Cougars beat Vikings

MABTON - Warden got four first half goals from four different Cougars as the girls soccer team recorded a 5-2 road win over Mabton Tuesday.

The win over the Vikings secured the No. 3 seed for the Cougars as they head to district play Saturday.

"Its been a very successful year for us," coach Don Edson said. "We had hoped to be competitive as we moved up to 1A this season ... proved we could be ... and are now on our way to the district playoffs."

Jennifer Mendoza (Brylee Whitney) got the Cougars on the board first with a goal six minutes into the match to take a 1-0 lead. Mabton answered back with a score in the 14th minute of play to tie the game 1-1.

Warden's Nicole Guerra made it 2-1 Cougars with a goal at the 24 minute mark. Johanna Burkeholder pushed the score to 3-1 with a goal a minute later.

Miexy Gonzalez found the back of the Viking box on a penalty kick to up the Warden lead to 4-1 at the 31st minute of action to round out the first half scoring.

The Cougars Brylee Whitney (Brenna Whitney) increased Warden's tally to five goals with the first score of the second half at the 41 minute mark. Mabton added its second goal of the match at the 75th minute of play to end the scoring for the game.

The 5-2 win for Warden sets up a first round loser out district match against the West's No. 2 seed Lasalle Lightning from Union Gap Saturday at Marquette Stadium in Yakima at 11 a.m.

"We have a big challenge a head of us as LaSalle has not lost a match since 2003 ... they've won 103 games in a row," Edson said. "We talked to the girls today (Wednesday) and told them not to worry about their record and that we are capable of beating them if we play our best soccer of the year."