LAKE COUNTY >> In a league where the most valuable player award is almost always reserved for pitchers, Riley Goff scored one a victory position players during the 2017 North Central League I softball race.
Goff, a senior shortstop for the Kelseyville Knights, not only grabbed a share of the MVP award this season while leading the Knights to the undisputed championship, but she did it in style. A two-sport star who has made an impact in three sports during her time at Kelseyville, Goff joins Middletown High School junior Colton Hall as a finalist for the Lake County Record-Bee Athlete of the Year award.
The annual award is presented to a junior or senior who plays at least two varsity sports and is in good academic standings at his/her high school. There are five finalists in each category. Athlete of the Year male and female winners will be honored along with Coach of the Year winners in boys and girls sports in the next few weeks.
Goff led the Knights to league titles in volleyball and softball during the 2016-17 sports season. Named league MVP for the second year in a row in volleyball, she came back in the spring to help propel the Knights to a 13-1 league record and its first NCL I title since 1998. Why she wasn’t the solo MVP in softball – Goff shared the award with Cloverdale freshman pitcher Tehya Bird – is a bit of a mystery given that the Knights beat Cloverdale in both league meetings and finished above them in the standings.
A mainstay of the Kelseyville defense at shortstop, Goff also helped power a Knights offense that was loaded with dangerous hitters from top to bottom. She led the team in several offensive categories, including batting average (.524), hits (33), runs (27), doubles (10), on-base percentage (.583), slugging average (.936) and OPS (1.520), which is on-base percentage plus slugging average. She also tied for the team lead in RBIs (28) and triples (2). Goff was second in home runs with four, trailing only teammate Bib Hamner, who had seven.
Though she didn’t play basketball in her senior year while recovering from an injury, she started for the Knights as a freshman, sophomore and junior and scored 1,021 points.
Hall was a dominant offensive lineman for the Middletown Mustangs during the 2016 football season, so much so that he was a unanimous selection on the All-NCL I team. He also started on the defensive line for the Mustangs.
During the spring sports season, Hall threw the discus and shotput for Middletown’s powerful track squad. He finished first in the shotput (40 feet, 8 inches) and second in the discus (132 feet) at the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships in St. Helena, then qualified for the Meet of Champions in Berkeley with a third-place throw of 132-8 at the North Coast Section Class A Championships in Santa Rosa. He went on to place 14th out of 24 at the Meet of Champions with a CMC-best throw of 135-5.
