Royal drops Warden, 6-1, advances to semifinals

ROYAL CITY - Bouncing back from a tough mid-week loss to arch-rival Wahluke, Royal High unleashed a relentless offense to stop Warden, 6-1, in the first round of the SCAC soccer playoffs on Saturday and advance to the semifinals.

Royal (11-6) plays at SCAC co-champ Highland (14-2) today. If the Knights win, they will play at home Thursday against Wahluke (14-3) or Granger (14-2) for first.

If they lose today, they will play one of those two on Thursday, at Royal, for third. The top 3 advance to state.

Saturday's outcome was a case of total domination. Royal took 20 shots to only five for the Cougars. The Knights had 12 corner kicks to three, and they had to call on keeper Miguel Alvarez for only one save.

"The boys threatened the Warden goal for all but a 15-minute period split on either side of half-time," coach Jens Jensen said. "They looked strong on set pieces and applied pressure and forced mistakes out of the Warden defense."

Royal had the game under control by half-time, leading 4-0.

However, when Warden scored immediately after half-time, Royal re-applied the pressure.

Scoring summary

19:18 RHS BERNAL, Cesar

25:20 RHS SAN GERMAN, Julian

28:19 RHS PONCE, Jose

37:00 RHS TORRES, Jesus

41:27 WHS Vela, Sergio

69:45 RHS ALVAREZ, Luis

76:59 RHS QUIROZ, Marcos

Assists

1.19:1 RHS MEDINA, Jose

2.25:20 RHS GARCIA, Luis;

25:20 RHS QUIROZ, Marcos

28:19 RHS SOTO, Marco

28:19 CORTEZ, Israel