UPPER LAKE — The Clear Lake High School girls and Willits boys were declared the champions in the third annual Tyler Duncan Memorial Soccer Tournament, which completed a four-day run Saturday at Upper Lake High School.
Poor air quality postponed games during two of the four days of the tournament, and together with a handful of teams dropping out and a handful of last-minute additions, the tournament was something of a scheduling nightmare for tournament director Brian Figg, the Upper Lake High School athletic director. Some teams played only two games while others played five, and many of the top teams in both brackets never faced other.
Girls
Clear Lake’s girls finished 3-0-1 while Upper Lake (3-1-1), a 1-0 loser to Clear Lake on Thursday, finished in second place. Fortuna (2-0-1) was awarded third place, including a 1-1 tie with Upper Lake on Saturday.
In those games reported to the Record-Bee from Saturday’s action, Upper Lake tied Fortuna early in the day and came back later to beat Willits 3-1.
Ruby Wurm’s goal for the Cougars opened the scoring in the first half. Vanessa Becerra-Lopez had the assist. Fortuna scored minutes later to tie the match, and it was a defensive battle the rest of the way.
Standouts for the Cougars, according to head coach Daniella Santana, were forward Karlee Zimmerschied, center/midfielder Atlantis Jones, and keeper Trinity Blancas.
In the win over Willits, Zimmerschied led the way with two goals and Tatum Salas also scored. All of the scoring took place in the first half as both teams were playing on extremely tired legs in the second half.
“We were dead by then,” Santana said of the final minutes of the Cougars’ fifth game of the tournament.
Santana is expecting a big year from the Cougars.
“We’re very strong on offense,” she said. “I think this is the best team I’ve ever had between the seniors, juniors and a talented bunch of freshmen.”
Middletown
For the Lady Mustangs, 12-time defending North Central League I champions, they played only two tournament games, both on Saturday. They beat Willits 4-1 and then came right back to drop a 3-1 decision to Fortuna.
Zamora Rogers scored her first high school hat trick against Willits while teammate Ellary Isherwood also had a goal.
“She (Rogers) blitzed the defense,” said Michael Dodd, Middletown’s boys head coach who also coached the girls on Saturday because Ashley Hart was unavailable. “That girl is as fast as hell.”
While the Mustangs hadn’t played since 2019 and now have a new head coach, Rogers said things are beginning to fall into place.
“I think we were all worried about that,” Rogers said of how the team’s veterans felt about the long layoff and coaching change this season. “But we are really coming together as a team. We’re playing as hard as we can and I think we’re going to do real well (this season).”
On her first hat trick, Rogers said, “I’m kind of surprised.”
Middletown lost a good amount of its scoring punch when both Rogers and Isherwood missed most of the Fortuna game with injuries, neither of which is serious, according to Dodd.
“With league play starting Tuesday, we didn’t want to take any chances,” he said.
Rogers’ injury led to the Mustangs’ only goal as she was fouled inside the box and Middletown was awarded a penalty kick, which Paige Astley made.
“She punched me in the head,” Rogers said of the Fortuna keeper. “It was on a breakaway. Luckily it happened in the second game, not the first.”
Scoring and other details from Clear Lake’s and Kelseyville’s tournament games were not reported to the Record-Bee.
Boys
Willits went 3-0 to win the boys bracket, Kelseyville was the runner-up at 2-0, and Middletown, under the leadership of first-year co-coaches Michael and Katelyn Dodd, came in third at 2-1.
Middletown’s lone loss was a 4-1 setback to champion Willits in early action Saturday. Nadav Dicovski scored the Mustangs’ goal, that in the second half.
“We played real well,” Michael Dodd said. “Willits may be the best team in our league this year. They are very talented.”
Dodd said the Mustangs didn’t help their cause at times.
“We just made some silly mistakes, things we’ll work on in practice,” Dodd said. “The one thing I really liked is that we kept on fighting until the last whistle. We wanted that second goal.”
Matala Mulanda’s play at center/defender kept the Wolverines from winning by a bigger margin, according to Dodd.
“He saved us,” Dodd said. “He kept a number of goals from going in.”
Middletown bounced back with a 3-1 win over Upper Lake in the late game Saturday. Dicovski, Edson Aguilar and Bodhi Moore scored for the Mustangs. Moore’s shot was from 25 yards out, according to Dodd. Roberto Chaires had an assist.
Chaires, a senior, thinks the Mustangs, who didn’t win a single game two years ago, are headed for a solid 2021 campaign.
“He (Dodd) gets us all pumped up,” Chaires said. “My team is my family. I want to end it (high school career) the right way. I love the chemistry on this team.”
Added sophomore Aguilar, “It’s a great team, the best team we’ve had in a long time. “He (Dodd) is a big reason we’ve been able to come together.”
Clear Lake, Kelseyville and Upper Lake did not report tournament results.
