MIDDLETOWN — You”ve got to have heart to play through an 11-0 shut out but that is exactly what the Middletown Mustangs did Tuesday as they went up against a battled hardened Cloverdale team in a non-league boy”s soccer match.
Despite the home field advantage, the Mustangs (2-4) were out matched and had the legs run out from under them right from the opening kick off when the Eagle”s (5-1) Leo Soto took a through ball up the middle and set off to the races leaving the Mustangs struggling to keep up before he fired a line drive to the far post for Cloverdale”s first goal of the match at the fourth minute of play.
“They clearly out ran and out played us today,” Middletown Coach Chuck Rannells said. “We had our moments too but we just couldn”t finish.”
Middletown trailing 7-0 stepped up the pace in the second half placing the ball in front of the Eagles net multiple times only to be fought off by Cloverdale keeper Jose Sanchez who prevented a sure Mustang goal off a corner opportunity at the midpoint in the period with his leaping save.
The Eagles, who had the run of the pitch in the first half, found Middletown a bit tougher but still scored four out of six shots on goal including consecutive goals late in the period by forward Sergio Morales which earned him a hat trick and left him with four goals for the match. Cloverdale”s Oscar Ochoa scored early in the period with a straight shot into the net from close in which blew by Mustang keeper Dustin Rudiger.
Cloverdale clearly used their speed to their advantage as they played the through balls right to the net to score seven times in the half but their speed also proved a disadvantage at times as the Eagles were whistled to a stop eight times during the period on offside calls.
“They did a good job on using the offside trap against us,” Cloverdale assistant coach Ron McCallum said.
The Eagles out shot the Mustangs 10 to 2 in the period and produced three corner opportunities for their efforts.
The Mustangs return to the pitch Thursday in Lakeport as both the boy”s and girl”s teams will face Clear Lake.
The Lady Mustangs will start the double header off at 4 P.M. with the boy”s following at 6 p.m.
