes and Aram Leyva.
Downes slashed in from the left side five minutes into the game, slapping a ball past Sultan’s flailing goalie for his fourth score of the season.
While that would be the only goal the Wolves would really need, Leyva tacked on a bit of insurance right before the half.
The junior captain was awarded a penalty kick in stoppage time and promptly blew the ball past the over-matched Sultan net-minder, who waved at the orb weakly as it shot past his head doing 75 MPH in a 50 zone.
It was Leyva’s sixth goal of the season, and 25th of his career.
The Turks one really good shot (in an 80-minute game) came 15 minutes in, when a sudden, unexpected hole opened in the Wolf defense.
With the ball on his foot, a Sultan player ripped a liner at Cole, only to see the ball clang off the bar and skitter away.
That was the first, last, and only time the Turks would get a clear look at the net, thanks to a Wolf defense which imposed its will.
With starters Derek Leyva, Xavier Murdy, and Chris Cernick unavailable for duty, Nelson gave quality field time to young guns like Aiden Burdge, Dakota Eck, and Andrew Aparicio, and they all responded strongly.
Friday’s win was the last time Wolf fans will see their team play on its home turf for almost a month.
Coupeville’s next five games, which include four league contests, are on the road, and the Wolves don’t return to Mickey Clark Field until Apr. 19.
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