Royal girls defeat Granger

ROYAL CITY - The Royal High girls soccer team split two SCAC matches last week, defeating Granger and falling to Connell.

The 2-1 Tuesday triumph over Granger came in a shootout. Royal won that 2-1 and, in the process, found a backup keeper.

Yajaira Michel scored for Royal in the first half, and Granger had one goal, and regulation ended 1-1.

Royal finished with Flor Araujo in the net after Guadalupe Guadarrama was injured. She was in the goal for the shootout and scored one of Royal's two goals and had three saves.

On Thursday, Royal ran into an unbeaten Connell and had to face the Eagles with missing or injured starters.

"Obviously 0-2 was not the result that we were looking for but, to be honest, we did pretty well having five starters either not playing or playing injured due to the yearly powder-puff games," coach Jens Jensen said.

"We almost totally ran out of gas in the latter portions of each half with heavy legs," he added. "So an upside is that we were able to provide minutes for everyone on the roster. All in all, we played tough, and it is hard to fault the girls for the injuries that have hampered all of the varsity programs. Hopefully this match is not the one that keeps us from districts."

Next up for the Knights is Warden at Warden for another tough match on Tuesday.

"They have a good team with a number of girls that play in the local club system," Jensen said. "So we will have to be on our game to get a favorable result."