Royal soccer boys win one, lose two matches

ROYAL CITY - It was a tough week in soccer for the Royal High School team, which dropped two matches and won one.

The good news was that the losses were to quality opponents Granger and Highland. Those clubs are expected to challenge for the top spot in the SCAC West.

Granger defeated Royal, 6-5, on Tuesday, Royal beat Mabton on Thursday, 5-1, and Highland nipped Royal, 2-1, on Saturday.

"They were good matches, and we learned from each of them," coach Jens Jensen said.

Today the Knights play at Warden in a game that counts in the SCAC East standings. So the Highland contest was used for some experimentation.

The game plan for Highland was to bring up some of the junior varsity boys and play the bench at least 20 minutes of each half. Royal had injuries and sickness

"We were disciplined and stuck to our game plan," Jensen said.

We gave up the winning goal a few minutes from time, but we were pleased to see that our bench and youngsters put up a good resistance against the Highland attack which had the wind in their favor in the second half."

Highland was the aggressor, taking eight shots on goal while allowing Royal only three. Jose Jimenez made five saves for the Knights.

Royal scored its goal while playing with the wind in the first half. Highland scored twice in the second half. The Scotties scored the winner with less that two minutes remaining in regulation.

Royal's goal came at 17:13 from Israel Cortez. He was assisted by Jose Medina.

Earlier last week, the Knights lost a surprisingly high scoring 6-5 contest to Granger. Then they waltzed past Mabton, 5-1.

"The win over Mabton was a good response after a tumultuous affair at Granger on Tuesday," Jensen said. "The boys got back to looking comfortable, and their confidence grew as the match went on."

The Granger contest was a the story of two very different halves. Royal won the first, 3-1. Granger won the second, 5-2. Granger scored the winning goal on a penalty kick with less than three minutes left in regulation.

Scoring Royal's goals were:

Michael Rojas at 21:57; Cesar Bernal at 25:22 with an assist from Jose Ponce; Ponce at 38:43; Rojas at 60:45; and Jose Medina at 72:15.

Jimenez had three saves for the Knights. Granger took 18 shots, Royal 13.

The Mabton contest was a lot smoother for the Knights. They led 3-0 at the half and outscored the Vikings, 2-1, in the second half.

Mabton was held to four shots on goal, while Royal took seven. Jimenez made three saves.

Royal jumped on top early. Bernal scored at 4:36 on an assist by Jose Medina. At 11:20 Medina scored on a Bernal assist.

"It was good to see our forwards link up for the goals," Jensen said.

Rojas scored at 33:00; Medina scored at 48:03, assisted by Ponce; and Bernal scored at 57:53 on an assist by Medina.

Royal was called for eight fouls and was issued one yellow card.