ROYAL CITY — The Knights opened the South Central Athletic Conference district tournament with a win over La Salle on Thursday, defeating the Lightning 5-1 on their home turf.

Royal’s offense got moving early and often in the match, going up 5-0 before surrendering a goal to La Salle.

“La Salle, from what they were they’re definitely down, but they’ve still got a couple girls that are studs that we had to stop,” Royal coach Jens Jensen said. “We knew the game plan and the girls, for the most part, stuck to it. They score one goal because we let down the game plan, just for a brief moment at 5-0.”

The game began with strong attacks from the Knights, using the speed of junior forward Audrey Bergeson to get past the Lightning defense and get shots off on the net. Royal senior Sonia Ledezma scored the first goal of the night, putting the Knights up 1-0 after her shot ricocheted off the hand of the La Salle goalkeeper and into the back of the net in the 20th minute.

Bergeson put Royal up 2-0 five minutes later, picking up on a ball deflected by a Lightning defender and shot over the top of the keeper.

Royal’s third and final goal of the first half came in stoppage time, where senior Brittany Ramos passed the ball to sophomore Taylor Webb who scored on a header.

“The third goal was huge,” Jensen said. “Getting that right before halftime was such a big deal, and really set us up for us to be able to look at the second half differently.”

10 minutes into the second half Bergeson scored again, placing a shot just past La Salle’s keeper to go up 4-0. The junior recorded a hat trick in the 51st minute, scoring on a header of her own on a corner kick taken by Ledezma.

“Coach always says that the majority of the goals happen at the beginning and right after halftime, so that’s really important times in the game to get the momentum going, have some energy,” Bergeson said. “I thought we did that really good today.”

Jensen said scoring on two headers shows the team’s will to win.

“You’ve got to want to win, and that’s what they’re doing,” Jensen said. “They knew the game plan, they were just going to go ahead and stick their nose in there. That made all the difference.”

Royal’s defense held La Salle in check, limiting shots and scoring opportunities; the Lightning’s first shot on goal came midway through the first half.

“We all just stay in line and communicate, just making sure we all stay together and not get in each other’s way,” sophomore defender Sharon Arroyo said. “It’s something that we have as a team that we’ve been working through.”

The Knights held on to win 5-1, their seventh win at home this season.

“We’re undefeated at home, and because of that we feel pretty confident here,” Jensen said.

The win advanced Royal to the second round on the road against No. 1 seed Naches Valley on Saturday, falling 1-0 to the Rangers. Royal returns to the field Tuesday at home against No. 3 seed Connell.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time, hoping to get our next win and setting the same tone we did (Thursday night),” Arroyo said. “Just progressing and hopefully getting far.”

To advance to state the Knights will have to win three more games; Jensen said he believes the SCAC district tournament has too many games in a short period of time. 

“It’s too many games too quick, we need a break,” Jensen said. “But that’s what it is, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box score

La Salle: 0-1 1

Royal: 3-2 5

    Royal sophomore Sharon Arroyo, right, moves toward a La Salle forward.
  

    Royal sophomore Taylor Webb (9) starts to pass to a teammate in the first half.
  

    Royal freshman Maggie Frank (14) runs upfield with the ball against La Salle.