Sage Renninger, seen here earlier this season, is one of several key Wolf booters who could return next season. (John Fisken photo)
It was simple but effective.
Spreading out the field and using precision passing to run its opponent ragged Saturday, the visiting Vashon Island High School girls’ soccer squad held Coupeville without a shot on goal and headed home with a 2-0 district playoff win.
The loss, coming on the sodden, rain-soaked turf at Oak Harbor’s stadium, a larger field than the Wolves normally play on, dropped Coupeville’s final mark to 6-7-3.
That ties last year’s team for the most wins in program history, but both of those six-win teams had their season ended by the same foe.
Last year, in a “home” game played much, much further down the road, the Wolves fell 3-0 to Vashon.
The Pirates put this year’s contest away early, breaking through less than two minutes into the game.
A Vashon forward got behind the Wolf defense — one of the few times that would happen all day — and made a run up the left side, angling the ball past CHS goalie Lauren Grove.
Vashon’s second goal came not that long afterwards, in the game’s eighth minute, when a ball glanced off of a limb during a scrum in front of the net and shot into the back of the net.
From that point on, the action settled into what true soccer fans would probably view as scintillating, but the causal fan could best describe as “ehhhhhh…”
The Pirates played keep-away, peppered Grove with a series of shots (the first-year goalie was spot-on over the final 72 minutes, making several nice saves) and kept Coupeville from launching any sort of counter-attack.
The game seemed to sit on one side of the field for much of the running time.
Coupeville tried to get out on the attack, but leading scorers Kalia and Mia Littlejohn were swarmed every time they touched the ball, and the Vashon goalie rarely, if ever, moved all game.
The closest the Wolves came to the net was a free kick from Jenn Spark after a Vashon hand ball.
The sturdy senior captain lit up the ball, but caught too much air underneath it and shot the ball through the football uprights for a flawless field goal.
Sadly, the refs failed to give Spark any style points and the shut-out remained intact.
After the early goals, Coupeville’s defense visibly toughened up, with Lauren Bayne, Mckenzie Meyer, Taichen Rose, Spark and Lindsey Roberts clamping down on the Pirates.
One of the few times Grove was out of position, Roberts stifled Vashon’s bid for a third score, using her leg to save the ball at the mouth of the goal and shoot it back downfield.
The playoff loss was the final high school game for Spark and fellow Wolf seniors Jovanah Foote and Kirsten Pelroy.
The Wolves could return Grove, much of their defense and eight of the nine players who scored goals this season.
Kalia Littlejohn set a program record with 10 goals as a freshman, while Mia Littlejohn notched five during her sophomore campaign.
Other potential returning scorers include May Rose (3), Arisbeth Montiel (3), Sage Renninger (3), Bree Daigneault (2), Roberts (1) and Ashley Smith (1).
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