UPPER LAKE — The fourth annual Tyler Duncan Memorial soccer tournament begins its four-day run Wednesday at Upper Lake High School.
This year’s field includes eight girls teams and five boys squads. There are four games scheduled Wednesday, two in each of the boys and girls brackets, and three girls games scheduled Thursday. On Friday, both boys and girls resume games on two different Upper Lake High fields. Final-round boys and girls games and playoffs are set for Saturday.
The girls field includes host Upper Lake, Clear Lake, Lower Lake, Middletown, Willits, Tech, McKinleyville and St. Bernard’s (Eureka). The boys field includes host Upper Lake, Middletown, Tech, Willits and McKinleyville.
All games feature 30-minute halves with 10-minute halves.
First-round action Wednesday begins with Clear Lake vs. Willits in the girls bracket at 3 pm followed by the Tech vs. Willits boys at 4:30 p.m., the Upper Lake vs. Middletown boys at 6 pm, and the Upper Lake vs. Lower Lake girls at 7:30 p.m
The Middletown girls play their first tournament game Thursday against Tech at 4:30 pm The Clear Lake vs. Lower Lake girls are next at 6 pm followed by the Upper Lake vs. Willits girls at 7:30 p.m
The season-opening tournament, first contested in 2018, is named after the late Tyler Duncan, a 2011 Upper Lake graduate who played soccer and junior varsity basketball for the Cougars. He died on June 30, 2017 at the age of 25 because of complications from graft versus host disease, after winning a battle with leukemia.
No tournament was held in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.