Royal boys finish soccer season with a big 8-0 win

ROYAL CITY - The Royal High School soccer team finished the regular season with an 8-0 victory over Kiona-Benton last week and tomorrow turns to the quest for a state championship.

Royal will kick off the South Central A Conference playoffs at home against Connell tomorrow at 6 p.m. Win or lose, the Knights will continue with another home appearance on Thursday.

On Thursday Royal will play in the title game (7 p.m.) or the third-place game (5 p.m.). The top three teams will advance to the state tournament.

Royal should be favored to defeat Connell and advance to the title game and state. The Knights topped the Eagles twice during the league season.

The Ki-Be contest was no contest. The Knights scored in the fourth minute and took command when Adam Martínez turned a José Nava assist into a goal.

Ki-Be played well through the half and kept the score at 2-0. The challenge for Royal was to get its game going after the disappointment against Wahluke a week earlier.

"But the boys kept at it and were able to patiently find opportunities to stretch the defense and pick up loose balls and defensive mistakes to score their goals," coach Jens Jensen said.

The second half was a blowout. Martínez scored twice to match his first-half goal total. The first of those goals came off a Christian Guerrero assist.

The remaining four second-half goals were turned in by Nava,  Enrique Torres and Shaq Ledezma twice.

Royal had 20 shots on goal and 41 shots all together. There were no shots by Ki-Be and, therefore, no saves by Royal.

The Knights finished with a 13-2 season and a 12-2 league mark. They came in second to Wahluke, which administered both of Royal's losses by one goal. The two teams are likely to meet again at 7 p.m. on Thursday for the district title.