MIDDLETOWN >> If you think the Middletown Mustangs’ run of North Central League I girls’ soccer championships — now at seven straight — is in danger of ending anytime soon, you may be disappointed.
While Middletown’s roster is loaded with veterans again this season with the likes of seniors Ashlyn Welton (sweeper), Kaleigh Alves (forward/midfielder) and Rosie Emerson (midfielder), juniors Madison Ketchum (center/forward), Caitlin Lemoine (forward), Lucy Schisler (keeper) and Alley Tallman (midfielder), and sophomores Gracie Armstrong (stopper), Estefani Hurtado (defender), Courtney Gillies (midfielder), Alyssa Ferguson (forward/midfielder) and Jessica Contreras (defender), the freshman group coming up is something to behold, according to head coach Amy Emerson, who is entering her second season at the helm of the Mustangs.
“We’re excited about all of our freshmen,” Emerson said. “This is going to be the next superstar group. And they have such great attitudes.”
Those players include a handful of last names familiar to Middletown soccer and sports fans — Kelsey Lemoine, a freshman defender and younger sister of Caitlin; Kassi Agapoff, a forward; Maya Colacion, a defender, Ellie Bazzano, a forward/midfielder; Ari Ahldtedt and Julisa Garcia, a forward/midfielder.
“She (Garcia) has a natural feel for the ball, where it needs to be played,” Emerson said. “Ellie can pretty much play all over. She’s wicked fast.”
Colacion, whose older sister Paloma was a Middletown standout, “is perfectly suited for it (defense),” Emerson said.
Another player who will lend depth to the squad is new to Middletown but not the sport of soccer. Napa transfer Ana Candelari, a senior, will play in the midfield and back on defense.
Rounding out the Middletown squard are junior defense Jennifer Pamatz and senior midfielder/forward Emma Quillen.
Lack of adequate depth was the only real knock on Middletown’s 15-3-3 squad of a year ago, a team that made it as far as the North Coast Section Division III semifinals before losing to St. Vincent, a setback that cost the Mustangs a third straight trip to the sectional finals — they won it all in 2012 and were the runner-up in 2013.
“We have players who can fill in this year and we don’t have to worry about it,” Emerson said. “There are no steep drop-offs (in talent).”
Middletown’s goal this season, apart from running its league championship streak to eight, is returning to the sectional championship game for a third time in four years. Anything else will be a disappointment, according to Emerson.
“They (seniors) are dead set on going all the way,” she said. “They want to go as far as they possibly can go. That’s how they want to go out before they graduate.”
Welton, Alves and Emerson all played on Middletown’s section championship squad in 2012 and have been playing soccer together for the better part of a decade, according to Emerson.
“They’re such a hard working group I don’t even have to tell them what to do,” Emerson said. “They know each other as well as you can. They are a special group.”
