After he kicked the only — and winning — goal Friday night during the first half of a game with Nooksack Valley, junior Adam Jaffe stopped at midfield to get a shoeshine from his senior team captain, Chris Layman. Layman crouched down, put Jaffe’s foot on his knee, and started buffing the mud off his teammate’s shoe with his own jersey.
Now that’s appreciation.
“It’s just something we came up with in practice,” said Jaffe, who has kicked four goals for the Falcons in their first three games this season.
The South Whidbey boys went on to win the game, then another Monday against Granite Falls, to take the team to a 2-1 record in its first week of play. With Jaffe providing the fuel, even in a 3-2 loss to Lynden Christian on March 16, the team is clicking along at a winning pace.
In the most recent of the games, South Whidbey had the least resistance. Playing a number of junior varsity boys against a second-year Granite Falls squad, the Falcons scored almost at will. In addition to one goal and two assists contributed by Jaffe, Chris Layman, Spencer Buckman, Jeff Serrill, and Connor Adams all made their own scoring marks in the 5-0 win. In the goal, senior Finn Keough and junior Joe Gunn kept things locked down tight.
Gunn was also a big part of the win over Nooksack. With his team still clinging to a 1-0 lead, he made a diving stop with five minutes to play in regulation. It was Nooksack’s last serious charge of the game.
Against Lynden Christian, the wind and the cold were almost bigger factors than the competition. Though the Falcons got up 2-0 in the first 20 minutes of the matchup, they could not hold the Lyncs out of their zone. Gunn was victimized in three second-half Lync scores, which were enough to ice a game on an already frigid field.
Also seeing action during the past week was the Falcon JV team. The junior players came away with an 11-2 win against Nooksack and a 3-0 win at Lynden Christian.
The Falcons play next today on the road against Sultan. They return home Friday for a matchup against Blaine.
