Top-Tier Clash: Cashmere Faces Royal in Early Season SCAC Showdown

The Cashmere High School Girls’ Soccer team has an early-season test on Thursday, September 11th, when they travel to Dave Nielson Memorial Stadium (Royal’s Home Stadium) to battle SCAC rival the Royal Knights.

The Knights are coming off a 15-7 2024 campaign that ended in the 1A state tournament against the eventual state champions, Cedar Park Christian, in a 7-0 loss. Despite the graduation of 1st Team All-League forward Audrey Bergeson, the Knights are expected to be right back in the hunt for an SCAC championship. They return 4 all leaguers, including Junior Maggie Frank. Frank was a 1st Team All-League midfielder in 2024 as a sophomore and 2nd Team All-League as a freshman in 2023. She will look to lead the Knights back to the 1A state tournament.

As for the Cashmere Bulldogs, they are coming off a 19-5 2024 season and a 4th place finish in the 1A state tournament. 2024 1st Team All-League forward Ginny Pruitt was the big loss for Cashmere. She tallied 43 goals and 56 assists during her senior season, which set the Cashmere High School record for both most goals scored and assists in a single season. She was also named to the WSSCA First Team All-State in both her junior and senior seasons.

Despite the major loss of Pruitt, the Bulldogs return 5 All-Leaguers, including Senior Alyssa Soria and Juniors Gwen Ledesma, Addie Talley, Brynne Patrick, and Sydney McIver.

Gwen Ledesma, Alyssa Soria, and Brynne Patrick were all named to All-State Honors in 2024.

The Bulldogs also bring back Sophomore Makelah Gatens, who scored 10 goals and had 4 assists in her freshman season. Gatens had the lone goal in the season opener vs. Lynden Christian. She had some words about the upcoming rivalry match against the Royal Knights.

“We know Royal is going to bring strength to the field, but we’re ready to bring the same energy. We’ve been working hard all summer, and we’re excited to put forward a good game”, Gatens said.

Senior Captain Alyssa Soria was asked what they learned from their opening game and how they can translate that to Royal this Thursday. 

“I think communication is the biggest thing for this upcoming game. Our communication was off against Lynden Christian,” Soria said.

Soria was a 2nd-Team All-State Defender in 2024, so she’ll look to help the team bounce back this Thursday.

With experienced talent on both sides, Thursday night’s matchup promises to be a good one. For the Bulldogs, it’s a chance to prove they are still one of the top teams in the 1A classification.

Kickoff is at 6 pm at Dave Nielson Memorial Stadium.