KELSEYVILLE >> Victor Cacho scored two of Kelseyville”s three first-half goals and the Knights took a giant step toward clinching the North Central League I boys” soccer championship with a 4-1 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans on Tuesday afternoon at Kelseyville.
Kelseyville (9-1-3 league, 12-2-3 overall) leads Fort Bragg by one game in the standings with one game remaining. If the Knights, who clinched a tie for the title with thier win over Lower Lake, can tie or beat Willits on Thursday in Willits, they would secure the outright NCL I championship. Fort Bragg beat Cloverdale 2-1 on Tuesday.
The Knights jumped on the Trojans (3-8-2, 5-10-2) early, scoring twice in the first five minutes. They upped that lead to 3-0 by the middle of the first half and that”s where the score remained until David Fernandez scored in the final minutes of the first half for Lower Lake.
“We wanted a quick start,” Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma said. “We got it.”
“Kelseyville sets up its offense really well and they were getting the ball to their center really well,” Lower Lake coach Dan Griffin said. “It took us about 20 minutes to adjust to it. Once we did we played them pretty evenly the rest of the way, but those first 20 minutes killed us.”
While Kelseyville applied most of the pressure on offense in the second half, the Knights were limited to a single goal by Pedro Hernandez that boosted their advantage to 4-1.
Herminio Mendez also scored for Kelseyville.
With a handful of players banged up, the Knights had a dual purpose in the second half, according to Ledesma.
“We wanted to play well collectively but toward the end of the game we didn”t want to get anyone hurt,” he said with an eye toward the upcoming North Coast Section playoffs.
“You have to play consistently when you play Kelseyville or you”re going to be in trouble, especially when you”re playing on their homefield,” Griffin said.
