Royal's season ends, defeated 1-0

ROYAL CITY - A promising run toward the state championship came to an abrupt end last week for the Royal High School soccer team.

Just as Royal had done to Highland a week earlier for the district championship, Manson stunned Royal, 1-0, last week to eliminate the Knights.

Royal had made the final four the last two years.

Manson scored in the first half and then play defense the rest of the way. Royal simply could not get an attack going. All 11 shots on goal were turned away.

"Well, the season comes to a close," a disappointed coach Jens Jensen said. "We had a frustrating night. All year we have struggled to score goals, but we have survived on being tough as a unit defensively and ground out victories."

"Tonight things were unorganized and sloppy from back to front and we struggled to get a rhythm to our passing," Jensen added. "Two or three passes would link up, and then it would break down. Many touches went out of bounds, and we dropped our marks and allowed attackers between and behind us."

Manson had it a bit easy until the last 15 minutes. Royal threw everything it had at the antagonists, but they survived and Royal was left frustrated.

"With our youth up front we can look at the season as a success, but our seniors feel disappointed that they could not keep the run going," Jensen said.

"Looking to the future, we have a good group coming up who excel in their speed and touch. So it will be interesting to see how they develop over the next few years."

- Staff report