The Enumclaw High Hornets kicked off South Puget Sound League 3A play April 1 by battling the Bonney Lake Panthers to a 1-1 tie.

Playing on the road, the Hornets struck first. At the 29-minute mark, Nathan Bundy assisted on a Jordan Savage goal.

Five minutes into the second half, the Panthers answered and that was it for the scoring.

“We had some really good, quality chances,” EHS coach Skip Ashley said, noting that one shot slipped just wide of the goal and another sailed above the crossbar in the closing minutes.

The tie was Enumclaw’s first league game of the season.

The Hornets’ second league game comes Friday when they travel to Sunset Chev Stadium to face the Sumner Spartans. Game time is 7 p.m.

The EHS crew had one game earlier this week, taking on North Thurston Monday in nonleague action. Results came too late to be included here but are posted at www.courierherald.com.

The Hornets had the rare opportunity to participate in a shootout March 30 when they traveled south to challenge Capital High. Teams in the SPSL 3A do not use a shootout to determine games, but teams in the Western Cascade Conference, like Capital, do.

Enumclaw came out on the short end of the stick, falling 4-2 in the shootout after finishing regulation play in a 3-3 tie.

The Hornets have been plagued with early-game goals and that was the case at Capital. After nearly scoring in the game’s first 30 seconds, Enumclaw gave up a goal at the 2-minute mark.

The remainder of the first half went the Hornets’ way, as the team found the net three times in three minutes. The first came in the 16th minute when Edgar Zapeda outhustled the Capital defense, stealing an errant pass and beating the Cougar keeper. Next, a nice pass from Wes Caldwell set up a Kevin Flowers goal and, finally, Jordan Savage added a penalty kick to give EHS a 3-1 lead.

Capital came back with a goal just two minutes into the second half and tied the contest off a corner kick in the 75th minute.

Reach Kevin Hanson at khanson@courierherald.com or 360-802-8205.