Kalia Littlejohn has scored in both of her first two high school games. (John Fisken photos)
Lindsey Roberts fan club was out in full force to see her score her first goal. Pictured are (l to r) lil’ bro Landon Roberts, mom Sherry Roberts and grandpa Rick Bonacci.
Littlejohn and Jenn Spark celebrate a goal.
Kalia Littlejohn doesn’t know what it’s like to play in a high school soccer game and not score.
Making it 2-for-2 to start her career, the Coupeville High School freshman rattled home another goal Thursday night.
Her score, one of two to come off the foot of a Wolf ninth grader (Lindsey Roberts punched home her first), wasn’t enough, though, as Coupeville fell 4-2 at South Whidbey.
The non-conference loss dropped the Wolves to 0-1-1 on the young season.
CHS gets its first home game of the season Saturday, when it hosts Forks at noon.
Facing a tough Falcon squad, Coupeville was hurt by bad luck and poor calls.
South Whidbey jumped on the board early, knocking home a goal in the third minute, and then things got fluky.
The Wolves inadvertently scored an own goal to make it 2-0, then had their goalie, Mckenzie Meyer, whistled for a dubious foul while fighting for a loose ball in the box.
Given a gift penalty kick, the Falcons slammed it home, carrying a 3-0 lead into the halftime locker room.
What could have been a blow-out took a turn for the positive, however, after CHS coach Troy Cowan went all Vince Lombardi on his team.
“I saw the girls coming off the pitch with their heads down and their spirits wilted; I knew I needed to light a fire under them and bring them back to life,” he said. “I reminded them that they had only really given up one goal and that in soccer there are two halves and we still had a half of soccer to play.
“I talked about what we were doing right, which was a lot, to be honest,” Cowan added. “We were better then this team across the board, we just weren’t getting the calls and the ball wasn’t bouncing our way every time.
“I reminded the girls to control what we were in charge of, and that was our effort!!”
Cowan made a few strategic changes which paid immediate dividends.
Senior captain Jenn Spark slid into the sweeper role, Sage Renninger moved into the middle “to help control the flow of the ball and to send quality through balls” and Littlejohn jumped up to forward.
The new flow hit pay dirt ten minutes into the half, when Spark pounded a rocket to Littlejohn, who promptly shattered her defender’s ankles en route to her second goal of the season.
“Kalia has no mercy!,” said a jubilant Cowan.
Midway through the second half, Coupeville got another goal back off of a corner kick from the master, Spark.
“Not sure if you have ever had the privilege of watch Jennifer Spark serve up a corner kick, but it is a thing of beauty for us and probably a living nightmare for our opponents,” Cowan said.
Spark’s missile rattled around, zipping between May Rose to Bree Daigneault to Renninger and on to Roberts, who launched a laser shot into the back of the net.
With the loud South Whidbey crowd quieted, Coupeville came hard for the tying goal, only to lose Littlejohn to an injury with six minutes to play.
Luckily for the Wolves, Littlejohn’s mom, Dawn Hesselgrave, later confirmed the injury wasn’t a bad one and her daughter expects to be in the thick of action Saturday.
Without its top scorer, and desperate to force a tie, Coupeville moved one of its midfielders to forward to increase its offensive chances.
The move backfired, however, when South Whidbey took advantage of the mismatch and launched a successful counter-attack, scoring the game’s final goal in the waning seconds.
While it went into the record books as a loss, Cowan came away pleased with his squad’s resilience under fire and was already looking for some payback.
“I can’t wait to play them again next year!!!”
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