Moppins scores four as South Kitsap beats Bremerton 6-0

The Wolves girls soccer team has been filling the net with frequency in the early part of their shortened season, and senior forward Franqie Moppins has led the way.

South Kitsap tacked on six more goals Thursday night in a shutout win over Bremerton, and their top-notch striker hit the back of the net four times.

After scoring a hat trick against Shelton Tuesday, those four tallies give Moppins seven of the team’s 12 goals in 2021.

“Next should be five,” Moppins joked after the match.

Her team was in control from start to finish against the Knights, dominating the run of play.

It took just four minutes for South Kitsap to get on the board. A pass from Hailey Deese found Moppins on the run with a clean look at the net and the senior buried it for a 1-0 lead.

Eleven minutes later, Moppins corralled a cross from Deese, brought it down and fired it into the back of the net to put the Wolves ahead 2-0.

“She’s a powerhouse as an attacker up there,” said head coach Hailey Parker, a 2014 South Kitsap graduate who is in the first year at the helm of the program.

The Wolves didn’t really need much luck in this match but got a fortunate break toward the end of the first half. A Bremerton defender was trying to clear away Juliet Jaeren’s corner kick but ended up putting the ball in her own net. South Kitsap led 3-0 at halftime.

Moppins finished off the hat trick in the 60th minute. After Sierrah VanGesen blasted a ball off the crossbar, Moppins was there to snag the rebound and send it home. A few minutes later, Moppins picked up her fourth on a breakaway.

VanGesen scored the final goal of the match with a hard shot from just inside the 18-yard box.

With just a few returning players, the Wolves are off to a 2-1 start this season. But even with a paucity of experience on the squad, Moppins said the youngsters are eager to learn from and match the intensity level of the varsity veterans.

“Once we pick it up a level, I can tell they try to meet it and it’s really good to have that determination,” Moppins said.

South Kitsap opened with a 2-1 loss to Central Kitsap on Feb. 16 but rebounded to beat Shelton 5-1 a week later. 2021 has provided a unique challenge for the squad — their schedule consists entirely of teams they rarely, if ever, face on a yearly basis.

“You have to come out hard no matter who the team is because we don’t know who we’re up against,” Parker said.

But after months of uncertainty surrounding the possibility of even having a season, the players are happy to head onto the pitch, no matter the opponent.

“Their goal this season is to just enjoy their time together,” Parker said, “because they haven’t had that opportunity, and to just enjoy the time and put effort forward to have fun so the seniors can have a good season.”