UPPER LAKE — Playing with a two-woman advantage the entire game, the Upper Lake Cougars had to work plenty hard for a 3-1 North Central League III girls soccer victory over the visiting Calistoga Wildcats on Friday afternoon in Upper Lake.
“I really want to thank him for coming up,” Upper Lake head coach Daniella Santana said of her Calistoga counterpart, Daniel Blankenship, who easily could have forfeited the game.
Even with 11 players on the field to Calistoga’s nine, Upper Lake struggled on offense against a Wildcats squad that had a difficulty mounting any kind of attack given its diminished numbers.
“Slowest game of soccer I’ve ever seen,” Santana said of the lethargic play of the Cougars. “I don’t know if they’re tired because of all the homecoming activities this week or it’s that end-of-season thing.”
Karlee Zimmerschied staked Upper Lake to a 1-0 lead in the first half but that was all the scoring until Kaitlyn Minnis connected four minutes into the second half to make it 2-0. Minnis added a second goal later in the half and she also assisted on Zimmerschied’s goal.
Angel O’Sullivan and Mallory Henry assisted on Minnis’ goals.
Santana praised the play of both O’Sullivan and Christina Roberts.
“Angel played everywhere for me today,” Santana said. “She had some excellent crosses and passing up front. Christina was super aggressive at getting to the ball.”
Upper Lake (5-6 league, 7-10 overall) is off until next Friday when it visits Rohnert Park to play undefeated NCL III leader Technology.
