LAKE COUNTY — The Clear Lake and Middletown varsity girls” soccer teams play first-round games Wednesday as the 10-team North Coast Section Class A tournament gets under way.
Clear Lake (12-6-4) hosts Willits in a first-round game at 7 p.m. at Don Owens Stadium, while Middletown (9-7-2) travels to Fort Bragg to take on Mendocino (10-5-1) at 5 p.m.
The Clear Lake-Willits winner advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday against No. 2 seed St. Vincent (11-4-4), the North Central League I South champion and defending Class A champion. The Middletown-Mendocino winner draws No. 1 seed Sonoma Academy (14-3-1) in another quarterfinal-round game on Saturday. Sonoma Academy is the NCL II South champ.
In two other quarterfinal-round games Saturday, No. 4 Rincon Valley Christian (10-4-4) hosts No. 5 St. Helena (14-6-1), and No. 3 seed Fort Bragg (12-4-5), the NCL I North champion, hosts No. 6 Potter Valley.
Semifinal-round games are Wednesday, Nov. 7 and the Class A championship game is Nov. 10.
Middletown, coached by Louise Owens, is the NCL I North runner-up. Clear Lake, co-coached by Paul Larrea and Ken Wagner, finished third in the NCL I South standings.
St. Vincent has won two of the last three sectional championships. Clear Lake won the Class A title in 2001.
In the 16-team Class A boys” bracket, University High School (18-5-2) of San Francisco is the No. 1 seed. No Lake County teams are in the field.
