LAKEPORT — Kristy Hayes and Telia Paskaly scored two goals apiece as the Clear Lake Cardinals tuned up for next week”s first-place showdown with Middletown by beating the Kelseyville Knights 8-0 in a North Central League I varsity girls” soccer game Thursday.
“We”re staying pretty focused,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said when asked about Tuesday”s game between his Cardinals (5-0-1 league, 10-2-2 overall) and the Mustangs (6-0 league, 10-1 overall) in Middletown, the first of two league meetings between the schools this season.
“Our next three games are on the road beginning with Upper Lake (today),” Larrea said. “The girls are excited about it (playing Middletown) as I”m sure the Middletown girls are.”
Clear Lake set the tone early against Kelseyville (0-6, 0-7) by scoring in the first 30 seconds on a goal by Hayes.
“We had a series of four passes, the last one (from Savannah Dekeyser) a cross in front of the frame to Kristy, and she just volleyed it in,” Larrea said.
Dekeyser, Nadine Bradley and the Norwood sisters — Hannah and Emily — also scored for the Cardinals.
Clear Lake played the game short-handed as three players were out with a flu-type bug. The Cardinals also lost keeper Heather Werner midway through the first half. She was kicked in the neck making a sliding save although no foul was called, according to Larrea.
“She”ll be ready to go tomorrow,” Larrea said of Werner”s status for today”s non-league game at Upper Lake.
Chelo Lundquist-Krag replaced Werner.
Middletown 5, Cloverdale 3
At Middletown, the Middletown Mustangs opened up a 4-1 halftime lead and beat the Cloverdale Eagles to improve to 6-0 in the NCL I standings and 10-1 overall, but it was a costly victory.
Senior forward Brittany Cash, who had two goals in the win, went down with a knee injury late in the first half and did not return.
“She may be out for a week ? or longer than that,” Middletown coach Lee Hoage said of the 2009 NCL I North most valuable player.
Cash”s knee buckled while she was being guarded by a Cloverdale player, according to Hoage.
“Her knee just went the wrong way,” Hoage added.
Heading into their first-place showdown with Clear Lake (5-0-1, 10-2-2) on Tuesday, the Mustangs will just have to make do, according to Hoage.
“She”s fast, she scores a lot of goals and gets a lot of assists and puts pressure on the defense,” Hoage said of Cash”s importance to the team. “We”ll have to play around with some stuff before we play Clear Lake.”
Cloverdale was never closer than two goals in the second half and Middletown was in control the entire game, according to Hoage.
Kylie Agapoff and Emily Reed each had a goal and an assist for the Mustangs. Hannah Diaz had the other Middletown goal.
Hoage had high praise for the Eagles, who tied Clear Lake in a league game Sept. 15 at Cloverdale.
“They”re well-prepared, pretty fundamentally sound, have a good sweeper and two good forwards,” Hoage said. “They”re pretty resilient ? they don”t give up.”
