LAKEPORT >> Led by Anthony Pantaleon’s four goals, the Kelseyville Knights pulled away in the second half to beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 5-1 in North Central League I boys soccer action on Tuesday afternoon in Lakeport.
“We were in the game at halftime and had our chances,” Clear Lake coach Shaun Hornby said of the 1-0 score the Cardinals trailed by at halftime. “But after playing the day before, it caught up with us in the second half.”
Clear Lake lost to Fort Bragg 5-4 on Monday, a physical game that also cost the Cardinals (4-8-1, 5-8-1) a couple of players to injuries, including forward Alexis Pizano.
“Even if we had beaten Fort Bragg, I don’t know how much we would have had left,” Hornby said. “That game took it all out of us.”
Ulysis Valencia scored the only goal for the Cardinals with an assist from Diego Sonato.
Kelseyville (5-4-2, 6-6-2), off for the last week and well rested coming into Tuesday’s game, pushed back above the .500 mark in league play with the victory.
Pantaleon clearly was the difference for the Knights. He not only scored four times but assisted on the Knights’ only other goal, that by Justin Perez.
“He was all over the place,” Kelseyville coach Eduardo Ledesma said. “Our passing was pretty good and we had a lot of shots, something like 20 shots. That’s a good game.”
Kelseyville closes out its league schedule Wednesday at home against St. Helena. Clear Lake’s final league game is Thursday at home against Cloverdale.
St. Helena 3, Middletown 0
At St. Helena, despite turning in one of their better efforts of the season, the Middletown Mustangs were shut out by the St. Helena Saints in NCL I action.
“Honestly I think we had one our better games,” Middletown coach Luis Chairez said. “We had four or five pretty good chances (to score), but we couldn’t find the back of the net.”
St. Helena broke up a scoreless deadlock 25 minutes into the first half and scored again right before halftime to go up 2-0. The Saints added their third and final goal 10 minutes into the second half.
“It was a pretty physical game, a pretty fast-paced game,” Chairez said. “It was a really good game to watch.”
Standouts for the Mustangs were midfielder Alex Thompson, defender Jacob Blair and keeper Michael Giacomini, according to Chairez.
The Mustangs (1-8-2, 2-11-2) close out their season Thursday at home against Lower Lake.
