Middletown girls open with 62-36 road win over Casa Grande
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PETALUMA >> The long and winding path to 1,000 career points, a milestone reached by only five other Middletown High School players and 52 Lake County athletes overall in the last four decades, is nearly over for senior Mia Hoogendoorn.
The four-year varsity veteran scored 24 points in her 2024-25 season debut Tuesday night while leading the Mustangs (1-0) to a 62-36 victory over the Casa Grande Gauchos in Petaluma. It was a big night for the Hoogendoorn family overall as head coach Roxi Holt watched both of her daughters finish in double digits. Freshman Isabella Hoogendoorn scored 11 points in her high school debut as the Mustangs raced out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back against a Casa Grande squad that had a streaky outside shooting game and virtually no inside presence against Middletown.
“Sixty-two points … I’m happy about that, but holding them to 36, that’s even better,” Holt said of her team’s season-opening performance. “The defense played great, the defense did what it needed to do.”
All seven Mustangs reached the scoring column, including eight points from Sarah Fetters, who had two 3-pointers.
Mia Hoogendoorn scored all 24 of her points, including three 3-pointers, in the first three quarters, 15 of those by halftime. She returns to the court Saturday at home against Willits needing 13 points to reach the coveted 1,000 mark.
“We’re excited for her,” Holt said of the prospect of Hoogendoorn becoming the sixth Middletown player, and the first since Ashlyn Welton, to reach the 1,000 mark on Saturday against the Wolverines (the varsity game is scheduled to tip off at 5 p.m.). Welton, who graduated in 2016, is the school’s career scoring leader with 1,314 points.
Casa Grande made one run at Middletown, that in the second quarter after the Mustangs had opened up a 20-5 lead. The Gauchos hit three consecutive 3-pointers to close to 20-14. After adding a free throw to make it 20-15, Casa Grande again fell behind by double digits and trailed 29-19 at halftime.
Middletown promptly put the game out of reach in the second half, outscoring Casa Grande 20-7 during a third quarter that Hoogendoorn contributed her final seven points of the evening, five of them on free throws.
“We came out a little nervous,” Holt said. “We made a few too many turnovers, but once we got that under control, we did fine. At the end of the day, I was happy with our performance. It was a good win against a large school.”
Holt gave high marks to the play of her two underclassmen starters, freshman Isabella Hoogendoorn and sophomore Jordyn Harbison (five points).
“They played their hearts out and I couldn’t have asked any more from them,” Holt said. “Both of my underclassmen impressed me.”
One college coach was in attendance to scout Mia Hoogendoorn, who has drawn interest from a handful of colleges and universities.
“The Butte coach was here tonight,” Holt said.
Middletown also won the junior varsity game, 39-26, behind 13 points from Thaly Rodrigues, 10 from Maddie DeLatorre, and five from Brenna Goodloe.
“We were a little rough, we’re still trying to figure out our new offense,” Middletown head coach Daryl Dacosta said. “We’ve got some little things to work out, nothing that can’t be done on the practice floor.”
The JV Mustangs (1-0) host Willits at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
