Cole White leads the charge. (Morgan White photos)
There’s a reason Orcas Island is the defending 2B/1B state boys soccer champs.
The Vikings are good.
Orcas proved as much Tuesday, using a very-precise style of play to hold off a scrappy Coupeville squad.
Toppling the Wolves 5-2 at Mickey Clark Field, the Vikings improve to 4-1 on the season, while CHS falls to 2-3.
But while the game involved two Northwest 2B/1B League rivals, it won’t go into the books as a conference tilt.
Only the final eight games of the season, which starts with Coupeville travelling to play Cedar Park Christian-Lynnwood Oct. 4, count as “league games” and decide playoff seeding.
The first five games for the Wolves, while all against NWL schools, are viewed as non-conference bouts for accounting purposes.
Which didn’t mean Coupeville didn’t want to upend the reigning champs, because they did.
Coming off an epic upset of Friday Harbor — the only team to topple Orcas this season — the Wolves were hoping to make it a two-fer.
It wasn’t to be, however, as the Vikings put on a clinic in the first half, controlling both sides of the field with a precise short passing attack, the ball skipping from player to player.
Coupeville’s defense, which was missing two key players in Andrew Williams and Alex Smith, held up well, but the Vikings took advantage of any small cracks, striking like cobras.
Orcas scored first off of a gorgeous header, set up by a (wait for it) precise pass which slipped between defenders and found a waiting noggin.
The Vikings notched two goals in the first seven minutes, before the teams played a half hour of scoreless ball marked by big defensive plays from both backlines.
The game looked like it would remain close heading to the break, but Orcas stung the Wolves with two more scores in the final three minutes of the half to stretch things out.
Wolf goalie Nick Guay surveys the field after making a save.
Even down four goals, Coupeville fought back valiantly.
Cole White brought Wolf fans to their feet with a great run 12 minutes into the second half.
Corralling a pass from Aidan Wilson, who flipped the ball out in front of the defense, White chased the bouncing orb down, juked a defender out of his shoes, then slapped home his first goal of the season.
Five minutes later, it was Wilson’s turn to net a score, banging home his team-leading fifth goal off of an assist from Preston Epp.
Drawing the goalie out of the net, Wilson rumbled past the out-of-place netminder and buried the ball into the corner of the net with a flick of his lethal foot.
Coupeville had all the momentum at that point, and 22 minutes to pull off a miracle, but Orcas closed the game like a team built to handle pressure.
The Vikings kept the ball away from the Wolves, ran time down, then added an insurance goal in stoppage time as the exclamation point on the night.
While his team lost, Coupeville coach Robert Wood liked the effort put together by his short-handed team against a very-strong program.
“Orcas knows how to shoot, how to move, and how to be aggressive when it counts,” he said.
“They put on a clinic of possession and quick ball movement,” Wood added. “Really fun game. Very impressive response by our team to their skills.”
Rumble, young men, rumble.
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