Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego

Posts Tagged ‘Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego’

“Great way to finish the summer!!”

Posted in Girls Soccer, GU19 Whidbey Islanders, tagged GU19 Whidbey Islanders, Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego, Jenn Spark, Sean LeVine, select soccer on August 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Jenn Spark (left) and Ayla Muller both scored goals Sunday. (Kali Barrio photo)

The memory of this one will last for some time. Of course, it’ll have to.

Playing a friendly against visiting GU18 Fuerza FC (Marysville) Sunday, the GU19 Whidbey Islanders select soccer squad was on point and unstoppable.

Raining down goals from every direction, with five players finding the back of the net, the Islanders romped to a 6-0 win to officially tie a bow on the summer season.

Now, the players will disperse to their high school teams (Oak Harbor, Coupeville, South Whidbey) before coming back together in November.

Whidbey has a college showcase tourney after Thanksgiving before starting league play in December.

The Islanders’ summer swan song couldn’t have played out any better, leaving coaches Sean LeVine and Scott Rosenkranz with huge smiles afterwards.

“We were really able to showcase all the areas we’ve worked on this summer,” LeVine said. “The possession, runs off the ball, team defending, and finishing was the best it’s ever been. Great way to finish the summer!”

Whidbey scored early and often, with Jacalyn Hefflefinger punching in two quick goals to pace the attack.

The first came off a “beautiful cross into the six” from Gillian Crossley.

Later Hefflefinger nimbly picked up a ball that bounced off the goalie’s hands on a hard shot from Bailee Olson and tapped it into the back of the net.

Once they had the scent of blood, the Islanders came hard, with Crossley, Ayla Muller, Lydia Peplinski and Jenn Spark all connecting on goals of their own.

Crossley’s was set up by an assist from Kendra Warwick, while Muller launched a free kick 35 yards that zipped through the air, then dove smartly and crept in right under the crossbar.

Up 4-0 coming out of halftime, the Islanders played to maintain possession and keep the clock running, but even then they couldn’t help but score.

Kenzie Perry put a ball right on Peplinski’s noggin, and the young gun headed it past the Marysville goalie, before Spark got downright pretty with the game’s final score.

Running the field, Spark, who had been battling a foot injury recently, made a “beautiful cut back to her left foot,” before shredding the goaltender’s last nerve with a bullet from 20 yards out.

Boom. Back of the net. Summer mission accomplished.

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“Best game for this team so far!!”

Posted in Girls Soccer, GU19 Whidbey Islanders, tagged Gillian Crossley, GU19 Whidbey Islanders, Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego, NCSAA College Showcase, Soccer on July 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Gillian Crossley netted her first goal as an Islander Saturday.

Bounce back, big time.

A day after being drilled by the #9 team in the nation, the GU19 Whidbey Islanders select soccer squad roared back Saturday to play their “best game for this team so far!”

While the Islanders ended up with a 2-2 draw against Tacoma FC at the NCSAA College Showcase Tournament in Puyallup, Whidbey coach Sean LeVine came away pleased with 99.2% of what he saw go down.

“What a great game, and we really deserved the win,” LeVine said. “Tacoma FC was a good team, and I warned the team that if we let up at all they could easily get back into the game, and that’s what happened, but we looked like the better team for most of the game.”

The two teams had fought to a draw three weeks ago, but in that game LeVine felt Tacoma was the better squad. Not so Saturday.

“Our possession, speed, and hustle looked the best it’s ever been today and we really looked like the better team for 70 minutes of that game,” LeVine said.

Newcomer Lydia Peplinski “was a difference maker today, battling hard for the ball as our center mid.”

Her defining play came when she set up fellow first-year Islander Gillian Crossley on a perfectly-placed header.

That allowed Crossley to go one-on-one with the Tacoma goalie, beating her on a ball neatly plopped into the side netting.

Leading 1-0 coming out of halftime, Whidbey “let up a little for 10 minutes”, allowing Tacoma to rattle off back-to-back goals.

The Islanders refused to buckle, however, as the veterans stepped up and took control.

Becca Pabona knocked “a beautiful cross into the box” that goal-scoring machine Jacalyn Hefflefinger nimbly redirected with her head into the back of the net, leaving Tacoma’s goalie looking foolish as she grasped at empty air.

Neither squad could get a tie-breaker after that, but the Islanders used their entire roster, giving every girl substantial playing time.

The three-day tourney is a showcase event for college coaches looking for possible recruits for their programs.

Whidbey will wrap play Sunday when it faces Chinook United from Calgary. On the menu, according to assistant coach Scott Rosenkranz, is “Canadian bacon for lunch tomorrow!”

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Seven straight!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, GU18 Whidbey Islanders, tagged GU18 Whidbey Islanders, Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego, Sean LeVine, Soccer, win streak on March 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Erin Rosenkranz heads up field in pursuit of the ball. (John Fisken photos)

The Islanders bring together players from North, South and Central Whidbey. Coupeville’s own Fab Five — (l to r) Jacki Ginnings, Tori Wellman, Rosenkranz, Jenn Spark, Micky LeVine.

