ARCATA — Defense wins championships regardless of the sport and when the Middletown girls soccer team takes the field Saturday afternoon against the Arcata Tigers, the Mustangs’ back line will have plenty to say about who emerges victorious in the North Coast Section Division I championship game at Arcata High School where the action begins at 2 p.m.
No. 5 seed Middletown (20-3-1) is gunning for the school’s second sectional title in soccer and its first as a Division I team. The Mustangs made back-to-back appearances in the Division III finals in 2012-13, beating Sonoma Academy in 2012 and losing to the same Coyotes squad in 2013. No. 3 seed Arcata (13-3) is seeking the first soccer sectional title in school history.
Beating Arcata in the finals would be nothing less than a storybook ending for the Mustangs, who lost three games during the non-league portion of their schedule — in order, to Roseland University Prep, Fortuna and Arcata. After receiving a first-round bye in this year’s playoffs, Middletown beat two of those three teams – 2-0 over No. 4 seed Roseland Univeristy Prep in the quarterfinals and 2-1 over top-seeded Fortuna in the semifinals — and now they have the opportunity to even the score against the Tigers, 4-0 winners over Middletown on Sept. 7 in Arcata.
While that game took place more than two months ago, Middletown head coach Lamont Kucer said he remembers it pretty well. “They have a couple of really big, strong midfielders and a really fast forward,” Kucer said of freshman Thea Trout, who is second on the team with 16 goals. Senior Zakiya Elloway leads Arcata with 20 goals.
“They have speed and size,” Kucer said of the Tigers. “Arcata is a really good passing team, the best we’ve faced all year, with speed up front. We have the same, so it should be a pretty good battle.”
While Middletown junior Sophie Kucer leads the Mustangs with 50 goals this season, a Mustangs defense that was superb during the regular season as Middletown won a 12th straight North Central League I championship has proven equally stingy in the playoffs, having allowed just one goal in its first two games.
“Between Olivia (Kucer), Abby (Sabater), Zamora (Rogers) and Paige (Astley), we have done a really good job,” Kucer said of Middletown’s back line, with keeper Emily Maccario serving as the final line of defense. “We need all of that strength in the back, too.”
Kucer, in his fourth season with the Mustangs, rates his 2019 defense highly.
“Probably at the top or at least as good as any I’ve ever had,” he said. “They don’t think about blasting the ball out of there. They think about passing it out of there and blasting it only if they have to. That creates more quality chances (for the offense).”
Since stunning the No. 1-seeded Huskies in the semifinals Wednesday night, the Mustangs have remained up north rather than travel back to Lake County only to turn around and head north again Saturday.
“We had a light practice on Thursday,” Kucer said of a workout at a non-regulation length field near Samoa.
On Friday the team toured Humboldt State University before practicing at the Arcata Sports Complex, which has a pair of regulation soccer fields. If time permitted, the Mustangs were also going to visit the coast.
The Mustangs enter their 25th and final game of the season in remarkably good shape physically.
“We have bumps, bruises and soreness for sure, but everyone’s ready to go,” Kucer said. “It’s been a long season.”
Given what they’ve accomplished so far in the playoffs — beating two higher seeds that were both undefeated before losing to Middletown — the Mustangs aren’t simply happy to reach the finals, according to Kucer. They want to bring home another championship pennant.
“That would be great,” Kucer said. “It’s a huge accomplishment just to get to the championship game.”
