ROHNERT PARK — The Upper Lake Cougars and Credo Gryphon battled to a 1-1 draw in a North Central League II girls soccer game matching the league’s top two teams on Friday in Rohnert Park, setting up a huge showdown Oct. 12 when the two squads meet in Upper Lake.
Credo (1-0-1 league, 5-0-1 overall), the defending NCL II champion, scored 10 minutes into the second half to tie the score. Upper Lake (1-0-1, 8-0-1) grabbed a 1-0 lead 18 minutes into the first half on a Saphira Hughes goal assisted by Nya Marcks.
Upper Lake head coach Daniella Santana said Credo did its job scouting the Cougars because Upper Lake’s top two scoring threats, Marcks and Ashlyn Rhodes, spent most of the game being double-teamed and sometimes even triple-teamed.
Even so, Upper Lake’s defense was up to the challenge, according to Santana.
“We played very well,” she said. “Tatum (Salas), Jayme (Zimmerschied) and Maddy (Young) held down the defense.”
Upper Lake had a handful of other scoring opportunities during the game, including a couple in front of the Credo net, but couldn’t capitalize.
“We possessed the ball more than they did, but both teams had about the same number of shots,” Santana said.
Upper Lake’s coach said she was pleased with her team’s effort.
“Yeah, I definitely was,” Santana said.
Although she received a red card from officials Wednesday in Tomales after the game had ended 9-1 in the Cougars’ favor, Santana was allowed to coach Upper Lake on Friday as a determination was made that the red card — which was given to Santana for the conduct of Upper Lake’s fans — wasn’t warranted.
Upper Lake is scheduled to play at Fort Bragg in a non-league game Monday at 5:30 p.m.
