It’s been a rough start to the season as the Wolverine girls soccer team dropped the first two games — to non-league opponents — losing to the Lynden Christian Lyncs 6-1 Sept. 11 and to the South Whidbey Falcons Saturday, 7-0.
In Saturday’s loss to South Whidbey, there was a wholesale collapse at midfield as South Whidbey outhustled the Wolverines, whose defense made things worse by playing on their heels, at least 10 yards too far back.
The Wolverine offense might just have well sat down and taken a rest, for every time teammates tried to clear the ball up-field, it was intercepted by the Falcons.
Hannah Snow gave up five goals, the first coming only three minutes into the game. Her end-of-game replacement, freshman Rhiana Franklin, gave up two.
“We had bits and pieces of really good stuff, but we weren’t putting it together girls. We weren’t mentally on the attack,” Coach Mark Fishaut said, after the game.
The Wolverines forgot the lesson taught by their former teammate, standout forward Beth Ware, whose aggressive play earned her opportunities she consistently took advantage of.
“You earn respect when you take on people hard,” Fishaut reminded his team. “It’s OK, it’s a learning experience. We’ll get there.”
Thursday
Lynden Christian 6
Friday Harbor 1
The Wolverines opened the season against a strong non-league opponent, Lynden Christian, Thursday, playing well but falling 6-1.
“We played pretty well,” said senior striker and team captain Whitney Porter. “They’re just a better team overall. They’ve got a lot of starting seniors and they were just stronger. They scored a goal against us in like the first 30 seconds, and I thought we were just going to get crushed, but we stepped it up and pulled together.”
Without hesitation, Porter singled out Larissa Nash as playing “way above my expectations. She was great. She’s a starting freshman, playing left back defense, and she went up against Kenzie De Boer from Lynden Christian who’s a starting senior captain — a phenomenal player — and she played outstanding.”
Next
The Wolverines travel to La Conner Thursday, 3:30 p.m.
