LEAVENWORTH - The hopes of Warden returning to the state playoffs were dashed  Saturday as the Cougars were defeated by the Kodiaks from Cascade High School in a loser out game in the first round of the district playoffs.

Warden, needing a win over Liberty Bell May 3 to advance to the match, was riding high after defeating the Mountain Lions 3-0.

But the Cougars came crashing down to earth as they lost by the same score to the Kodiaks and were knocked out of post-season play.

Warden finished the season with a 6-4 record in the Central Washington 2B Conference and was 10-6 overall including the loss to Cascade.  

"The lack of players hurt all season long," coach Ed Aguilar said. "We played the first half of our games very well, but in the second half, we didn't have enough players to give our starters any rest."

Injuries and academic issues were the reasons for not having a deep enough bench to compete as well as Aguilar would've liked.

Cascade jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Omar Solis at the 24 minute-mark of the contest.  The score help up through intermission and gave hope to the Cougars as Warden was still in the thick of it.

But he Kodiaks added two more scores in the second half, one by German Pacheco at the 46th minute of play and the other by Christian Ribas at the 57 minute-mark to ice the match for Cascade.