Another 1-goal match for Royal ladies soccer
Cynthia Rodriguez clears a corner kick away from the goal.
ROYAL CITY — It seems this will be the season of 1-goal matches for the Royal High soccer team.
On Tuesday of last week, the Knights played their fifth straight one-goal match, falling this time to tough Warden, 3-2, in overtime.
This was the same Warden team that a week earlier knocked off Wahluke, 5-0.
“Warden has three players who we don’t have individual answers for, but as a unit we were able to keep them contained for large portions of the match,” Jensen said.
Not only that. The Royal girls were aggressive on offense from start to finish. They took control of the ball on the opening kickoff and didn’t give up until a goal by Jennifer Ledezma just 1:23 into the match.
Ledezma’s score was a perfectly executed penalty kick. She flew it high and it arched into the narrow space between the tender’s outstretched hands and the crossbar.
“We knew we had a long road ahead of us so we settled in for a defensive battle,” Jensen said.
And it was a defensive struggle for the Knights. They warded off 16 shots by the Cougars.
Small mistakes defending Warden’s Big 3 compounded to allow the Cougars to equalize the score before halftime and also to get the go-ahead goal in the 57th minute.
“We responded by going to a 3-5-2, and then a 3-4-3 for the final 5 minutes,” Jensen said.
The pressure on the Warden defense paid off when Noelia latched onto a loose ball at the far post in the second minute of added time and poked it into the net to force overtime.
The match ended in the first period of overtime due to a quality finish from Warden. The attacker was able to turn and shoot on the half volley, and the shot was nearly perfect.
Royal’s keeper, Lupe Guadarrama made a great diving attempt to save it but was unable to push the ball wide of the upright.
“All in all, we feel good about our improvement. We are getting better each match. Other than the Connell match,” Jensen said. “The losses against Wahluke, Ki-Be, and Warden have all been by 1 goal. Hopefully we can get some of those close results to go our way in the second half of the season.”
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