MIDDLETOWN — You can count on one hand the number of times the Middletown and Lower Lake girls soccer teams have met on the pitch with winning records. In fact, you wouldn’t need all of the fingers on that hand.
Middletown, the county’s gold standard in terms of soccer success, and Lower Lake, the county’s chronic underachiever going back several seasons, squared off Tuesday afternoon in Middletown where the 10-time defending North Central League I champions turned back the visiting Trojans 5-0.
“We were a little fired up after yesterday,” Middletown head coach Lamont Kucer said of the Mustangs’ slow start on Monday in a 2-2 non-league tie with undefeated Technology. “The girls wanted to jump out to the lead and make a statement.”
Middletown (6-0-1 league, 13-2-2) reaches the midway point of the league season with the slightest of leads over St. Helena (5-0-2). Lower Lake is now 3-2-1 in league and 4-2-1 overall.
The Trojans are enjoying their best season in many years under the direction of second-year coach Andrea Mahling, who said Lower Lake was a bit a awestruck in the first half against the Mustangs.
“It got into our heads that we were playing Middletown,” Mahling said. “This team is playing the best any Lower Lake team has played in a long time, but we took a whole half to snap out of it and play our game.”
Middletown built a 3-0 halftime lead on goals by Agapoff on a penalty kick, Alyssa Terry and Zamora Rogers.
Lower Lake settled down and began to assert itself in the second half but still couldn’t solve the Mustangs’ defense, according to Mahling.
“We couldn’t get anything to go in,” Mahling said. “They are pretty tough on defense.”
Sophie Kucer and Nayla Chaires scored in the second half for the Mustangs. Kucer also had two assists.
“Lower Lake tried really hard, but we were pretty consistent with our pressure,” Kucer said. “The girls were determined to get a win.”
Standouts for the Mustangs included midfielder Julisa Garcia and defender Abby Sabater, according to Kucer.
“She (Garcia) turned into a monster in the midfield,” Kucer ssaid.
In other girls soccer action Tuesday:
Cloverdale 8, Clear Lake 1
At Lakeport, the Clear Lake Cardinals again wasted early scoring chances in a lopsided NCL I loss to the Cloverdale Eagles, who broke the game open with first second-half goals.
Clear Lake (0-7, 1-11) avoided the shutout in the second half when Skye Bruch scored with an assist from Kortnie Reynolds.
“We had everything going for us in the first 15 minutes, but we didn’t finish,” Clear Lake head coach Annie Zombil said of scoring opportunities that the young Cardinals failed to capitalize on. “They do it (finish shots) in practice, but in the game sometimes we freeze. We are not really mature yet, but one of these days we’re going to finish.”
Cloverdale led 3-0 at halftime.
Clear Lake faced the prospect of playing the game without its only true keeper in Trinity Jardstrom, but despite being less than 100 percent because of illness she suited up and played the entire game.
“She stuck it out for the team,” said Zombil, who also praised the play of defender Riana Kniss.
St. Helena 2, Kelseyville 0
At Kelseyville, the St. Helena Saints stayed on Middletown’s heels in the NCL I race with a 2-0 road victory.
St. Helena finishes the first half of league play at 5-0-2 to Middletown’s 6-0-1.
The Saints scored both of their goals in the first half against Kelseyville.
No other game details were reported.
Kelseyville is 1-4-2 in league and 2-7-2 overall.
