UPPER LAKE — Coming off a school-best 17-2 record last season, the Middletown High School varsity girls” soccer team roared past the Upper Lake Cougars 10-0 on Tuesday afternoon in Upper Lake.
It was the season opener for the Mustangs (1-0), who return nearly their entire starting lineup from 2009.
“They played really well,” Middletown co-coach Louise Owens said of the Mustangs” first effort of 2010. “There are some areas we still need to work on, but for a first game it wasn”t bad.”
Emily Reed and Brittany Cash scored three goals apiece and Kylie Agapoff added two more to power Middletown. Taylor Sloan and freshman Hannah Diaz also scored.
As explosive as the Middletown offense proved to be, Owens said she was “really happy” with the defense.
“I very rarely substitute on defense, I don”t like to mess with things,” Owens said. “But I subbed in three girls today and they all did great.”
Middletown led 4-0 after one half and freely substituted in the second half.
“A lot of younger girls got a lot of playing time,” Owens said.
“It was definitely a 10-0 game,” Upper Lake coach Mike Sheets said. “Hopefully we”ll do better when we play Kelseyville at home (on Sept. 7).”
Upper Lake is 0-1-1.
In other action Tuesday:
Boys” soccer
Clear Lake 2, K”ville 2 (tie)
At Lakeport, Wen-cesao Rojas scored late in stoppage time as Kelseyville pulled out a 2-2 tie with the Clear Lake Cardinals in the season opener for both teams.
Juan Alvarado and Miguel Alvarado scored goals for Clear Lake, which was clinging to a 2-1 lead when Rojas tied it.
Luis Rodriguez had the other Kelseyville goal.
Clear Lake keeper Raymundo Gregorio stopped several shots, including a penalty kick in the second half, to preserve the tie.
“It was a very good game, lots of fans,” Clear Lake coach Luis Martinez said.
Gregorio and Adrian Rodriguez anchored a solid Clear Lake defense, according to Martinez, who said he was more than pleased with his team”s first effort of the season.
Kelseyville received solid play from its midfield as well as defender Oscar Lopez, according to coach Eduardo Ledesma.
“There are a lot of places we need to improve,” said Ledesma, who had only one substitute on his bench. “We looked kind of afraid.”
Hannah Center 5, M”town 0
At Sonoma, Hannah Boys Center picked up two red cards and two yellow cards while blanking Middletown in the season opener for the visiting Mustangs.
“It was physical, but we stayed poised, never quit,” Middletown coach Chuck Rannells said. “But there were some very positive things that came out of this game. We”re not upset by the loss.”
Ball movement was one of the things Rannells said the Mustangs excelled at in their first game. “We worked the ball pretty well.”
Hannah Center had 12 shots on goal to Middletown”s eight.
Standouts for the Mustangs were Cody Astley, Rafael Roy-Labelle, Shawn Fromer and Oscar Rincon, according to Rannells.
Hannah Center led 2-0 after one half.
