FRIDAY HARBOR HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SOCCER

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Langley beats Friday Harbor soccer team 6-3

By Coach Mark Fishaut

posted 09/17/2007
On Saturday last (Sept. 15, 2007), The Lady Wolverines traveled to Langley for a non-league match against 2A South Whidbey. Tests against much larger school are an absolute necessity for building our program. Large schools have both JV and varsity teams, and the latter are almost exclusively feature a roster of upper classmen. This past weekend’s fixture was no exception.

The first half was an unfortunate continuation of the previous match against La Conner. Play was timid and tentative: our inability to win the one-on-one challenges and 50/50 balls meant play was in the team’s defensive end for 35 of the 40 minutes. This inevitably gifted South Whidbey numerous opportunities to score. That they did so but three times is a continuing tribute to sophomore keeper Hannah Snow.

However, in the last few moments of the session, things began to change. Play began to move forward at last, and center mid Beth Ware sent a screaming shot on goal. Their keeper made a brilliant save, but this was the spark showed the girls that they were indeed capable and belonged on the same pitch as their opponents. At the interval, Snow gave a fiery dressing down and building up of her mates. Everything said was spot on such that the coach literally had nothing to add.

The second half was a different game: now more balls were won than lost as the energy level escalated and the quality of play rose dramatically. The Wolverines broke through early with a superb delivery from Ware to Whitney Porter for the season’s first goal. Friday Harbor continued to press, providing their opponents with more scoring opportunities. None of this held them back. After a two season drought of failing to convert a corner, Shelby Ness provided a clinical finish from Ware’s delivery. Ness then set up Porter for her second goal of the match late in the session.

Although the final score was 6-3 in favor of South Whidbey, we saw 2 games: the 0-3 drab first half, and the inspired 3-3 second. It was particularly satisfying that in the last 40 minutes, eight of 11 of our players on the field were freshmen and sophomores more than holding their own against 9 of 11 juniors and seniors. We are seeing definite progress, and despite 2 losses, the team is considerably ahead of where it was at this point last season. The Wolverines next travel to Mount Vernon Christian for a match on September 18th.

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