LAKEPORT >> Looking for a fourth North Central League I varsity volleyball win in five matches, the red-hot Timberwolves obviously cooled off some during the long trip from the Mendocino County coast to Kelseyville on Thursday night.
Kelseyville, behind nine kills from Kayla Zarate, 16 digs from Mary McCallister and 14 assists from Riley Goff, sent the Timberwolves packing with a 25-9, 25-13, 25-18 victory.
Kelseyville received contributions from several players, including Karissa Huggins and Elena Goss, according to head coach Donelle McCallister.
“Huggins had four aces and did a good job in the back row,” McCallister said. “Elena played some great defense.”
Kelseyville improved to 8-2 in the league standings while Fort Bragg slipped to 4-6.
Kelseyville”s junior varsity squad also beat Fort Bragg, 25-23, 26-24.
In other volleyball action Thurdsay:
Clear Lake def. Lower Lake
At Lower Lake, Aliza Atkins had her A-game going and that”s always good news for the Clear Lake Cardinals, 26-24, 25-16, 25-13 winners over the Lower Lake Trojans.
“Aliza was on fire,” Clear Lake coach Marci Psalmonds said of her senior middle hitter, the team leader with 10 kills and eight blocks. She also had three aces and five digs.
Clear Lake (6-4) also received a team-high seven aces from Rachel Wingler and four aces, two kills and 10 digs from Logan Robinson.
“They just got better every game,” Psalmonds said of the Cardinals.
Lower Lake (2-8) was led by Cedalia Schofield”s three kills and two aces, Ashlynn Mock”s four kills, and Jolene Scarborough”s seven points and three kills.
St. Helena def. Middletown
At St. Helena, the Middletown Mustangs didn”t go down without putting up a pretty good fight against league-leading St. Helena. The Saints prevailed in the end, 25-17, 21-25, 25-22, 25-11, to improve to 10-0 in the league standings.
“We had very few errors, I was really happy with the way we played,” Middletown coach Jennifer Breiner said.
Renee Edwards” 13 kills, five blocks and two aces powered the Mustangs (5-5). Jess DeSilva added three kills and five blocks, Ginacia Dusatko had four kills, Emily Lescher blocked five shots, and Abby Aden had five kills and two aces.
St. Helena won the JV match in three sets.
Boys” soccer
Kelseyville 7, Clear Lake 2
At Lakeport, Victor Cacho”s hat trick – in the first half – propelled the first-place Kelseyville Knights to a rain-soaked win over the Clear Lake Cardinals in NCL I action.
Cacho finished with four goals as Kelseyville improved to a league-best 8-1-1 and 11-2-3 overall. Two of his goals stood out, according to Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma. One came on a corner kick that bent its way into the net untouched, the other came on a bit of trickery as Enrique Cacho inbounded a corner kick with the slightest tap that the Cardinals apparently didn”t notice, according to Ledesma. Victor Cacho took it from there, firing a shot into the net against some surprised Cardinal defenders.
“Two awesome kicks,” Ledesma said.
Enrique Cacho, Ricardo Covarrubias and Sebastian Rodriguez also scored for the Knights, who have two league games remaining – Tuesday at home against Lower Lake and next Thursday at Willits. Victories in both would give the Knights the undisputed league championship.
Clear Lake fell to 0-12 in league and 0-14 overall despite goals, both on penalty kicks, from Arturo Moreno and Luis Nunez.
Middletown 3, Cloverdale 2
At Cloverdale, Jorge Morales” second goal of the game snapped a 2-2 tie with four minutes remaining and lifted the Middletown Mustangs to a victory over the Cloverdale Eagles.
Middletown (4-8, 4-10) led 1-0 at halftime on a goal by Edison Serna. Cloverdale tied the game at 1-1 early in the second half before Morales” first goal midway through the period once again gave the Mustangs the lead. Cloverdale tied it on a penalty kick a few minutes later.
Morales and Middletown keeper Trevor Smith were the standouts for the Mustangs, according to coach Luis Chairez.
Willits 2, Lower Lake 1
At Lower Lake, the Lower Trojans played a strong final 20 minutes but couldn”t overcome a 2-0 Willits lead and fell to the Wolverines.
“It was a thriller,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said.
“The last 20 minutes we put all of our speed up front and had them (Wolverines) scrambling,” Griffin said. “We got shot after shot.”
Lower Lake”s goal was a Mauricio Jauregui penalty kick after David Fernandez was fouled while taking a shot in the box.
“We had some other chances, too, but we just ran out of time,” Griffin said.
Willits spent nearly the entire first half on Lower Lake”s end of the field but didn”t break through until the final minute to go up 1-0.
The Wolverines headed in a corner kick early in the second half to take a 2-0 lead.
“It was a real pretty shot,” Griffin said.
Unlike the first meeting between the two teams, which ended with several players receiving red cards, Thursday”s meeting went without incident.
“It was a physical game, but we both play physical. We”re OK with that,” Griffin said.
Standouts for the Trojans against Willits were Mauricio Jauregui, younger brother Angel Jauregui and Victor Gallegos, according to Griffin.
“We had a lot of season-best performances but those guys were outstanding,” Griffin said.
