The Juanita Bumblebees recently won the Girls U11 championship in the Puyallup Valley Kickoff Tournament over Labor Day weekend.

The Bees outscored opponents 22-1, winning all four games they played and taking the championship game with a 2-0 shutout victory over the Puyallup Wildcats. The Bees are a local team of fifth grade girls who play in the Lake Washington Soccer Association.

After opening the tourney with 11-0 and 8-1 victories over the RSA Stingers and Fusion Soccer clubs, the Bees won their final pool game 1-0 when River Mahler drove home a deep throw-in from Mackenzie Burke.

In the championship match, Natalie Rinker struck first, finding the back of the net with a laser from the left side. Mahler completed the scoring by converting a free kick from beyond the goal box late in the first half.

Keepers Natalie Ferrara, Natalie Rinker and Lexi Durbin did an outstanding job in goal the entire weekend, stopping almost everything that came their way.

In a fantastic team effort on offense, 10 different Bees scored in the tournament, lead by Rinker (5), Emily Nikolai (4), Burke (3) and Mahler (3).