Royal drops two in soccer
Royal’s Elsie Delgado passes through a Connell defender then tries to get the ball back along the football sideline.
ROYAL CITY — Trying to hang on to a one game lead over Wahluke for third place in South Central A Conferece East soccer, Royal High dropped contests to Granger and Connell last week.
As a result, the Knights dropped into a tie for third place with Wahluke, and the Warriors, or even Granger, could steal away third place today.
The Granger loss, 2-1, was the one that probably hurt most. The Royal girls had beaten the Spartans the first time around and were counting on a repeat to stay in third place alone.
On Thursday Connell showed why it is likely to end up at the state tournament. The Eagles connected for goals on their first three shots and didn’t look back.
“Connell’s first 3 shots we should have handled easily,” coach Jens Jensen said. “It took us a while to recover mentally, and we made a few changes that helped us play back into the match.”
In the second half the Knights were able to start pushing forward and earn a few corners and free kicks. Jenny Ledezma scored a goal from a free kick that looped the keeper and found the inside of the far post.
With 15 minutes remaining, the Knights brought the young players in and changed to more of an attack formation.
“That unfortunately left us too exposed and Connell took advantage,”Jensen said.
The Knights travel to Warden for the last match of the regular season today. Royal will need to get points out of the match at Warden to avoid a final possible 3-way tie that could result in Royal finishing No. 4 and out of the playoffs.