UPPER LAKE — Coming off a big 1-0 win over the Clear Lake Cardinals on Tuesday, the Middletown Mustangs fell 2-1 to the Upper Lake Cougars on Thursday afternoon in North Central League I interlock varsity girls” soccer action at Upper Lake High School.
“It really gave us a boost in our morale,” Upper Lake coach Anna Santana said of the win. “They (Mustangs) beat Clear Lake and now we beat them, so the girls are thinking maybe they can beat Clear Lake.”
Upper Lake (4-2-1) had only two shots on goal in the first half and made both. The first goal came just 30 seconds into the game when Yessica Ayala scored to make it 1-0. Ten minutes later it was Taryn Re scoring with an assist from Becca Breton to make it 2-0.
Kayla Welton scored in the second half to cut Upper Lake”s lead in half.
“It was kind of frustrating,” Middletown coach Louise Owens said. “They had only two shots but scored twice, but that”s what counts.”
Upper Lake packed in its defense to frustrate Middletown”s attack.
“We out-shot them by plenty,” Owens said. “We had a plenty of opportunities, some nice attempts, but we couldn”t get them to go in.”
Santana praised the play of her defense, including keeper Maria Mendoza, who had 20 assists. Other standouts were stopper Jaclyn Eubanks and sweeper Laura Wold.
“They were very, very solid,” Santana said. “I was so impressed.”
Santana also had plenty of praise for the Mustangs (3-2-2).
“We beat a very good team,” Santana said. “They”re fast and quick to see the ball.”
Kelseyville 3, Cloverdale 0
At Kelseyville, the Knights won their first game of the season thanks to three goals by Monique Santana and a solid effort by the Kelseyville defense.
“We changed up some things on defense,” Kelseyville coach Mark Andre said. “We moved some of our veteran players from offense to defense and really limited the number of shots Cloverdale had. Our goalie didn”t have anything to do.”
Among the defensive standouts for the Knights were Eline Beck, Daisy Med-ina, Allyson Brown, Megan Andre and Jen Asbury.
Santana scored once in the first half and twice in the second, providing Andre with his first win as Kelseyville”s coach.
“She had a very good game,” Andre said.
Boys” soccer
St. Vincent 5, Lower Lake 0
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans had just two shots on goal in their NCL I interlock loss to the St. Vincent Mustangs, one of the top teams in the NCL I South.
St. Vincent led 3-0 after the first half.
Lower Lake is 3-3-1.
Cloverdale 4, K”ville 1
At Cloverdale, David Koepell”s goal early in the first half gave Kelseyville a 1-0 lead, but the Cloverdale Eagles went on to beat the Knights in NCL I interlock action.
Cloverdale scored later in the first half to tie the game and took advantage of miscues by the Kelseyville defense in the second half to add three more goals.
“We had some mistakes on defense that killed us,” Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma said.
Luis Macias assisted on Koepell”s goal.
Volleyball
Middletown def. Upper Lake in four
At Upper Lake, Middle-town lost a marathon first game but went on to win the next three games, beating the Upper Lake Cougars 29-31, 25-16, 25-23, 25-17 in NCL I interlock action.
“We couldn”t get it done at the line tonight,” Upper Lake coach Sandy Coatney said. “Middletown had the same problem in the first game, but they fixed it and we didn”t.”
The Cougars had 20 service errors in the four games.
Hannah Johnson led the Cougars with eight kills and Sam Bullard had 15 assists.
“She was leading them on the floor,” Coatney said of Bullard. “She was a real motivator.”
Coatney said he was impressed with Kayla Wood”s hitting and Jen Emberson”s serving for Middletown.
“They”re definitely better than last year,” Coatney said of the Mustangs.
Middletown and Upper Lake participate in the Clear Lake Tournament on Saturday in Lakeport.
