Lady Warriors nip Knights, 1-0, in soccer last week

ROYAL CITY — Royal and Wahluke High Schools have girls soccer teams that are fairly evenly matched, and they played a 1-0 contest last week that went to the Warriors.

After that match, Wahluke was off to one of its better starts at 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the South Central A Conference East.

“Both sides battled through all 80 minutes,” Royal coach Jens Jensen said.

“It’s always entertaining with Royal,” Wahluke coach Arthur DeVictoria said.

The score was 0-0 at the half. Royal had five shots on goal by then, and Wahluke had four. Royal had six shots in the second half, and Wahluke had three.

The only one that made into the goal came on a play by Celeste Lopez and Liliana Celaya. The coaches remembered it differently, but their accounts were similar.

According to DeVictoria, Elizabeth Bravo won the ball at midfield, dribbled twice and passed ahead to Lopez. Lopez rounded a Royal defender, couldn’t find a shot and crossed the ball to Celaya, who kicked it into the goal.

Jensen said his defender was part of the play. She attempted to clear the ball and connected, but Lopez blocked the pass and deflected it across the face of the goal to Celaya.

“We made every change we could dream up to become progressively more attacking and gave the Wahluke goalie plenty to deal with, but the final touch into the net didn’t come,” Jensen said.

Wahluke had seven shots and four shots on goal. Royal had 11 shots and five on goal.

Wahluke goal keeper Brenda Nolasco saved five goal attempts by Royal. The Royal keeper had three saves.