Hazel Goldman rattled home two goals Thursday night. (Monica Grant photos)
It was a barn burner which ended with a bit of a thud.
Capping a game which saw numerous lead changes, and a hail of goals, visiting La Conner slipped in a disputed score in stoppage time Thursday to eke out a 4-4 tie with the Coupeville High School girls’ soccer squad.
The split decision leaves the Wolves at 2-1-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 3-1-2 overall, with road games against Friday Harbor and Crosspoint Christian up next on the schedule.
While a win would have kept Coupeville in first place in the NWL, the tie, captured while missing two key starters, means Jasmine Ader’s squad is still firmly in the race for the crown.
Mount Vernon Christian (3-0-0 for nine points) tops the seven-team league, with Coupeville (2-1-2 for eight points), Lopez Island (2-1-1 for seven points), and Friday Harbor (2-2-0 for six points) hot on the trail of the Hurricanes.
La Conner (1-1-1 for four points), Providence Classical Christian (1-2-0 for three points), and Orcas Island (0-4 for zippo) round out the standings.
Thursday’s rumble at Mickey Clark Field featured six goals in a torrid first half.
Wolf freshman Hazel Goldman broke the seal on the net eight-and-a-half minutes into play, punching in a shot while lurking in a pack waging war in front of the goal.
La Conner responded with scores off of back-to-back breakaways, but Goldman wasn’t having it, hitting paydirt for the second time in the game’s 22nd minute to knot things back up.
With both teams crashing hard at the net, peppering the goaltenders with frequent shots, two more scoring strikes got through before the halftime break.
The Braves snuck back ahead at 3-2, before Paige Hill redirected a ball past the netminder in the 34th minute.
Her score came on a play set up by a corner kick by Lyla Grose, with the ball ricocheting off of Lucy Schisel’s foot and a handful of defenders before Hill proved to be in the right place at the right time.
The refs gave La Conner the first of two big breaks when they decided an accidental collision warranted handing the visitors a penalty kick right before the break.
Sanity was restored, however, as the Braves shooter pulled the ball badly to the left, failing to take advantage of her gift-wrapped present.
Sophia Greene (17) and Co. make a tough foe for anyone.
With the game knotted at 3-3, Coupeville jumped out to the advantage quickly when play began in the second half.
Less than a minute into play, Olivia Hall slid past two rivals, banking home a slap shot from the left side to give CHS the lead for the first time since Goldman’s opening goal.
And the 4-3 lead almost held up, as Coupeville’s defense completely shut down the fleet footed La Conner shooters who had gotten loose in the first half.
No big breakaways, no long runs, and very few shots for Wolf goalie Finley Helm to corral, until…
Just as the game slipped into stoppage time — that Twilight Zone-style “maybe it’s two minutes, maybe it’s not” period — La Conner popped a desperation shot at the net.
Helm blocked the incoming ball, then got whacked like a victim in a Mafia movie, bodies crunching, and the ball squirting free and into the back of the net.
For the longest time, no one, including the refs, seemed to know whether the goal would stand, or be waved off.
But, after a conversation in the corner of the field between the officials (but not their MIA seeing-eye dog), the score stood, with mere seconds left to play.
Coupeville tried to push downfield for the game-winner, but time ran out on the attack, and with no overtime or penalty kick shootouts being allowed in regular season games this season, the final tally stood at 4-4.
The Wolves get a second crack at the Braves October 20, however, and departed the field heads held high.
They also, just six games into a 15-game regular season campaign, set a program high water mark.
Hill became the 10th different Wolf girl to net a goal this season, allowing the 2026 team to already break a tie with the 2015 and 2017 squads, who each saw nine players score.
CHS has piled up 19 goals thus far:
Hazel Goldman – 3
Ariella Lee-Spaulding – 3
Lucy Schisel – 3
Lyla Grose – 2
Olivia Hall – 2
Lillian Ketterling – 2
Scarlet Barnes – 1
Paige Hill – 1
Bella Sandlin – 1
Bettie Woolworth – 1
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