'Cats, Falcons start with 1-1 tie | Soccer

Oak Harbor and South Whidbey battled to a 1-1 tie in the season-opening match Tuesday, Sept. 4, at Wildcat Memorial Stadium.

Lauryn Plush lofted a goal from 25 yards out over the head of Falcon keeper Ellie Green with 12:22 left in the match to give Oak Harbor the lead.

With under five minutes in the match, South Whidbey sent a free kick to the goal mouth that was cleared by Oak Harbor but set up a Falcon corner kick. The corner kick was also cleared by the Wildcats, but Jenna Kalk picked up the loose ball and lifted it over the defense in a mirror image of Plush's long-range goal to tie the match.

Oak Harbor heads to Coupeville at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, in another Whidbey matchup. The game will be the Wolves' first for 2012.

The Wildcats dominated the South Whidbey match for the first 20 minutes, then the play evened out.

Oak Harbor coach Jeff Laiblin said, "Definitely a good first game. For this group, we are building cohesiveness. We have a lot of lessons to learn from this, learn our limits."

Laiblin said Oak Harbor, which fielded a team with five first-time varsity starters, was missing three starters, two who may return for the Coupeville match. He added, "Not taking anything away from South Whidbey. Kudos to them, they played a good game."

One of the first-time starters was sophomore goal keeper Makenzie Perry, who played "awesome," Laiblin said.

Perry and Green each had six saves.

Oak Harbor defeated South Whidbey 1-0 in the junior varsity match behind Anne Te Paske's goal.

Contact Whidbey News Times Sports editor Jim Waller at jwaller@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5060.

Comment on this story.

COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in our online community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. In a nutshell, don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.