MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Mustangs are headed back to the North Coast Section Division III girls” soccer championship game after beating Cloverdale 3-1 in the semifinals on Wednesday night at Bill Foltmer Field.
Goals by Hannah Diaz and Caitlin Lemoine midway through the first half staked the Mustangs (20-2) to a 2-0 lead. Kaleigh Alves made it 3-0 five minutes into the second half.
Cloverdale (19-3) finally scored with 25 minutes left in the game despite a great effort by Middletown keeper Jessie Flynn to keep the Eagles off the board. Still it wasn”t enough as Cloverdale, the No. 3 seed in the eight-team Division III field, went on to lose to the No. 2 Mustangs for the third straight time in the four-game series between the North Central League I co-championships this season. Middletown went 2-0 at home against Cloverdale and 1-1 on the road.
Now the Mustangs have an opportunity to avenge their only other loss this season, a 4-2 setback to Sonoma Academy back on Aug. 29 in Santa Rosa.
Sonoma Academy (20-1), this year”s No. 1 playoff seed, reached the championship game on Wednesday with a 1-0 victory over No. 4 St. Vincent in the other semifinal contest.
“We get that shot,” Middletown coach Louise Owens said. “We didn”t have a full squad the first time we played but we do now.”
Sonoma Academy will be looking for some payback of its own as it lost 2-0 to Middletown in last year”s championship game, which was played at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport. This year”s championship game takes place Saturday at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park. The starting time has yet to be announced.
Cloverdale is just happy it doesn”t have to face Middletown until next season. The Eagles struggled to get the ball across midfield in the first half as the Mustangs clamped down on defense.
“The defense did another good job,” Owens said.
The second half was a different story, according to Owens. While the Mustangs were able to push their lead to 3-0 on Alves” goal, the final 35 minutes of the second half saw the Middletown defense turning back attack after attack by the Eagles.
“The score didn”t show how close it was,” Owens said. “They (Eagles) had some great shots on goal and Jessie had some great saves.”
Flynn stopped a one-on-one scoring opportunity by the Eagles before they broke through a few minutes later despite a valiant effort by Middletown”s keeper, who stopped the first two in a series of three shots, running from goal post to goal post in the process, before Cloverdale finally punched the ball into the net.
Other defensive standouts for the Mustangs were Karina Vargas and Cheyenne Emerson, who blocked a pair of Eagles shots.
“The (Cloverdale) girl she was marking couldn”t generate a thing,” Owens said of Emerson.
Middletown”s offense took the first 20 minutes of the first half to find its rhythm, according to Owens. However, once Diaz scored the game”s first goal, things fell into place in a hurry for the Mustangs.
“Things started clicking after that,” Owens said.
While the Mustangs are returning to the championship game for the second year in a row, this is Owens” first trip to the title game in her second stint as Middletown”s head coach — Lee Hoage was the head coach last season.
“We have five starters back from last year”s team, so it”s almost a completely different team,” Owens said. “A lot of our younger players have done a good job of stepping in and handling the pressure.”
Even though the Mustangs graduated seven players after last year”s undefeated season, Owens said there were a lot of expectations placed on her 2013 club.
“I”m really proud of the girls for getting back to the championship game,” Owens said. “It”s not an easy thing to do. It”s hard.”
