Cougars on the Prowl

WARDEN - One win shy of a state tournament berth a year ago, Warden girls soccer hopes its move down to the 2B classification will help lengthen the Cougars' postseason run.

However, the transition to the smaller division won't keep the Cougars from still playing a majority of their former league opponents from the 1A South Central Athletic Conference.

Familiar SCAC foes Connell, who kept Warden out of the state tournament with a 2-1 shootout victory in last season's district tournament, Royal and Kiona-Benton will still match up with Warden in the regular season.

"It's going to be really hard to tell because of what they've done with our schedule and stuff," head coach Donnie Edson said. "It should allow us to move on to the postseason and hopefully have a better chance at making it to the state tournament and maybe getting an opportunity to place."

The similar regular season schedule will keep Edson from truly knowing how Warden will stack up against the elite of the B division, however, the Cougars did get a glimpse last season.

"I know that last year Liberty Bell ended up taking third at state in the B division and we played them and we were fairly successful against them and got a win against them," Edson said. "So hopefully that translates into something good for us."

Warden lost five players to graduation last year, including four-year goalie Deianeira Caudle and last season's SCAC MVP BryLee Whitney.

Whitney will be playing soccer this season for Columbia Basin College.

"We lost BryLee, she's a huge loss, and then I did lose my goalie that I've had for the last four years and she's been First Team All-League a couple times," Edson said. "So between those two those are both pretty big holes to fill and then the other three that graduated ... They were all contributing players."

Despite the loss of Whitney and Caudle, Edson's cupboard isn't bare.

Seniors Rebekah Richins and Savanna Edson will provide leadership and experience, along with a loaded junior class that features Jennifer Mendoza - First Team All-League a year ago - and Brenna Whitney, BryLee's younger sister, who received Second Team All-League honors last year.

"The core is coming back and what I've seen from some of the freshmen that will be playing this year in the high school level ... We're going to have some work to do, but hopefully we have players in place to hopefully fill some holes and take that next step forward for us."

Warden will begin its 2014 season on the road against Quincy Sept. 11. This year, Quincy will play in the 2A Central Washington Athletic Conference after being a part of the 1A Caribou Trail League a year ago.