Will Middletown's Girls Soccer team maintain their winning streak?

Written by Olivia Ruiz

On October 14th and October 16th, the Lady Mustangs soccer team will face the Fort Bragg Wolverines and the Lower Lake Trojans. In preseason, the Lady Mustangs were beat by the Wolverines but in their season games, they beat them with ease. With Lower Lake, they have only played them once this season but they beat them 2-0. 

The first game of the week for the Lady Mustangs occurred on October 14th and their opponent was the Wolverines from Fort Bragg. The game started with an amazing goal from one of Middletown's Captains, Autumn Clark. She managed to achieve the goal by slipping the ball between the goal keeper's legs and gave Middletown a 1-0 lead. Fort Bragg then quickly followed up by shooting two goals past Middletown's goal keeper, Allyson Pina. Both goals were shots from right above the box where Fort Bragg's players managed to slip past Middletown's defense. By halftime, the Lady Mustangs scored two more goals. The second goal was assisted by Autumn Clark who took a free kick, due to a foul, and Ally Cherry tapped it into the goal. The third goal was assisted by Trinity Wood who passed it to Autumn Clark and once again, Clark took a shot with her left foot and curved the ball right into the top right corner of the box. 

At halftime, the game was still very intense and left fans wondering who was going to want the win more. Throughout the second half, Middletown's offense and defense held tight and played well as a team with good passes and trust in each other. Their offense continued to push through Fort Bragg's defense and Middletown started the second half with another goal from Autumn Clark. She received a through ball from Ally Cherry and she finished her run with a shot in the left corner.

Pictured is Ally Cherry celebrating her goal with Trinity Wood.

The 5th goal from another one of Middletown's captains, Diana Montes, after she dribbled right through Fort Bragg's defense and passed it to Bella Alcantar. She finished out the goal by toe poking the ball from the goalkeeper's hands right into the center of the back net. After Middletown created a lead of 5-2, Fort Bragg retaliated by fighting through Middletown's tight defense and scoring from a corner kick. Middletown ended the game with a shot from the half field line from Ally Cherry after the defense tried to clear the ball out of their half. The ending game score was 6-3 with yet another win for Middletown's Lady Mustangs. 

The second game of the week was on Thursday, October 16th against the Lower Lake Trojans. They started out their game with a slower start than usual but they still got up to 3-0 at halftime. Middletown's want for the win really pulled through in the second half. They raked up more points gradually throughout the game with Ally Cherry being the lead scorer with 3 goals, which is her first hat trick of the season. Bella Alcantar, Diana Montes, and Autumn Clark, all seniors, scored one goal each throughout the game. The Mustangs achieved a 6-0 lead well into the second half before the Trojans gained a penalty kick in the last minute of the game and scored one goal past keeper, Allyson Pina. The defense was overall pretty strong but they did let Lower Lake gain a few shots. Pina blocked all the goals that she could and her coach, Mason Edwards, is very proud of her growth from the past few weeks. “I am insanely impressed with Allyson, in my time playing/coaching I've never seen someone adapt this quick to, in my opinion, the hardest position in soccer. She is an insanely talented athlete and has done nothing but make me proud. It has been an honor to coach her this season.” The game ended with a score 6-1 and the Mustangs took home another win for the books. The Mustangs only have 3 more games in the season before they head off to playoffs. They are currently second in the league and will be facing the number one team, Kelseyville, on Thursday.