Maysen Van Velkinburgh (back row, in pink jersey, holding trophy) celebrates a soccer title. (Photo courtesy Dustin Van Velkinburgh)
The younger brother has mad skills as well.
While Coupeville soccer ace Chayse Van Velkinburgh is busy training in Spain, the youngest sharpshooter in the family continues to tear up the pitch.
Maysen Van Velkinburgh, currently a 2nd grader at Coupeville Elementary School, wrapped up a torrid run Sunday at the Cranberry Cup in Woodinville.
Playing in the championship game, he knocked in his kick as his Oak Harbor-based BU9 squad claimed the title with a 2-1 win after a penalty kick shootout.
The younger Van Velkinburgh tallied five of his team’s 12 goals at the tourney and has 13 scores over the past eight games.
And while he’s raining down scores, he’s not the only Coupeville kid playing a major role for the team.
Conner Armstrong, son of CHS grad Linnane O’Connor, stands tall in the goal for the team.
Friday night there was no liquid sunshine as in earlier games, just Ezra Boilek raining down goals. (Jackie Saia photo)
Does Ezra Boilek know who Jim Croce was?
Maybe, maybe not, but Friday night the former lived up to the words sung by the latter during pregame warmups.
And he’s bad, bad Leroy Brown.
The baddest man in the whole damn town.
Badder than old King Kong.
And meaner than a junkyard dog.
Now, Ezra Boilek actually seems like a pretty mellow dude in real life, but on the pitch, he was Grace Academy’s worst nightmare.
Raining down not one, not two, but FIVE goals in one half of play, the sharpshooter with the golden leg spurred the Wolves to a resounding 5-2 win under Friday Night Lights.
The victory lifts Coupeville to 2-1 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 5-2 overall, and sets up a royal rumble next Tuesday, Oct. 10.
The Wolves, currently ranked #5 in Washington Interscholastic Activities Association RPI, travel to Friday Harbor to face the defending state champs, who sit at 3-0, 6-1 and #2.
The two schools played in the season opener, with Coupeville falling in a game considered a non-conference affair.
This time around, the game counts in the league standings and has huge playoff implications.
Friday night was all about not getting caught looking too far ahead, and Coupeville took care of business.
Squaring off with a scrappy Grace Academy squad, the Wolves launched an attack on the goal, and Boilek, who spent his freshman season as a kicker for the CHS football team, finished things off with a bang.
His first score came from the right side a few minutes into play, then he cranked goal #2 with a little extra mustard on it.
Score #3 came from the middle of the field, Boilek slapping the ball into the left corner of the net, then wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am he rattled home two more goals before the game’s first 40 minutes were up.
Is his five-goal nuclear explosion a school single-game record for Wolf boys?
It appears so, since CHS career scoring leaders Abraham Leyva and Derek Leyva, who tallied 45 and 38 goals respectively, both topped out at four goals in one game.
So, raise one finger, then two, three, four, and finally, the full hand for Boilek, who was repeatedly mobbed by excited teammates.
In one half Boilek went from one career goal to six, pushing him to a tie for #19 on the all-time Wolf boys’ list, along with Xavier Murdy, Zack Nall, and James Wood.
Wolf sharpshooters (l to r) Preston Epp, Boilek, and Nick Guay live to terrorize goaltenders. (Carly Burt photo)
Grace Academy did manage one goal of its own midway through the first half, then scraped out a second one late in the game after Coupeville had gone to a JV-heavy lineup.
When Boilek wasn’t crushing the life out of the ball, teammates Preston Epp, Ayden Wyman, and Cael Wilson had strong looks at the net, but came up just short of scoring.
Coupeville’s defense was on point all night, especially in the first half, with Hank Milnes, Andrew Williams, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim and Co. clamping down hard on any potential shooters.
Coupeville soccer ace Chayse Van Velkinburgh scored 15 goals in four games this weekend. (Photo courtesy Dustin Van Velkinburgh)
He’s come for all the goals. I said, all of them.
Coupeville soccer ace Chayse Van Velkinburgh had himself quite a weekend, smashing home 15 goals across four games as he and his Northwest United U9 squad finished second at a tournament in Issaquah.
The only team NWU fell to was the Bellevue Titans, and the championship game ended in confusion and much muddling by the refs.
A disputed final goal, set up by a questionable call on a free kick, allowed Bellevue to send the title tilt to penalty kicks, where they slipped away with the biggest trophy.
That couldn’t take the shine off of Van Velkinburgh, though, as he rattled home goals in every game.
After opening with a goal and an assist, the pitch artist, who will be a third grader at Coupeville Elementary School in the fall, ripped off three goals and three assists in game two.
That was just the set-up for total freakin’ domination, with Van Velkinburgh smashing home 10 goals (you read that right) and assisting on three others in a rout of Gig Harbor.
In the title game, the booter with the torrid toe added three more assists and one final goal.
At which point the entire field caught on fire. Most likely.
Coupeville Sports 