Royal defense dominates Granger in first round of district opener

ROYAL CITY — Royal soccer coach Jens Jensen was appreciative of the 75-degree evening weather for Thursday’s 1A District 5 boys soccer tournament opener with Granger, not so much because his team scored seven second-half goals to beat the Spartans 9-nil to advance.

It wasn’t because his defense produced its fourth consecutive shutout and has allowed just one goal in the last seven matches. It wasn’t even the fact that the two-time defending SCAC East champions are on a roll.

The Knights head coach was most appreciative for the warm weather because defender Roberto Espino and midfielder Martin Hernandez snuck off during the team huddle afterwards, grabbed the Gatorade jug and circled back to hammer him with the two-three left-over gallons of water to celebrate a second league championship and a win in the playoffs.

The Knights (14-3) have scored a combined 19 goals in the last four matches. Sophomore goalkeeper Ty Miller has allowed just one goal in the past 560 minutes, dating back to April 20 when Wahluke scored on a fluke inside the final two minutes.

Despite the dominating play in recent days, Royal played sluggish through the first half of Thursday’s District 5 opener, despite taking a 2-nil lead into the intermission. One of which was an own-goal.

“What I questioned during the intermission was the idea of where their heads were at,” said Jensen, who played his college soccer at BYU-Hawaii. “Did they think people were just going to roll over. What we talked about was the midfield where we were way out of sync. Granger was just trying to win a ball and beat us on the break. We left a big hole, so we came out and fixed that, it changed everything.”

The Royal scoring was a feeding frenzy. Michael Rojas laid a perfect ball out for Eliseo Romero to run under in the first half and the Knights’ freshman beat Spartans goalkeeper Ricardo Brito to start things off early.

But if the old cliche that defense wins championships, the Knights are on pace to do great things. Miller wasn’t even supposed to be in net this year, but an injury changed things and the sophomore has been the surprise of the season on a team that’s sending one of its players to the University of Washington to play Pac-12 ball next fall.

Miller has allowed just seven goals total this season and has made 60 saves. He only had to make a couple on Thursday, but that’s because his defense out front is becoming more and more dominant as the season goes on.

“We’re really solid on defense,” said Rojas, who had the assist on the first goal. “Ty has been great. He’s so athletic that he can go up and get the high balls, but still able to handle the low balls. Teams challenge him low, but he’s handled everything so far.”

Angel Farias, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior, is the center defender. Alex Delgado is on the left side and Jorge Ortiz goes on the right side. Together, they are the wall before the wall.

“Angel’s big and strong. Most people don’t know he’s the fastest guy in school,” Jensen said. “Ortiz wasn’t the original starter, but he’s come in and done great job. Delgado has a great left foot and he sparks us when we turn it back upfield.”

They have not given up multiple goals since losing 2-1 at Wahluke on March 27. Since then, the Royal defense have surrendered just two goals in 10 matches, an equivalent of 800 minutes.

The offense did get theirs against Granger. Miguel Torres scored in the first minute of the second half and added another one on in the 60th minute to lead the way.

“It feels good to come out and get the win at home, play with confidence and move on to the next round,” striker Miguel Torres said through his interpreter Jerry Villa. “Coach told us at the intermission that we needed to come out with more intensity and that’s what we did.”

Royal will host either Connell or Highland on May 8.