WARDEN - The Cougars got three goals in the first half of play, then turned back several scoring opportunities by the Mountain Lions in the second half of action to preserve a 3-0 shut out.

"We played a good first half," coach Don Edson said. "But we came out a little sluggish in the second half. Liberty Bell was very aggressive and it took us a while to match their intensity."

Warden got on the board in the 11th minute of play on a goal by Nicole Guerra (Johanna Burkholder) to go up 1-0.

"Johanna hit a nice cross to the middle and Nicole headed the ball into the box," Edson said. "Those kind of goals are far and few between for girls soccer ... I've only seen a couple over the past few years."

Jennifer Mendoza made it 2-0 four minutes later on an unassisted goal. Mendoza scored again (Brenna Whitney) at the 25th minute of action to put the Cougars in front 3-0.

The win over the Mountain Lions improves Warden to 1-3 overall. The Cougars are 0-2 in 1A SCAC league play.

"Overall our league is a lot tougher than the 2B conference we were in," Edson said. "We're really hoping to turn things around and get going."

The Cougars get a chance to do just that as Warden takes on the Knights in Royal City today at 4 p.m.

"We've played Royal in nonleague games the last couple of years," Edson said. " They are always tough. We expect this to be a highly contested game."