Taking a leg up on the race to the North Sound Conference crown, the South Whidbey High School soccer team trimmed rival King’s 2-1 Tuesday, April 9, in Shoreline.

The Falcons moved to 4-0 in the league standings and 8-1 overall, while the Knights slipped to 3-1, 4-2-1.

To claim the victory, South Whidbey had to survive the Knights’ barrage.

“King’s started out bombarding our back line with long, high balls and sending numbers of players onto them,” Falcon coach Emerson Robbins said.

Joey Lane, Sequoia Durham, Eli Walton, Thomas Simms and Ryan Morgan “did a fantastic job thwarting the constant Kings bombs, one after another,” according to Robbins.

The Falcons, Robbins said, got caught up in the Knights’ style of play and settled for long shots in the first half, and the period ended with the teams tied at 0-0.

“However, at the half-time I settled our guys down and suggested we play our style and not get into trying to match King’s game plan,” Robbins said. “Instead, we moved the ball around, went wide and this paid off almost immediately.”

Five minutes into the second half, Simms hammered in a goal.

South Whidbey held the lead until the final two minutes when the Knights scored on a corner kick. Keeper Julian Inches blocked the initial shot, but King’s was able to punch in the rebound to tie the match.

Undaunted, the Falcons answered with 30 seconds remaining in the contest.

A nice throw-in by Cormac Workman allowed Michael Lux to head the ball toward the goal, setting up Graham Colar, who came flying in from the outside and scored the game winner with a diving header.

“These guys don’t know the meaning of quit,” Robbins said. “I am so very proud of all of them.”