Royal soccer on to final 4

ROYAL CITY - Knocking off Seattle Christian (SC), 3-1, Saturday, Royal advanced to this weekend's class 1A state high school soccer final four in Sumner.

It will be a return trip for Royal, which finished third at state last year.

With last year's experience, the Knights are in good position to bring the trophy to South Grant County for a third straight year. Neighboring Wahluke captured the last two.

In addition, South Central A Conference champion Highland is out of the picture. Chelan upset the Scotties on Saturday. Royal will open the final 4 play against Chelan on Friday at 4 p.m.

"To be honest," coach Jens Jensen said. "I am not sure there is anything more sweet than knocking out a private school and sending them packing. Despite their expensive clubs, their fancy player resumes, and the high price they pay to be seen by colleges, when they step on the field, talent is all that matters. Our boys showed they have something more than size, strength, and long throw-ins. It was a great win."

Seattle Christian has some big, physical, intelligent boys, and passes the ball well. The first 20 minutes, Royal's boys played many balls into the air trying to frustrate things in an effort to get a foot into the match.  

Things started to follow that plan as Seattle Christian had a bit of fatigue set in, and Royal was able to bring the ball down and start finding the wings and switching the ball through the middle.  

"We found that their right side was suspect so we started hammering that side," Jensen said.

Hugo Rodriguez was the recipient of a great little combination between Christian Guerrero and Cesar Bernal as he broke free down the left and fired a laser to the upper far corner at 25:09.

That stunned the SC goalkeeper, and it set the momentum in Royal's favor.

SC sent the big boys in to trap Royal keeper Lupe Arceo from three sides. So it was an aerial battle to keep the ball out.  

"The boys had many scares due to this tactic, but only one shot found its way into the net," Jensen said.

With the score 1-1 and Royal on the attack, a foul at the top of the area and two yellow cards for dissent pulled a key defender and a goalkeeper out of the game for SC. Guerrero slammed a beauty into the short side, making it 2-1 at 49:49.

"The helpless goalkeeper didn't even move," Jensen said.

Protecting a lead, Royal started to have Myrick take all throw-ins, and it paid off.

A long throw created a knockdown that fell to the feet of Marcos Quiroz, and he poked it away to give Royal the 2-goal cushion.

Earlier last week, Royal started the 16-team state tournament with a trip to Cascade and eked out a 2-1 win.

Royal scored first from a throw in from Myrick. Guerrero headed it down, and Quiroz poked it home for the 1-0 lead.

"The goal came in the second minute, and it caught both teams off guard," Jensen said. "We had the wind, but now we were protecting a lead so we had a few chances, but we were not pressuring in the attack like normal. This came back to haunt us a little bit because we were in that shell mentally in the second half and had a hard time getting anything going."

Cascade's goal came from a penalty kick early in the second half.   The Royal boys started to build some momentum and had a handful of chances to win it but couldn't score again in regulation.

That momentum carried into the shootout. While Arceo saved two shots, Guerrero, Rodriguez, Gaxiola, and Quiroz scored to win it.