WARDEN — Royal High School girls soccer picked up a win against the Cougars at Warden High School on Tuesday afternoon, 4-0. The Knights move to 2-4 in the year and Warden falls to 1-5.

Forward Meadow Saenz didn’t take long to open scoring for Royal, placing the ball in the back of the net off an assist from Ivy Delay less than a minute into the match. Moments later, Saenz doubled the lead with her second goal to put the Knights in front 2-0.

Senior Chenoa Louie fired a rocket from way outside the box with about 20 minutes left in the first half to bring Royal to 3-0 going into the break. Royal kept up the pressure early in the second half, but was kept at bay for most of it.

Royal junior Blake Jensen was able to get just enough of her head on a pass sent in off a corner kick from Chenoa Louie to beat the goalkeeper and put the score at 4-0.

Grace Richins led the Cougars in shots on goal, but was unable to find the back of the net on Tuesday. The Knights held the advantage in shots on goal for both halves.

Saenz, an eighth-grader, said after the game that it’s pretty cool getting to play at the high school level this spring. Saenz said playing up an age group is nothing new for her and she’s kind of used to it now.

Saenz said scoring a couple of goals early helped build confidence for herself and her team.

“It makes me feel confident in my team that we can pick each other up and encourage each other to keep going,” she said.

Saenz said she’s hoping running around with a mask on this spring will boost her conditioning in the fall. She added she doesn’t really know what goals she has for the rest of the season other than scoring as much as possible.

Royal head coach Jens Jensen said his team picking up the 3-2 win at Chelan last Tuesday really helped show the players they can compete and score goals. Jensen said the focus this season has been on trying to keep the defense organized and hoping for a little magic from his forwards.

“Really, a lot has been put on the shoulders of our eighth-grader, Meadow, but the thing is, it’s a good position for her to be in,” Jensen said. “We allow her the freedom to go and do stuff. She’s not the biggest girl in the world; she gets fouled a lot and that’s good too.”

Scoring 30 seconds into the match is a dream start for any team, Jensen said. He said this season is just “weird” with the masks, different competition and no postseason. Two seniors, Louie and Raylie Wardenaar, back for this match made a huge difference after missing the first bout.

Jensen said this spring will hopefully give his younger players the chance to get some experience so that some of the responsibility given to his seniors can be on their shoulders in the fall. He said he’s glad the players got something of a season this spring, even if it may not be the ideal one.

Royal returns home to face off against Liberty Bell on Saturday at 1 p.m. Warden will play its third home match in a row as they host Brewster on Saturday at the same time.

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.