’Stangs capture section

M'town caps great season with 1-0 win

LARG COUNTY >> Nearly a year ago today the Middletown

High School girls soccer team wrapped up an incredible 2019 season with a 1- 0 victory over Arcata in the championship game of the North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs at Arcata.

Until the COVID-19- delayed 2020-21 sports season starts in December, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the local sports happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.

Girls soccer

Middletown’s victory over Arcata capped a 3- 0 playoff run — all three road victories against teams they had lost to in the regular season — and clinched the second sectional pennant in the school’s illustrious girls soccer history.

Sophie Kucer’s goal eight minutes into the second half providing the winning margin as the Mustangs avenged a 4- 0 road loss to Arcata two months earlier. Harper Moreno assisted on the game-winning goal.

Middletown won its final 17 games, including a 14- 0 record in the North Central League I to clinch its 12th straight league title. In the 2019 postseason, the Mustangs allowed only one goal while beating, in order, Roseland University Prep 2- 0, Fortuna 2-1 and Arcata 1- 0. All three opponents were seeded higher than Middletown in the Division 1 playoffs, and both No. 1 seed Fortuna and No. 4 Roseland University Prep entered the postseason with undefeated records. Arcata was the No. 3 seed to Middletown’s No. 5.

It was the first Division 1 section title for the Mustangs, who did it with a roster that featured

COURTESY PHOTO Middletown High school girls soccer coaches Lamont and Tracey Kucer celebrate the team’s North Coast Section Division I championship following a 1-0 win over Arcata in a game that took place nearly a year ago today. With their coaches are the team’s three seniors, from left Nayla Chaires, Abby Sabater and Luana Gisler. Chaires and Sabater were freshmen when Lamont Kucer took over the Middletown program in 2016.