B-E hands South Whidbey its 1st loss / Soccer

By Jim Waller • March 26, 2019 1:30 am

The South Whidbey High School soccer team suffered its first loss of the season, falling 1-0 at Burlington-Edison Monday, March 25.

The 2A Tigers, who finished second in the state last spring, raised their record to 4-2 with the non-league win.

The Falcons were missing three starters and played with only one substitute, coach Emerson Robbins said.

Burlington-Edison was the “better possession” team, according to Robbins, but South Whidbey had “better chances on goal” but couldn’t convert.

Burlington settled for long-range attempts while the Falcons’ shots were “closer and more central,” Robbins said.

The Tigers scored on a long free kick that took several high bounces and slipped by Taylor Daniels, subbing for the missing Julian Inches.

“That was not on our keeper, Taylor Daniels, who played a great game,” Robbins said. “He was blocked out on the play by a crowded box. It was on our defense that should have cleared the bouncing ball out of danger.”

“While I can’t say we played our best game; I was very proud of the effort our guys gave,” Robbins added. “We did an excellent job of compacting the field centrally and we only allowed this talented team four shots for the entire game.

“Hopefully, we learned a few things from this tight contest and the loss and it will help us going forward. We somehow will need to figure out how to overcome the loss of so many starters for our next game. I believe we will only have eight varsity players for our Wednesday night game, so we are having to bring up three of the JV players for that game.”

South Whidbey (1-0, 4-1) goes to Sultan (0-1, 0-5) for a 7 p.m. game Wednesday, March 27.