LAKE COUNTY >> It’s quite the special trio. Seniors Kaleigh Alves, Rosie Emerson and Ashlyn Welton played four years of varsity soccer at Middletown High School and few North Central League I teams, if any, have dominated the way the Mustangs have the last four seasons, let alone the last eight.
Alves earned her second straight most valuable player award while Emerson and Welton also landed spots on the first team as NCL I coaches recently released their All-League team for 2015. Joining the senior triumvirate on the first team is another Middletown player, junior Caitlin Lemoine.
Two other Mustangs also earned All-League honors – sophomore Aly Ferguson as a second-team selection and junior Madison Ketchum as an honorable mention.
No other team was as highly decorated as Middletown on the 2015 All-League squad and the reason is quite simple. The Mustangs boat-raced the league this year, going 13-1 and hardly working up a sweat in the process while notching their eighth straight undisputed league championship. Middletown had the league title well within its grasp after a 7-0 first half.
While Middletown’s winning ways were well established before Alves, Emerson and Welton checked into the program just prior to the 2012 season, their four years at the school produced four more league titles, a section championship (in 2012), a section runner-up finish (2013) and back-to-back trips to the sectional semifinals, including a 3-2 double-overtime loss to eventual champion Sonoma Academy earlier this month.
Other Lake County players on the first team include Kelseyville seniors Megan Touros and Caroline Contreras, and Clear Lake senior Mina Werner. Touros earned first-team honors a year ago while playing for Middletown (she transferred back to Kelseyville, where she played as a freshman and sophomore before moving over to Middletown for her junior year). Contreras also was honored on the first team in 2014.
Named to the All-League second team along with Middletown’s Ferguson were Kelseyville junior Maria Verduo, Clear Lake senior Ciera Moreno, and Lower Lake senior Micaela Murray.
Every team is allowed one honorable mention and Lake County players earning that distinction were Middletown’s Ketchum, Lower Lake senior Gabby Jaurequi, Kelseyville freshman Sayra Cacho, and Clear Lake sophomore Brooklyn Jenkins.
