LAKE COUNTY — The Middletown Mustangs get a week to prepare for their quarterfinal round opponent while the Clear Lake Cardinals are home for a first-round game as the North Coast Section Division III girls” soccer playoffs get under way Wednesday night.
Middletown (18-2), the North Central League I co-champion, pulled down the No. 2 seed in the 11-team field on Sunday. Clear Lake (14-7) is No. 6 and will host No. 11 St. Helena (7-7) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. A victory puts either Clear Lake or St. Helena into the quarterfinals on Saturday night against No. 3 Cloverdale (18-2) at Cloverdale.
Middletown has a first-round bye and will meet the winner of Wednesday”s first-round game between No. 7 Calistoga (9-12) and No. 10 Rincon Valley Christian (11-8-1) on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Middletown.
Sonoma Academy (18-1) is the No. 1 seed and St. Vincent (15-3-1) is No. 4. Other teams in the field are No. 5 Roseland Prep (14-6-1), No. 8 Ferndale (9-6-1) and No. 9 Fort Bragg (9-8-1).
Middletown and Sonoma Academy (NCL II) are the only two league champions in the field.
“We”re upping the intensity (in practice) this week because we don”t have a game on Wednesday,” Middletown coach Louise Owens said. “We”re trying to keep our conditioning up and are fine-tuning some things.”
The Mustangs are also at full strength for one of the few times this season, according to Owens.
Middletown is 9-2 against teams in the playoff field, having lost once each to Cloverdale and Sonoma Academy. The Mustangs also have two wins against the Eagles, who they tied for the NCL I championship.
Clear Lake”s first-round opponent, St. Helena, is 0-2 against the Cardinals this season. Clear Lake won 2-1 at St. Helena on Sept. 19 and 1-0 at Lakeport on Oct. 15.
“I can”t remember when we last had a game that wasn”t a one- or two-goal difference either way,” Clear Lake coach Paul Larrea said of Clear Lake-St. Helena games down through the years. “They”re really physical, emotional games.”
St. Helena is one of five NCL I teams in the field and the lowest seed.
Clear Lake, in the playoffs for the 18th straight year, reached the quarterfinals a year ago, beating Ferndale in the opening round before losing to Cloverdale.
“We”ll see if we can get some momentum against St. Helena,” Larrea said.
