WARDEN - Yesterday, despite knowing they were destined for their first ever state soccer tournament appearance, the undermanned Warden Cougars gave everything they had in a 1A/2B Tri-District semifinal game.

Playing host to a Brewster squad that had gone 3-0 during the course of the season against Warden, the Cougars found themselves with plenty of opportunities to secure their first victory over their guests before falling 2-1.

The Cougars (8-8) will play Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Apple Bowl in Wenatchee against either Cascade or Okanogan to determine the third and fourth seeds to the state tournament out of the district.

All teams are attempting to qualify for the 1A state field, even though both Warden and Brewster are 2B-enrollment schools.

Against Brewster, the Cougars battled their division rivals to a 0-0 draw through the match's first 40 minutes.

However, six minutes after halftime, Brewster got on the board off of a stellar crossing pass that was drilled home from within feet of the goalmouth to put the Cougars on the wrong end of a 1-0 deficit.

Yet, Carlos Gomez decided to take matters into his own feet and he scored just minutes later after collecting a pass some 35-feet from the Brewster goal before beating a half dozen defenders to score from point-blank range to even the game at 1-1.

"It is one of the things that Carlos has the ability to do," Warden head coach Ed Aguilar said. "It was a good goal but it would be even better if we made more plays moving forward with more build up involving more players."

The teams battled back and forth before Brewster scored again with about 16 minutes left to take the lead for good. The Warden defenders got stuck in front of goal when the ball squirted left off the promised land and the Brewster forward jumped onto it and put the ball away according to Aguilar.

Warden had some strong scoring opportunities present themselves but they couldn't forge the tie.

"We had a couple of shots toward the end," Aguilar said. "Hector Camacho had a shot but the goalkeeper saved it. We hammered the goal but we didn't score."

Despite being beaten 5-1 twice earlier in the season and 4-3 last week against Brewster, the Cougars battled to their best result yet with their rivals despite playing with a shortened bench.

"We have a good team but we don't have that deep of a bench," Aguilar said, "When you play teams like Brewster, Wahluke or Connell you could be in trouble. But we have been competitive and I am very pleased. The effort was there today we were just tired toward the end."

If the Cougars win Saturday they would possibly face Royal, Wahluke, or Connell in the state tournament opening round but a loss would send them to the west side and a potential Seattle-area opponent.