Edmund Kunz tracks the flight of the soccer ball. (Photo by Coupeville High School yearbook staff)
It was a tale of two halves, with a strong finish negated by a slow start.
Despite rallying after halftime Thursday, the Coupeville High School co-ed soccer squad fell 3-1 to visiting Lopez Island in a battle for sole possession of second place in the Northwest 2B/1B League.
The loss drops the Wolves to 3-2 in conference action, 5-6-1 overall, while Lopez gets to 4-1, which leaves the Lobos a game off of frontrunner Orcas Island, which sits at 5-0.
CHS is still very much in the playoff battle, with the top four teams from the nine schools playing boys’ soccer in the NWL making the postseason.
Coupeville returns to the pitch with a home game against Providence Classical Christian Tuesday Oct. 29 on Senior Night.
After that comes a road trip to La Conner Nov. 1 and a home clash with Orcas Nov. 2.
When the Wolves get back into action, the goal will be to replicate the more fired-up attack which helped them hold the advantage in the second half against Lopez.
Trailing 3-0 at the break, without having gotten off a shot on goal across the first 40 minutes, CHS mixed things up and it paid off.
“We came out in the first half really slow, almost asleep,” said Coupeville coach Kimberly Kisch. “Then we adjusted and got much more of the action happening up top.
“I’m very happy with how we played in the second half.”
Ayden Wyman turns the action upfield. (Finn Price photo)
While the Wolves had trouble mounting an offensive charge before the break, they put together one especially strong run right after the break.
Just a hair over two minutes into the second half, Cael Wilson put a pass on Preston Epp’s foot, and his fellow senior bashed a shot which almost beat the Lopez goalie.
While the Lobo netminder managed to punch the ball free, it bounced in the direction of Wolf sniper Sage Arends, who nimbly popped the orb into the back of the net for his third score of the season.
The two teams played a fast ‘n furious second half, with Lopez picking up a yellow card for one play, while getting away with another tussle where a Coupeville player got nailed in the face by a wayward elbow and crashed hard to the pitch.
Coupeville’s defense kept Lopez at bay over the final 40 minutes of play, with goaltender Hurlee Bronec making several strong stops on Lobo shots.
Unfortunately for the Wolves, they were playing from behind for most of the game, after Lopez broke through with an opening goal just 90 seconds into the game.
The visitors added two more scores, one in the 22nd minute and another in the 36th, to get comfortably ahead by the break.
While Coupeville was looking for a win, Kisch came away pleased with how the team responded to adversity.
She praised Wolf 8th grader Brian Thompson for “standout work in maintaining good position,” Ayden Wyman for “solid work in the middle,” and Dane Hadsall for a “couple of great blocks.”
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