LeVine battles for the ball under pressure.

Hefflefinger scores, Islanders win.

The song is stuck on repeat, but no one seems to be complaining, as it’s catchy, has a good beat and is being played by a team that has swept into sole possession of first place.

The latest victim of the supremely hot Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad was the Northshore Evolution, who fell 2-1 Sunday afternoon at Ft. Nugent.

It was the seventh straight win for an Islander team that now finds itself sitting at 8-2, alone in first place with two games left to play in the season.

And the win played out in familiar fashion, as Jacalyn Hefflefinger and Jenn Spark set the table, while Kenzie Perry slammed the door shut.

Hefflefinger shook things up early, banging home a ball in the fifth minute of the game for her seventh goal in as many games.

She and teammate Bailee Olson were fighting for the ball in the Northshore box, and, with the help of a puddle that stopped the ball and set her up nicely, it was golden leg time once again for the goal-scoring phenom from Oak Harbor.

Keeping the pressure on, Whidbey got a second score ten minutes later.

Spark lofted a patented near-perfect corner kick, laying it right at the feet of Selena Medina, who, without an ounce of mercy in her body, calmly lashed it past a helpless Evolution goalie.

After that, it was all about defense, and the Islanders were near-stifling. With Perry in net, and her band of scrappy defenders guarding her turf, Northshore had few opportunities to score.

The Evolution finally did, on a goal that benefited from the refs going blind — twice.

First they awarded Northshore a questionable free kick, then they allowed a goal to stand after an Evolution player kicked the ball free from Perry’s hands — a no-no.

“In my mind, that’s a 2-0 win,” Islander coach Sean LeVine said. “Second half was all us. Our defense was stout and they never got behind us in the entire second half.”

Whidbey kept the pressure on, with multiple players ripping shots on goal. Olson, Micky LeVine, Erin Rosenkranz, Becca Pabona, Kendra Warwick, Hailey Erbe, Morgan Zylstra and Paige Waterman all rattled the Evolution netminder.

LeVine, after some thought, tabbed Warwick as his player of the game.

“Kendra really held down the midfield today, battling much larger opponents and winning, controlling possession, and helped to relieve the defense from having to pressure the ball in the middle,” LeVine said. “Kendra is our own Ozzie Alonso! Great job today!”

The Islanders host their next game, Sunday, Mar. 23 (2 PM) at Ft. Nugent, then hit the road for their season finale.

For more photos, including pics of Islander players who call Oak Harbor and South Whidbey home, head over to:

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/album.jsp?aid=768a5498cf350b8730ec

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Islanders can’t be held down!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, GU18 Whidbey Islanders, tagged GU18 Whidbey Islanders, Jacalyn Hefflefinger is en fuego, Jenn Spark, six straight wins, Soccer on March 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad players (most of them, anyway), winners of six straight. (Kali Barrio photo)

Jacalyn Hefflefinger owns the goal right now.

Scoring her sixth goal of the season Saturday, to go with an awe-inspiring score from teammate Jenn Spark, Hefflefinger sparked the Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad to its sixth straight victory.

The 2-0 home triumph over the Issaquah Arsenal lifts the Islanders to 7-2 on the season, and they get right back at it with a home game at Ft. Nugent (2 PM) Sunday.

Saturday, Whidbey dominated Issaquah from the moment the two teams stepped on the field. The Islanders peppered the Arsenal goalie, claiming a 20-3 shot on goal advantage.

With Morgan Zylstra manning the net for Whidbey, that freed goalie Kenzie Perry (“like a pit bull up front”) to play in the open field, and the fleet-footed one helped kick-start the offense.

Perry moved back into goal in the second half to combine with her teammate on the shutout.

The Islanders broke through when Spark took advantage of a free kick earned by Erin Rosenkranz.

Spark blasted a shot from 20 yards out that neatly curved over the Arsenal wall and plopped right into the corner of the net as the Issaquah goalie could only watch the shot in horror.

Pressing hard in stoppage time, Whidbey sprung Hefflefinger for the game-capping goal.

With mighty mite Micky “Two Fists” LeVine pressuring the defense, Tori Wellman pilfered the ball and slapped a picture-perfect crossing pass to Hefflefinger. Two seconds later, the golden-toed shot-maker had scored again and the celebration was on.

With contributions from every one on the roster, Islander coach Sean LeVine picked Paige Waterman and Becca Pabona as his players of the game.

“Paige matched their big, fast bruiser stride for stride and showed how strong she can be,” LeVine said. “We know Paigey is a great defender, but she battled their toughest player all game and won and took her out of the game!

“Becca played hard from box to box, battling for every 50/50, and really helped to control our possession,” he added. “Great job!”

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