MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Mustangs made the most of the homefield advantage in the first half of their North Central League I North varsity girls” soccer schedule. Now they need to be road warriors.
Kayla Welton scored two goals and Kaitlyn Mildenberger added a third to lead Middletown past the Kelseyville Knights 3-1 at Middletown High School. The victory gives the Mustangs (4-0 league, 6-4-1 overall) a perfect record at the midway point of the NCL I North season. Now they must go on the road for their final four league games.
“The next four games are all on the road and we”re still not playing our best yet,” said Middletown coach Louise Owens, who is counting on her squad to turn it up a notch over the final two weeks of the regular season. “We”ve got to step it up. It would be so nice to finish league undefeated.”
While Welton provided two-thirds of the Mustangs” offense against Kelseyville (2-2 league, 4-4 overall), a pair of freshmen provided Middletown with a giant spark in the first half.
Kaitlyn Mildenberger took a crossing shot from teammate Krista Turner and scored as the Mustangs built a 2-1 halftime advantage.
“They”re both fighting for time on the field as freshmen and they both made every bit of their time pay off,” Owens said. “They had perfect technique, perfect timing.”
Other standouts for the Mustangs, according to Owens, were midfielder Emily Beckwith and forward Jacquie Tobin.
“We moved Emily up to the midfield and she did a fantastic job,” Owens said.
Monique Santana scored in the first half for the Knights.
“They played very well, it just didn”t go our way,” Kelseyville coach Michael Leuck said of his players. “As a team we played very well.”
Standouts for the Knights were midfielders Amanda Horne, Daisy Medina and Megan Andre, stopper Allyson Brown and freshman forward Santana.
“She”s just awesome,” Leuck said of Santana. “She always plays her heart out.”
The Mustangs open the second half Thursday in Lower Lake.
In other girls” action Tuesday:
Clear Lake 3, Upper Lake 0
At Upper Lake, behind two goals from scoring machine Karina Martinez and another from Rachel Shryock, the Clear Lake Cardinals reached the halfway point of their NCL I South campaign with a shutout victory over the Upper Lake Cougars. Clear Lake leads the South with a 3-0-1 record.
“They”re a hard team and and they had some good passing,” Upper Lake coach Ana Santana said of the Cardinals, defending South champions. “Both sides were kind of challenged with the wind, which was blowing pretty good.”
“It was windy and it did cause some problems at times, but it was not a big deal,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said.
The Cardinals continue to be stingy on defense and have allowed just 17 goals — eight of those penalty kicks — in 17 games.
“We did a nice job of keeping the ball at their end of the field most of the game,” Larrea said.
And on the few occasions when the Cougars moved the ball across midfield, sweeper Molly Ryan was there to repel Upper Lake.
“She would just chip it back in to our forwards,” Larrea said of Ryan. “She did a great job.”
Marking backs Jen Carley and Shalese Larsen also helped shut down the Upper Lake offense, according to Larrea.
The Cougars (1-2-1 league, 3-8-1 overall) had just six shots on goal.
Willits 5, Lower Lake 0
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans stayed close for much of the second half, but two late goals by Willits produced a 5-0 Wolverines victory in NCL I North play.
Lower Lake keeper Megan Riley had a busy day, according to Lower Lake coach Pam Campbell.
“She stopped a lot of shots,” Campbell said.
Other Lower Lake standouts were Kaila Budwell on offense and Emmalena Illia on defense, according to Campbell.
Boys” soccer
Kelseyville 4, Middletown 1
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights reached the midway point of the NCL I North campaign with a victory over the Middletown Mustangs.
Kelseyville takes a 3-0-1 league mark into the second half, the only blemish a tie against Fort Bragg, who the Knights will play Oct. 17 in Fort Bragg.
“We”re in good shape … for now,” Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma said. “But we still have to beat Fort Bragg.”
Kelseyville led 3-0 at halftime despite missing a handful of shots, according to Ledesma.
“We played most of the first half on their side of the field and missed a ton of shots,” Ledesma said.
Miguel Martinez and Andres Macias each had two goals for the Knights, now 6-1-1 overall.
Kelseyville”s defense allowed just three shots on goal.
Middletown dropped to 1-3 in the North standings.
The Knights play an NCL I interlock game on Thursday in Petaluma against St. Vincent.
Clear Lake 6, Upper Lake 1
At Upper Lake, Armando Martinez collected four more goals and the Clear Lake Cardinals powered their way past the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I South play.
Clear Lake led just 2-1 at the half but a burst of scoring early in the second half completely changed the complexion of the game.
“It looked like it was anyone”s game after the first half,” Upper Lake coach Joe Womachka said.
Martinez scored twice and Ivan Sanchez also scored during a five-minute span early in the second half as the Cardinals moved out to a 5-1 lead.
“The first five minutes were chaos for us,” Womachka said.
Armando Ayala had Upper Lake”s only goal.
Volleyball
Cloverdale def. Upper Lake
At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake Cougars won the first game but the Cloverdale Eagles came roaring back to win the NCL I South opener for both teams 23-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-16.
“We played better than we did the other night but we still had a lot of mistakes,” Upper Lake coach Sandy Coatney said. “But the girls put a little more effort into it tonight. Now the girls have to translate effort into execution.”
Setter Samantha Bullard gave the Cougars (0-1) a strong effort with 14 assists and Caity Falge led the team with 13 digs. Cierra Peel came off the bench to register four kills and five blocks.
Lower Lake def. Middletown
At Lower Lake, Passion Allen pounded out eight kills and Renita Gillam had a team-best five blocks to lead the Lower Lake Trojans past the Middletown Mustangs 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 in the NCL I North opener for both teams.
“It was a close match that could have gone either way,” Lower Lake coach Danessa Udy said.
Gillam, called up from the junior varsity squad earlier this season, “did a great job,” according to Udy.
Another standout for the Trojans was Jessica Reising.
“Solid play … she”s been a gamer for me all season and she did another great job tonight,” Udy said. “She”s always consistently solid.”
