UPPER LAKE — The Upper Lake High School girls and Middletown High School boys clinched championships Saturday as the fourth annual Tyler Duncan Memorial soccer tournament drew to a close at Upper Lake High School.
Girls
Upper Lake scored the first two goals and the last two goals in a title-clinching 4-1 victory over Middletown in the girls final, marking the first time the Cougars have beaten the Mustangs during head coach Daniella Santana’s reign as Upper Lake’s head coach, and perhaps the first time in school history.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever beaten them,” Santana said of the Mustangs, who have dominated the Lake County girls soccer scene for more than a decade. In fact, it wasn’t until last season that Middletown’s run of 12 straight NCL I championships ended with a second-place finish to Roseland University Prep.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” Santana said of the win, Upper Lake’s fourth without a loss during tournament play.
Upper Lake (4-0) held up well in the 100-degree-plus heat, jumping ahead 1-0 on a Sofia Cruz shot early in the first half, a goal assisted by Ashlyn Rhodes, and extending that lead to 2-0 later in the half on a Tatum Salas score with another assist from Rhodes.
Needing some sort of boost to get back into the game, the Mustangs found it late in the second half when Jenna Tufo scored to make it 2-1.
Upper Lake’s defense dominated the second half as the Cougars spent most of the final 30 minutes on the attack and inside Middletown’s territory. Nya Marcks’ goal with a Maddy Young assist pushed the Upper Lake lead to 3-1 and Rhodes’ goal a few minutes later, again with a Young assist, put the game away.
“We’re banged up,” Middletown first-year head coach David Clark said of his 13-girl roster. “We were short on subs and we had two opportunities in the second half that would have switched momentum, but we didn’t take advantage.”
Santana said the Cougars physical conditioning and larger roster paid dividends during the four-day-long tournament, which was played in triple-digit heat most of the time.
“We work on our defense and conditioning a lot,” she said. “We played well but we’re still not ready for Credo yet.”
Credo is the team that beat out Upper Lake for the North Central League II championship a year ago. The two teams meet twice in league play — Sept. 16 in Rohnert Park and Oct. 12 in Upper Lake — and Santana is hoping to add a league championship to the Cougars’ list of accomplishments this season.
Clear Lake
The Clear Lake Cardinals ended up fifth in the standings after tying Willits 1-1 but winning the penalty-kick tiebreaker. Earlier Saturday Clear Lake fell 5-0 to McKinleyville.
“Against Willits we showed up better,” Clear Lake head coach Derick Fiske said.
Ashton Fiske scored to tie the game in regulation, forcing a penalty-kick shoot-off won by the Cardinals.
The play of Grace Gomez and and Anyssa Perez led Clear Lake, according to Fiske.
Earlier against McKinleyville the Cardinals sputtered out of the gate.
“We were exhausted and down in numbers,” Fiske said. “We couldn’t put together any type of transitional offense or defense. Heat and low numbers … it just wasn’t our match.”
Added Fiske, “We leave here with not the finish we wanted, but we learned some lessons and are prepared to get back to work Monday.”
Boys
Middletown completed a season-opening 4-0 run in tournament action with a dominating 7-0 victory over the Willits Wolverines, that after a 3-0 victory over the McKinleyville Panthers earlier Saturday.
Senior forward Nadav Dicovski scored five times against Willits, including twice on corner kick feeds from teammate Ryan Reed in the first half as the Mustangs built a 2-0 lead.
Manuel Montes opened the scoring in the second half with an unassisted goal, then Dicovski scored three times in a row to make it 6-0. Montes’ second goal of the game, assisted by Wyatt Moore, made it 7-0.
“They played great,” said Clark, who is filling in as interim head coach until a replacement takes over. “Nadav played so well, they couldn’t stop him.
Middletown also opened up a 2-0 halftime lead earlier in the day against McKinleyville on the strength of a left-footed goal by Montes, assisted by Moore, just 10 seconds into the game, and another Montes goal later in the half.
Dicovski scored in the second half.
Upper Lake
Host Upper Lake beat Technology of Rohnert Park 3-1 late Saturday for its first tournament win and first victory of the season.
Sammy Avalos scored three times — a hat trick — in the first half for Upper Lake. Manny Villalobos assisted on his first goal and Jacob Colcleaser assisted on the other two.
Upper Lake played more than half of the second half a man down after a Cougars player drew a red card and was ejected.
“It feels great to get that first win,” Upper Lake head coach Thomas Santana said.
Upper Lake fell 2-0 to Willits early Saturday despite another strong defensive effort.
“It was a real back-and-forth game, but we had a couple of mental lapses and that’s how they scored their two goals,” Santana said of the Wolverines.
Keeper Johnny Gozony, a first-year soccer player, was the star of the game and of the tournament for the Cougars, according to Santana.
“He did a great job,” Santana said.
