William Nelson, seen here in an earlier game, had a dazzling would-be assist Friday night. (John Fisken photo)
The score didn’t tell all.
A look at the scoreboard, which was faithfully updated by always hard-working team manager Peytin Vondrak, showed the Coupeville High School boys soccer squad fell 6-0 to visiting Port Angeles Friday night.
The non-conference loss, coming against a much-larger school, drops the Wolves to 3-6-1, while the victorious Roughriders rise to 7-3.
The fourth, and final, game against a 2A opponent this season (CHS was 1-2-1 playing above its weight class), it sets Coupeville up for the stretch run.
That starts Monday, when the Wolves hit the road to face Klahowya, the first of five straight league games to close the regular season.
Coupeville (2-2 in league play) sits in third-place in the four-team 1A Olympic League, a half game off of Port Townsend (2-1).
Two-time defending champs Klahowya (3-0) and Chimacum (0-4) round out things.
While they didn’t knock off Port Angeles, the Wolves were much more competitive than the score might indicate.
CHS pushed the attack, especially in the first half, with several players getting decent cracks at the net.
Ethan Spark came within an inch or two of knocking in the game’s first goal barely a minute into the game, only to have the Port Angeles keeper come up with a strong save.
The shot was set up by an absolutely gorgeous little backwards chip from William Nelson, who split two defenders, juked them out of their shoes, then nonchalantly popped the ball over his shoulder to his waiting teammate.
Whether it resulted in a goal or not, it was one of the prettiest-looking assists you’re likely to see on a high school soccer field.
Fab frosh Aram Leyva had a nice crack at the net six minutes later, while Spark launched a long cannon shot that looked like it might skip in shortly afterwards.
Unfortunately, neither shot got a lucky bounce, and the Roughriders demonstrated why they are a very hard team to score on, repeatedly shutting down Coupeville opportunities at the last moment.
Port Angeles has only surrendered 10 goals in 10 games.
Take away the four they gave up in a season-opening loss to powerful Franklin Pierce, and the Roughrider defenders have been in lock-down mode.
“I’m not disappointed with our play,” said CHS coach Kyle Nelson. “We had a tough opponent, a quality team, and they just don’t give up many goals.
“We had some quality shots, though,” he added. “We were dangerous at times and put up a good effort.”
Port Angeles knocked in its first goal in the game’s fifth minute, then Coupeville held the Roughriders scoreless for a 20-minute stretch.
Wolf goalie Dewitt Cole pulled off back-to-back saves on the same play, knocking down a shot, then rolling back up off the turf to track down and snare the ball as a rival player tried to knock the rebound home.
Port Angeles, which passed with a great deal of precision, sending people flying out ahead of the defense, then dropping the ball out on the attack, eventually broke through, however.
Three goals in the final 16 minutes of the first half, with the final one coming during stoppage time, gave the Roughriders a 4-0 lead at the break.
The second half played out more like a chess match, with a lot of artful passing and backpedaling.
Port Angeles tacked on goals in the 54th minute and again mere seconds before the ref whistled the match dead.
Brian Roberts, who stalked the goal in the second half for Coupeville, had several nice saves, while Wolf defenders Axel Partida, Uriel Liquidano and Teo Keilwitz scrapped tooth and nail until the final whistle.
Play got a bit rough down the stretch, with booters on both sides of the ball taking hard hits.
On the attack, Brandon Jansen rocked a Roughrider who probably had 25 pounds on him, knocking his burlier foe airborne and sending him into an unintentional cartwheel which left him dizzy ‘n dazed.
Leyva went down, and stayed down for a bit, but remained in the game, while Spark and Nelson imparted a series of carefully-placed elbows to the mid-sections of various Port Angeles players.
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