The South Whidbey High School soccer team displayed its toughness in a 0-0 draw at Cedarcrest Wednesday, April 4.

“(Cedarcrest) clearly outplayed us, but they didn’t out-gut us,” South Whidbey coach Emerson Robbins said. “The bottom line is that our guys in blue just refused to lose. It was a heroic effort and I could not be prouder of our guys’ toughness and effort.”

The Red Wolves (3-1-2, 3-3-3) are “an extremely well-trained, skilled and aggressive opponent” and “have pretty much owned us the past two seasons, at least at their spacious home field,” Robbins said.

“Although their record doesn’t indicate it, they are technically by far the best team we’ve played this season,” he added.

Regardless, South Whidbey (2-2-1, 3-2-2) hung with Cedarcrest through regulation and two five-minute overtime periods.

The Red Wolves outshot the Falcons 9-4 during the first two halves and 3-0 in the extra periods.

Cedarcrest controlled the midfield during the first half, but most of its shots, though strong, were from long range.

“In the second half, we made some defensive adjustments and went to man-marking centrally instead of our usual zonal marking,” Robbins said. “This seemed to help as they had less dominance centrally.”

Two Falcons, keeper Julian Inches and defender Lake Smith, were injured in the aggressive match but “refused to be subbed out” and willed their way through the match, according to Robbins.

South Whidbey’s two best scoring opportunities came from headers by Silas Batiste off corner kicks.

“While our guys did not play our offense as we have trained, they were heroic in their effort and we came out of this battle with a well deserved draw,” Robbins said.

Robbins praised his back line (Smith, Arik Rohan, Joey Lane and Thomas Sims), which played under constant duress. That effort was anchored by Inches.

“We would not have stood even a remote chance without our incredible goalkeeper and co-captain Julian Inches, who made several amazing saves and who is as talented and tough as they come,” Robbins said.

Up next is a home match with Sultan (0-4, 1-5) at 6 p.m. Friday, April 6.