KELSEYVILLE >> Despite playing without a couple of key starters, the Middletown Mustangs scored two goals early and went on to beat the Kelseyville Knights 2-0 in North Central League I girls” soccer action on Tuesday afternoon at Kelseyville High School.
Middletown (10-0-1 league, 13-1-2 overall) reduced its magic number for clinching the league title to one. The Mustangs can wrap up their seventh straight NCL I crown by winning one of their three remaining games or with one Cloverdale loss, and they play at Cloverdale on Thursday.
“The girls are feeling the playoffs and have been quite focused in practice,” Middletown coach Amy Emerson.
Middletown is also feeling a season”s worth of bumps and bruises right now. Playing without Rosie Emerson and Madison Ketchum on Tuesday, the Mustangs also lost Caitlin Lemoine and Kaleigh Alves to ankle injuries during the game. Lemoine and Alves scored early in the first half to give the Mustangs their 2-0 lead.
“I ended up playing my entire team,” Emerson said. “We”re just at that point in the season where we”re nursing injuries and trying to prevent (existing) injuries from getting any worse.”
Kelseyville (1-8-2, 5-9-2) held tough after giving up the early goals, according to Kelseyville coach Dave Wold.
“I”m proud of how hard they fought and how well they played,” he said.
Kelseyville had a handful of scoring opportunities and mounted a couple of big-time threats only to be denied by Middletown keeper Lucy Schisler.
“On one shot she came out, met the ball and made the most beautiful save I”ve ever seen,” Emerson said.
Added Wold, “They”ve got a good keeper.”
In other girls” soccer action Tuesday:
Clear Lake 0, St. Helena 0
At St. Helena xxxxxxxxx
Boys” soccer
Lower Lake 4, Cloverdale 3
At Cloverdale, David Fernandez scored twice while Alex Rivera and Luis Pelcastre added single goals — all in the first half — as the Lower Lake Trojans knocked off NCL I title contender Cloverdale.
Cloverdale entered play just a half-game behind league co-leaders Kelseyville and Fort Bragg, both winners on Tuesday.
Lower Lake (3-6-2, 5-8-2) led 4-2 after the first half. Cloverdale closed to 4-3 with 10 minutes left in the game at which point Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin moved the versatile Fernandez, who scored one of his goals left-footed, back onto defense.
“He played defensive mid and we did a good job in those last 10 minutes,” Griffin said. “We didn”t make any bad passes and we didn”t give them any corner kicks. We made some great decisions.”
Rivera also had an assist for the Trojans. Other assists went to Victor Gallegos, Angel Jauregui and Angel Ochoa.
St. Helena 8, Clear Lake 1
At St. Helena, the St. Helena Saints scored seven times in the first half while beating the Clear Lake Cardinals in NCL I action.
“I have no idea how Kelseyville beat them,” Clear Lake co-coach Shaun Hornby said of the Saints.
Arturo Olmedo scored Clear Lake”s goal, that on a penalty kick in the second half.
“We”ve got a young group of kids, a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,” Hornby said. “In a couple of years we”ll be a lot better.”
Clear Lake fell to 0-11 in league play and 0-13 overall.
Volleyball
Clear Lake def. Willits
At Willits, Clear Lake improved to 5-4 in the NCL I standings with a 25-15, 25-5, 25-7 victory over the 0-9 Willits Wolverines.
Logan Robinson had a big night for the Cardinals with eight aces, five kills and three digs. Other team leaders were Aliza Atkins with nine kills, Rachel Wingler with seven aces and Emily Psalmonds with 23 assists.
Clear Lake also won the junior varsity match, 25-18, 11-25, 15-5, behind seven kills and one block from Valerie Hutton and four kills and two aces from Camille Donald.
Upper Lake def. Tomales
At Upper Lake, after handing St. Vincent its first league loss last week, the Upper Lake Cougars returned to the court and dominated Tomales 25-3, 25-12, 25-10 in NCL II action.
“Coming off the win over St. Vincent, they were pretty pumped,” Upper Lake coach Raelene Cromwell said of her players.
Sierra Fugate, LaShaye Taylor and Jojo Augustine all played well in the victory. Fugate finished with 13 service points, including six aces, 11 kills and one block. Taylor added five kills and three aces while Augustine had four kills and eight digs.
Upper Lake hits the road today instead of Thursday to play Technology High School.
In JV action on Tuesday, Upper Lake beat Tomales 25-8, 25-14 behind 12 points and four aces from Natalie Karlsson, seven points, three and four digs from Briana Binns, and four kills and two blocks from KJ Taylor. Karlsson served 10 straight points in the first set.
St. Helena def. Lower Lake
At St. Helena, undefeated league leader St. Helena (9-0) rolled past Lower Lake 25-14, 25-10, 25-16.
“We had service errors all over the place and we couldn”t pass the ball to save our lives,” Lower Lake coach Darcie Schmidt said. “In all three sets we had a combined six kills.”
Lower Lake falls to 2-7 in league play.
Kelseyville def. Cloverdale
At Kelseyville, Kayla Zarate registered a team-high 10 kills as the Kelseyville Knights bounced back from a loss to undefeated league leader St. Helena with a convincing 25-9, 25-14, 25-14 win over the Cloverdale Eagles.
Libero Lauren Rudnick anchored Kelseyville”s defense with 16 digs, setters Riley Goff and Mary McCallister had 16 assists apiece, and Abby McQueen served up three aces in the win as Kelseyville improved to 7-2 in league play. Cloverdale fell to 4-5.
“We had only eight hitting errors in three games,” Kelseyville coach Donelle McCallister said. “Our younger hitters were more consistent.”
Fort Bragg def. Middletown
At Fort Bragg, the Fort Bragg Timberwolves won for the third time in their last four league matches, outlasting Middletown 25-15, 15-25, 25-19, 15-25, 15-7 in NCL I play.
“Blocking errors, hitting errors, service errors ? we had over 50 if you add them all together,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said. “We just had a lot of errors.”
Middletown fell to 5-4 in the league standings while Fort Bragg improved to 4-5.
Renee Edwards led the Mustangs with 12 kills, six blocks and six aces. Emily Lescher added eight kills and four blocks, Ginacia Dusatko had eight kills and four aces, and Jess DeSilva chipped in with four kills and four blocks.
