MIDDLETOWN >> If the coaches keep changing on a sports team, it’s almost never a good sign.
Unless it’s the Middletown High School girls’ soccer squad.
Lamont Kucer takes over a Middletown program that has won eight straight North Central League I championships and made several deep runs into the North Coast Section Division III playoffs, including a section title in 2012 and a runner-up finish in 2013.
Kucer and wife Tracey, the Middletown assistant coach, expect continued success from the Mustangs, who officially opened their 2016 campaign with a 2-2 tie against El Molino on Monday at Middletown High School. The Kucers replace Amy Emerson, the Mustangs’ head coach each of the last two seasons.
Lamont Kucer is the fourth head coach in five seasons for the Mustangs, who return a solid nucleus of veterans. He inherits a squad that went 15-4 last season and made it as far as the sectional semifinals where Middletown lost in double overtime to eventual section champ Sonoma Academy.
“I know some of them,” Kucer said of the players on his 2016 roster. “My wife and I have been coaching a traveling team (the Middletown She Devils) the last four years or so.”
Kucer’s daughter, Maddie, was a senior on the Middletown team that defeated Sonoma Academy in the 2012 section championship game.
Middletown’s season-opening tie with El Molino, a team that beat the Mustangs 4-3 early in the 2015 preseason, featured two goals from one of the team’s veterans, Madison Ketchum, who had five shots on goal in all. Her second score gave the Mustangs a 2-1 lead in the second half. El Molino pulled even with about 15 minutes remaining.
The Mustangs are back in action Thursday when they travel to Rohnert Park to play Rancho Cotate in a non-league game at 6 p.m.
