CLOVERDALE — Hannah Diaz collected a rebound in the final minutes and rocketed it past the Cloverdale keeper to lift the Middletown Mustangs to a 3-2 victory over the Eagles in a pivotal North Central League I varsity girls” soccer game on Tuesday in Cloverdale.
Middletown is now 11-2 in the league standings and 15-3 overall going into its regular-season finale Thursday at Lakeport against the Clear Lake Cardinals, who beat the Kelseyville Knights 4-1 on Tuesday to improve to 11-1-1 and 17-3-2. Clear Lake defeated Middletown in their first meeting, winning 3-1 on Oct. 5 at Middletown.
St. Helena (10-2) also remains in the NCL I title hunt and finishes up the regular season Thursday against Willits. The Saints played Fort Bragg on Tuesday.
“It was a great effort from Cloverdale,” Middletown coach Lee Hoage said. “They are very physical but clean. They came out with a purpose, they were intense and aggressive.”
Cloverdale jumped ahead 1-0 but Emily Reed pulled Middletown even at 1 by halftime.
The two teams remained tied until near the middle of the second half when freshman Kaylee Cash pounced on a loose ball and fired a long line drive that found the upper right corner of the net for a 2-1 Middletown lead. Cloverdale came back to tie it with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
The Mustangs threatened in the final minutes and finally scored after an attack in front of the Cloverdale net. A shot that the keeper couldn”t handle ricocheted in the direction of Diaz, who put it away for the game-winning shot.
“The ball popped out of the keeper”s hand and she followed it in and drove it home,” Hoage said of Diaz. “It was a great soccer game although it was tighter than I hoped it would be.”
Middletown is looking forward to its rematch with Clear Lake, according to Hoage, who said the game has been a major topic with his players since the first meeting between the two schools.
“They”re looking forward to it,” he said. “Hopefully today”s win will give us some momentum going in.”
In other girls” soccer action Tuesday:
Clear Lake 4, Kelseyville 1
At Lakeport, despite a determined effort by the Kelseyville Knights, the Clear Lake Cardinals scored three times in the second half to win the game and set up a championship showdown Thursday night with the Middletown Mustangs.
A victory by Clear Lake over Middletown on Thursday will give the Cardinals the undisputed league title while a tie will secure no worse than a co-championship for Clear Lake. Middletown will clinch no worse than a share of the title with a victory.
Clear Lake and Kelseyville finished the first half tied at 1-1. Clear Lake scored first on a penalty kick by Nadine Bradley, who finished with two goals, and Kelseyville pulled even on a shot by Shannon Fontana with an assist from Sabrina Lyon.
The Cardinals pulled ahead to stay on Madison Wynacht”s goal. Bradley and Kristy Hayes, the target of the Kelseyville defense, added insurance goals.
“It”s not that we didn”t play well,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said. “Their goalkeeper stopped a lot of shots ? we had 46. They (Knights) played really hard, nothing like the team we beat 8-0 the first time we played them.”
Clear Lake was without senior forward Telia Paskaly, who sustained a knee injury in a 2-1 loss to St. Helena last week. Larrea said he wasn”t sure if Paskaly would play against Middletown on Thursday.
Wynacht”s goal was her third in only two varsity games.
Kelseyville coach Cheryl Mostin praised the play of Chelsea Hamner and Emily Young on the defensive end.
“Our whole defense did a good job,” she said.
Willits 7, Lower Lake 0
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans held tough for a half before the Willits Wolverines broke it open in the second half in NCL I action.
Lower Lake received solid play from sweeper Dani Welch and forward Cinthia Madrigal, who had a pair of shots on goal.
“She did a good job holding her own up there,” Lower Lake coach Robynn Giese said of Madrigal.
Boys” soccer
Cloverdale 8, M”town 1
At Middletown, the Clov-erdale Eagles scored early and often while beating the Middletown Mustangs in NCL I boys” soccer action.
Cloverdale led 7-1 at the half.
Middletown coach Chuck Rannells said he was expecting a better effort from his team, which lost 5-2 at Cloverdale on Sept. 29.
“I came in here thinking we were going to be competitive,” Rannells said. “Lethargic to say the least is how we started the game.”
Eric Lopez scored Middletown”s goal with an assists from Raphael Roy-Labelle.
Kelseyville 1, Clear Lake 0 (forfeit)
At Kelseyville, Kelseyville beat Clear Lake by forfeit. Clear Lake had only 10 eligible players and although the Knights offered to play a 10-on-10 game, the Cardinals declined.
“We would have done it,” Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma said. “They didn”t want to.”
Kelseyville improves to 10-2-1 in the North Central League I standings and 12-4-1 overall. With a North Coast Section playoff berth a distinct possibility, the Knights wrap up their regular season Thursday in Lower Lake.
