Martinez barrage sees Royal through

ROYAL CITY - The only world that ended on Saturday is one team's dream world of a season while another's could still revel in history continuing to be made.

Playing host to the Warden Cougars for a Class 1A state quarterfinal match, the Royal Knights looked across the field to a team that, like them, has made history in 2011.

For Warden (9-10) it was about their first ever state tournament appearance and for Royal the year included the furthest it has ever gone at state, a season sweep of Connell, and now seeing themselves two wins from a breakthrough title.

Thanks to an Adam Martinez hat trick in a six-minute span in the latter stages of the first half the Knights cruised to a 4-0 win to move to 19-3 and set up a fourth showdown with Wahluke in the state semifinals in Sumner on Friday at 4 p.m.

Martinez ended up with all four Royal goals and now has 38 for the season.

"They gave him opportunities by allowing him to receive the ball and being able to turn in very dangerous areas," Royal head coach Jens Jensen said. "Adam had space to turn and shoot. Obviously he performed well. After that first miss he scored soon after and it boosted his confidence. He scored four goals on five shots and was clinical about it."

Both teams started off determined to not take control of the match as each squad's midfield had plenty of passing miscues and their first touch was sloppy on many counts.

Warden appeared to be the more assertive of the two teams in the first 20 minutes and continued to try to beat the Royal backline with some savvy direct play which would just miss a potential breakaway goal by a bounce or two.

"We were really disconnected in the first half and we looked pretty bad," Jensen said. "We had one series where I told the boys to stop holding the ball and pass it around. They were able to bring it down the middle send it to the side and switch it to the other side before we got it to Adam and he missed that shot. But that opportunity seemed to have all the tumblers fell into place."

The tumblers were Martinez drilling shot after shot starting in the 26th minute and the barrage wouldn't end until six minutes later and a 3-0 lead.

Martinez scored again in the 53rd minute and the match was cemented for the Knights who only once before made the state tournament as they were eliminated in the first round back in 2007, Jensen's second year guiding the program.

"The whole idea is that we want to be like Royal football and hang our hat on being a state powerhouse," Jensen said. "Just the fact that we were able to come out of our league and get to this point is just another step. We can say we've broken new ground and we are saying we can do this."

Royal outshot Warden 13-8 and now with four senior starters - the most since the 2007 team - the Knights have one last crack at the defending state champion Wahluke team, who has swept the black and gold via three one-goal wins this season.

"I feel good about it," Jensen said. "They are the returning state champs and we want to take it from them. Would I like to play someone else? I don't know. They beat us three times and every time has been close. We want the opportunity to turn the result on its head."

Warden head coach Ed Aguilar was unavailable for comment.