Coupeville’s Avalon Renninger launched a gorgeous goal Saturday, the first time the Wolves have scored on powerhouse Meridian in five meetings over the last decade. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
The 2019 squad, ready to go on the attack.
One loss hurts more than the other.
The Coupeville High School girls soccer team opened a new season Saturday by hanging tough on its home field with powerhouse Meridian, before falling 3-1 in a game which remained a one-goal contest until the waning moments.
It was a strong performance from the Wolves, and a big step forward, as they scored on the Trojans for the first time in five meetings over the last decade.
But the afterglow was tempered by the loss of junior Genna Wright, the #3 scorer in program history, who went down hard in the first half and exited to the hospital.
Flying in pursuit of a ball, Wright was careening towards the sideline in front of the stands when she was chucked hard from behind by a rival player.
As she sprawled forward, nearly slamming her face into the track oval, her body lurched badly to the side and she didn’t get back up.
Running mate Avalon Renninger was at her side in two seconds, but Wright, clutching her knee, declined any assistance in trying to rise.
Instead, she stayed prone, not hobbling off the field with the help of her dad and coaches until after being thoroughly checked-out.
After a visit to the ER, the early word is a badly-sprained knee, which may keep her out for 1-3 weeks.
While no one wants to see the effervescent, hard-charging Wright sidelined, that would be a better prognosis than first feared.
As they wait to see how long they will be without their primary offensive weapon, the Wolves can look at their season-opening performance and be proud of what they accomplished.
The game was knotted at 1-1 when Wright went down, and, even without her flying down the side, ball on her foot, Coupeville held its own with a program which annually makes deep playoff runs.
Last year, Meridian beat the Wolves 4-0. Before that, the Trojans knocked CHS out of the playoffs by identical 2-0 scores three years running between 2009-2011.
This time around, things were markedly different, as Coupeville struck first.
Working the ball down the left sideline in the game’s 13th minute, Wright dropped a perfect set-up for Renninger, who promptly went and got medieval on the orb.
Cranking a wicked shot off her left foot, the Wolf senior captain lofted the ball into the air, and it curved upwards, steadily rising until the moment it cleared the Meridian goaltender’s shoulder and buried itself in the far right corner of the net.
A psychological boost for the Wolves, it was also just a darn pretty goal, one of the better ones to be seen at Mickey Clark Field in recent years.
For Renninger, it was the seventh score of her prep career, and means she will have tallied at least one goal in all four of her seasons on the CHS pitch.
She’s now tied with Micky LeVine, Alexia Hemphill, and Marisa Etzell on the career scoring chart, one goal off of big sister Sage Renninger for fifth-best among all Wolf girls soccer players.
Riding high on Avalon Renninger’s masterpiece, the Wolves took back-to-back hits five minutes later.
First, Meridian slipped the tying goal in, the ball finding a teeny-tiny opening as Coupeville goaltender Mollie Bailey made a diving attempt at stopping it.
Then came Wright’s injury.
Once action started back up, the Wolf defense, anchored by seniors Mallory Kortuem and Tia Wurzrainer and freshman Nezi Keiper, stood tall.
As did Bailey, a junior who inherited the starting goalie gig after backing up the since-graduated Sarah Wright the past two seasons.
The heir to a prairie legacy, she was strong in the net, making several very-strong saves and blunting frequent charges from an opportunistic Meridian squad.
The Trojans did get the tie-breaker in the game’s 28th minute, on a play in which Bailey’s line of sight was blocked off by an attacker crossing in front of her.
After that, the Wolf goalie was virtually lights-out, though Meridian got an insurance goal late in the second half on another shot which found the smallest of holes.
Without Wright on the field, Coupeville’s offensive chances took a sizable hit, though Renninger continued to crank away, narrowly missing on another long missile which pulled a hair wide right at the last millisecond.
While he always goes in looking for a win, Wolf coach Kyle Nelson emerged from Saturday’s opener with a slight smile gracing his face.
The play of his roster, which also included nice scrappiness from support crew such as Natalie Hollrigel and Carolyn Lhamon, was exactly what he was seeking.
“It’s a good place to start,” Nelson said. “We played a competitive game, and it’s a huge step forward for us, playing against a really good team and coming pretty close to playing them on an even level.”
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