MIDDLETOWN — It has been a long time between wins for the Middletown High School varsity boys” soccer team.
“October 27, 2011,” Middletown coach Chuck Rannells said of the last time the Mustangs beat an opponent without aid of a forfeit. “I think it was the end of the regular season. I remember it because it was my wife”s birthday.”
Middletown”s — and Rannell”s — long dry spell ended on Tuesday as the Mustangs defeated the Upper Lake Cougars 8-5 in non-league action at Middletown.
“It was a great for our offense, but we struggled a little bit on defense,” Rannells said. “We need to play better once league gets here or we”re going to get slaughtered.”
Jesus Garcia had a double hat trick of sorts for the Mustangs (1-1), scoring three times and assisting on three other goals. Jorge Morales added two goals and Brandon Rannells, son of the Middletown coach, had a goal and an assist.
A five-goal first half propelled the Mustangs to a 5-2 lead, one that wasn”t nearly safe as it seemed, according to Rannells, who reminded his team at halftime that the game was far from over.
“I tried to tell them it wasn”t enough,” Rannells said. “They (Cougars) are a team that doesn”t lay down. They keep coming at you.”
True to Rannells” words, Upper Lake scored twice early in the second half to make it 5-4.
“They put a hellacious charge on us in the second half,” Rannells said.
Middletown answered with goals by Jonathan Wilson, who was cleared to play on Tuesday, and Morales to go back up 7-4.
Freshman Ricardo Chaires also scored for the Mustangs, who never trailed after Rannells” goal early in the first half made it 1-0.
“They cut it to one twice (4-3 and 5-4),” Rannells said.
Among the Middletown standouts were Morales on offense and Nick Santos on defense, according to Rannells.
Upper Lake scoring was not reported.
In other soccer action Tuesday:
Petaluma 5, Lower Lake 1
At Petaluma, the Lower Lake Trojans played tough on defense most of the first half while falling to the Petaluma Trojans in non-league action.
Though his team fell to 0-3 on the season, Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said the step up in competition should help his players once North Central League I play arrives.
“I just told them to give me a hard 40 minutes and they did,” Griffin said the first half. Lower Lake trailed only 1-0 until the final minutes of the half when Petaluma scored two quick goals to go up 3-0 at halftime.
“They have a powerful team with a quick striker who ran through our defense a couple of times,” Griffin said. “They also scored two corner kicks.”
Lower Lake played with Petaluma nearly the entire way and took several positives out of the game, according to Griffin.
“We wanted to work on a few things like our man-to-man defense,” Griffin said. “And we did a good job controlling time of possession. The guys played very tough and we took a great step in the right direction today.”
Luis Ruiz scored Lower Lake”s goal 10 minutes into the second half.
Among the standouts for the Trojans were defenders David Fernandez and Luis Pelcastre, according to Griffin.
Volleyball
Lower Lake def. Upper Lake
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans picked up the intensity after a slow start and beat the Upper Lake Cougars 25-19, 25-10, 25-17 in non-league varsity volleyball action. It was the season opener for the Trojans and coach Niki Doud.
“They came out really flat and you could tell they were all nervous,” Doud said of her young squad. “But they picked up the intensity and got into it.”
Freshman setter Bailey DeLong led the team with nine aces and 12 assists in both her high school and varsity debut. Middle hitters Shelbie Harris, a junior, and Zobee Miller, a senior playing volleyball for the first time, also contributed in the victory. Harris had six aces and two kills while Miller added five kills. Sophomore outside hitter Brooke Taliaferro, called up to the varsity late last season, added three aces and three kills.
Lower Lake won the junior varsity match 25-15, 25-9.
RVC def. Clear Lake
At Santa Rosa, Clear Lake won the first game but the Rincon Valley Christian Eagles came back to take the match in the maximum five games, 18-25, 25-19, 25-23, 27-29, 15-11 in non-league action.
“We should have won,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said. “The girls hit well but our passing killed us. When we got the pass, we got the kill.”
Aliza Atkins” 16 kills powered the Cardinals (0-2) at the net and she also had 11 digs. Rachel Wingler added eight kills while Logan Robinson added seven kills and 15 digs. Sophomore setter Emily Psalmonds had 26 assists.
“Logan probably played the best all-around game,” Psalmonds said.
Clear Lake”s JV club beat Rincon Valley Christian 25-20, 25-11 to even its season record at 1-1. Courtney Hiatt had two kills and Samantha Morfin three assists to lead the Cardinals.
Clear Lake hits the road on Thursday to play Upper Lake.
