LAKEPORT, Calif. – After an undefeated regular season, Middletown High School’s girls soccer team ran through the North Coast Section Division 3 tournament with wins over Saint Helena and Cloverdale, and then earned the championship crown with a 2-0 victory over the Sonoma Academy Coyotes Saturday afternoon at Clear Lake High School.
As coach Lee Hoage expected, it was a tough battle – quite a different story from when Middletown beat the same team 6-1 two months before.
“They had a passing sequence and a game plan and they executed pretty well, had some speed up there at the top,” Hoage said. “You know they were going to be bringing everything at us. Our defense came up huge and our keeper (Jessie Flynn) came up huge, it could have gone either way there, just back and forth until one team scores, then it just kinda takes the wind out of the sails.”
Hoage added, “I knew there weren’t going to be a lot of opportunities, so I told them on a cross, or you’re in the box, you’d better take advantage of that, you’ve got to be hungry to finish and play super-aggressive when the ball’s down there. In the first half it didn’t seem like we had that energy.”
Both teams hit the crossbar with shots in the opening minutes and had other chances, but it wasn’t until 14 minutes into the second half that Middletown’s leading scorer, junior Hanna Diaz, scored that critical first goal. Ten minutes later, freshman Kaleigh Alves’ shot made it 2-0.
After the game, Diaz said, “Ashley Hart led to my scoring that goal. She’s assisted me all season long; I’ve probably had ten goals off of her throws and passes.”
And then, commenting on what gave Middletown the edge, she added: “We wanted it so much. They wanted it too, but we just wanted it so much more. It’s our first time making it to the finals and we wanted it.”
Diaz was honored by the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat as the Empire small school player of the year last year, and she has a great chance to repeat that honor.
Gone to graduation will be seniors Maria Castaldo, Maddie Kucer (named to the Press-Democrat’s small school all-Empire first team last year), Kelly Wilkinson (Press-Democrat second team last year), Emily Reed, and Alicia Solomon.
Despite these losses, Middletown will return a talented squad to defend their championship next year.