Royal falls to Wahluke in heartbreaking shootout

ROYAL CITY - Royal High School finished the South Central A Conference soccer schedule in second place and earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs, but the Knights will enter the tournament on a downer.

The Knights fell to arch-rival Wahluke in a shootout in their final regular-season game. They had beaten the Warriors three in a row going back to last season.

The score after regulation play was 1-1. It was still 1-1 after overtime. Wahluke won by making 3 of 3 penalty kicks, while Royal went 0-3.

"The Wahluke keeper did well to keep us from scoring the winner during overtime,"coach Jens Jensen said. "He continued to do well in penalties by saving our first 3 spot kicks."

Royal will start the playoffs today at 4 p.m. against Warden on the Royal field. The Cougars qualified for the second round by defeating Connell 2-0 on Saturday.

The other semifinal will have Wahluke at Highland. The semifinal winners will qualify for state and meet Thursday in Yakima for the district title.