MIDDLETOWN >> Jenna Tufo scored two goals in the final 12 minutes, part of a four-goal game for the standout freshman, and the Middletown Mustangs beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 5-3 to clinch no worse than a share of the North Central League I girls soccer championship Thursday afternoon in Middletown.
“Tufo just played her ass off tonight,” Clear Lake head coach Derick Fiske said. “We did all that we could to slow her down and it worked for a while, but eventually the great ones get theirs. I had Ashley Pyorre on her the whole 80 minutes and she ran her all over the field. After the game she told me, ‘That girl is good.’ ”
Clear Lake held Tufo to a single goal in the first meeting between the two teams, a 2-1 Clear Lake win Oct. 4 in Lakeport.
“They came in to play the game of their lives and they did,” Fiske said of Tufo and the Mustangs (7-1 league, 9-4 overall).
Clear Lake (6-1, 7-5-1) can still claim a share of the league title if it beats Lower Lake at home Tuesday in the league and regular-season finale for both teams. If the Cardinals lose that game or tie the Trojans, Middletown clinches the outright championship. Both teams are headed to the North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs, which open Nov. 2 with first-round games, and could meet again there.
“That will be exciting,” Middletown head coach Ashlyn Welton said of a possible playoff showdown between the two teams.
Welton said there were two big difference between Middletown’s win Thursday and the first meeting between the teams earlier this month.
“We had three of our defensive starters back, first,” Welton said. “Second, our girls just wanted it more.”
Fiske said three Middletown players made a huge difference — Tufo, Autumn Clark and Krystal Ocken, the Mustangs’ sophomore keeper.
“Autumn Clark played her tail off,” Fiske said. “I can’t say enough about her.”
Welton agreed. “That girl is such a good athlete it’s not to be believed.”
Ocken stopped a number of shots other goalies wouldn’t have come close to, according to Fiske.
“Their goalie is absolutely fantastic,” Fiske said.
Middletown built a 2-1 halftime lead and went up 3-1 early in the second half. Clear Lake rallied to tie the score on the strength of two Nancy Ruzicka goals, the first coming on a penalty kick that Ocken blocked, but the rebound worked its way back to Ruzicka, who alertly knocked it into the net. Ruzicka’s second goal tied the game at 3-3.
Tufo snapped the tie with her third goal of the game and put it away with her fourth.
“Every damn girl had a beautiful game,” Welton said of her Mustangs. “Sophie (Yerba) kept pushing and pushing them in the second half and started to tire them out.”
Clear Lake could have wrapped up the undisputed championship with a win and Fiske said his players entered the game hoping to complete the season sweep of Middletown, a team that won 12 straight NCL I titles from 2008-2019, four of those with Welton as a starter. There was no season in 2020 because of COVID-19 and first-year league member Roseland University Prep beat out the Mustangs for the title a year ago. RUP switched to winter soccer this season along with Cloverdale, Kelseyville and St. Helena.
“It was just a bad time for our seniors to have an off day,” Fiske said. “They’re a juggernaut,” he added of the Mustangs.
“Both teams played well,” Welton said.
Kam Cresto scored Clear Lake’s goal in the first half that briefly tied the game at 1-1. Alanis Sierra Martinez had Middletown’s other goal.
The Division 1 playoff field will be set Oct. 30 at the at-large and seeding meeting.
“Hopefully we’ll get a high seed and home game,” Welton said.
Fiske said his only concern moving forward is beating Lower Lake in the Cardinals’ league finale Tuesday in Lakeport.
“This loss is going to sting a little tonight, but we’ll get back to work tomorrow,” he said. “There were a lot of tears afterwards but that’s because they care. We’re going to come out Tuesday with our pants on fire.”
