Knights finish season with perfect 10-0 records

ROYAL CITY — The Royal City Knights racked up 613 total yards offense and easily brushed the Goldendale Timberwolves aside 56-13 to wrap up another unbeaten regular season Thursday night at David Nielsen Memorial Field. The Knights now look forward to Nov. 12 and hosting their first playoff game of the season and ultimately defending last year's state championship.

The Knights' senior running back Jeff Jack kept the ball moving all night with 164 yards rushing on 21 carries and three touchdowns. Jack entered the game averaging 9.3 yards per carry for the season, totaling 1,153 yards and 21 TDs.

The Knights ran early and often against the Timberwolves using short passes from quarterback Ray Valle, who played with a sprained ankle he sustained during last week's game.

"Like most teams we're a little dinged up this time of year," Knights' head coach Wiley Allred said before the game.

Both Jack and running back Daniel Garza traded long runs and rushed for scores before the end of the first quarter to put the Knights ahead 14-0.

Following Garza's TD run with 30 seconds to go in the first quarter, the Timberwolves' Daniel Sanchez did some running of his own with an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

Sanchez was the lone bright spot for the Timberwolves, with head coach Doyle Payne and quarterback Shane Bare trying desperately to get him the ball all night. Sanchez, however, ended up with only five runs for 41 yards and five receptions for 70 yards. He also scored the Timberwolves only other TD of the game on a 33-yard reception later in the game.

"We couldn't block and hold the line for enough time," Sanchez said after the game. "We had them beat deep a couple of times out there when their varsity was still in the game, but again, our line could not hold up and the defense would break through."

Following Sanchez's spectacular kickoff return, the extra point was blocked and the rest of the game went downhill for the Timberwolves who appeared to have a chance of staying close at 14-6 with only seconds left in the first quarter.

A short slant pass later, to start the second quarter, Valle hit wide receiver Kyle Scroggins and extinguished any momentum the Timberwolves had as Scroggins took the pass and raced untouched to the endzone for a 76 yard game-breaking touchdown that put the Knights firmly in command at 21-6.

The Knights ultimately would not need another score to safely defeat the Timberwolves who moved to 3-7 overall on the season after Thursday's drubbing.

Unfortunately for the young Timberwolves team, the Knights would score three more touchdowns before the end of the first half.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves struggled all night on offense and had only four first downs the entire game and a paltry 149 total yards of offense. Most notably, the Timberwolves had a dismal 43 yards rushing as a team on 20 carries.

"We could have probably eliminated a few mistakes, young mistakes, that we can't afford to make," head coach Payne said after the game. "We only have five seniors on our team this year."

On the first drive of the second half, the Knights marched down the field and Jack scored one of his three touchdowns on a 1-yard plunge to move the score to 49-6. The Knights chewed up most of the game clock on the scoring drive, winding it down to 5:06.

The Timberwolves threatened to score on the following possession as they moved the ball to the Knights' 12 yard line before getting shut down by an aggressive defense and turning the ball over on downs.

The Knights started the fourth quarter with back-up players and eventually ended the game playing freshmen. The back-up players scored on the Timberwolves when sophomore running back Hector Ledezma capped a solid drive for the Knights with a 5-yard touchdown run.

The Knights' freshmen backups had similar success moving the ball before stopping a couple yards short of another touchdown to run out the clock and avoid adding to what was already a wide margin of victory.