History repeats itself - Connell stuns Royal

ROYAL CITY - It was a game entirely worthy of the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the 1A state football rankings.

It was also an ending the Royal Knights have seen before.

Connell kicker Raul Farias broke the Knights' hearts for the second straight year, knocking through a 32-yard field goal with four seconds left Friday night as the Eagles escaped David Nielsen Field with a 23-20 victory over their South Central Athletic Conference archrivals.

Last season, Farias hit from the same distance with three seconds remaining, giving Connell a 31-29 victory.

"How many times can you dream that, you know what I'm saying?" jubilant Connell head coach Wayne Riner said as students and players celebrated on the field afterward. "We just held in there, and we're blessed with a kicker."

The Eagles' victory snapped Royal's 34-game home winning streak, but more importantly, gave Connell a huge leg up in the race for the SCAC title and a No. 1 seed to the state playoffs.

In front of a packed stadium that grew louder as the game progressed, the Knights and Eagles put on a spectacular show. Trailing 17-13 with eight minutes left, Royal got a long punt return from Blair Collins and set up shop deep in Connell's end. Two plays later, quarterback Austin Allred found tight end Jake Christensen all alone in the middle of the field, and Christensen's 25-yard catch-and-run put Royal ahead 20-17.

Connell quarterback Brett Clyde wasn't about to give up. Facing third-and-4 on the ensuing drive, he dropped back to pass and was quickly surrounded. But with moves that would've made pro football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton jealous, Clyde escaped and zipped 49 yards to the Royal 20. Four plays later, Farias hit a 37-yard field goal to tie the score with 4:51 left.

Clyde finished the night 11 of 22 passing for 134 yards and carried 10 times for 75 yards. Riner said Clyde's performance was something the Eagles hadn't needed from him - until Friday.

"Brett hasn't done that all year for us and he really stepped up in the big game when we needed him to," Riner said. "He made some big throws for us, he made some huge runs."

"They can make you look silly sometimes, especially Brett running around back there," Royal head coach Wiley Allred said. "Credit Connell - they made the plays when they had to."

In hindsight, Allred wished he'd made some different decisions too. The Knights had a chance to win in regulation, but the Eagles' defense stiffened and forced a fourth-and-8 from their own 42. The Knights elected not to punt, and Austin Allred's throw for Zach Lewis fell incomplete.

Connell took over, and Clyde made another tremendous play on third-and-10, scrambling out of a sack and finding a diving Spencer Hadley for a 24-yard reception to the Royal 24. Farias hit the game-winner three plays later.

"We didn't play very smart," Wiley Allred said. "We played pretty well up front, just didn't get the job done, didn't finish it."

Royal did a good job of bottling up Hadley, Connell's star receiver/running back who's bound for Brigham Young next fall. Hadley rushed 10 times for 25 yards and caught three passes for 38 yards and a touchdown, but didn't run rampant over the Knights as he's done to others.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Knights got the game's first big break when Jake Christensen blocked a Farias punt and gave Royal possession at the Connell 29. Six plays later, Austin Allred kept the ball on an option right and scored from 12 yards out.

Royal's punt team faltered later on in the half as Connell fell on a high snap at the Knights' 4. On second-and-goal, Clyde bootlegged to the left and floated the ball to Hadley in the back of the end zone.

The Knights answered with a solid drive, mixing runs from Allred and Hector Ledezma, who had the vast majority of his 100 yards in the first half. Allred capped the 75-yard march with a 14-yard pass to Colt Brown in the back corner.

"The thing that happened for us was we shut down the run game," Riner said. "We shut down Ledezma, we started tackling a lot better."

Connell got within 13-10 early in the third period, using Hadley's long punt return to set up a 23-yard Farias boot. The Eagles took the lead later in the quarter as Clyde hit Randy Anderson on a 38-yard flea flicker, then barreled through the middle on the next play for a 4-yard score.

Riner was gracious in his postgame comments and hinted at the possibility of a rematch in the state playoffs.

"I still think they're a better team than us," Riner said, eluding to the multiple Knights who left the field with injuries. "Those guys right there would beat a lot of 4A schools."

Wiley Allred said his player's spirits were up despite the tough loss, and made no bones about one of the Knights' remaining goals.

"We're focused on a rematch," he said. "We need to get better and get in better shape. We had to replace a lot of guys.

"I think the guys' heads are high leaving the field because they know that they're a very good football team," Allred added. "I thought our game plan worked well. I thought we could've had another score or two, but we didn't get it done."

"It was predicted to be the best game in the state," Riner said, "and it was the best game in the state."