Royal Knights wallop Cascade Kodiaks, 70-14
ROYAL CITY - Royal came back from a surprising early 7-0 deficit Friday to smash Cascade, 70-14, in the first round of the state 1A prep football playoffs and remain unbeaten.
The season will continue Saturday at 1 p.m. at Moses Lake against Cle Elum. The Knights, 11-0, will be favored against the 10-1 Warriors.
Cle Elum is a puzzle. The Warriors started the season ranked No. 2 in the state, but finished second in the South Central A Conference West, losing to Zillah. The Leopards were a 44-7 victim of Royal.
Last Friday, the Warriors looked like world beaters, stopping previously unbeaten Cashmere, 48-6. They dominated offensively with 407 yards and six rushing touchdowns and defensively with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Royal coach Wiley Allred expects last Friday's Warriors to show up at Moses Lake. Before the season, he said CE would be a state title contender.
"We're going to play a team that's just as hungry as we are," he said.
The Warriors are led by running back Jake Gall, who rushed for more than 1,900 yards during the regular season. Friday he scored three touchdowns, including a 54-yard score on the first play. His 63-yard interception return gave the Warriors a 34-0 lead at halftime.
Meanwhile, Royal stubbed its toe for the first time this year - twice. It gave up touchdowns on the opening kickoff and another kickoff in the second period to Kodiak speedster Fabian Alvarez.
The bad news for Cascade was that Allred was forced to keep his starters in the game past halftime. He didn't take them out until fullback Damien De La Rosa's two-yard run made the score 63-14 in the third quarter.
Other than the kickoff coverage problems, it was a typical game for Royal. It stuffed the opposition on defense and steamrolled it on offense. The defensive front of ends Reed Lefler and Emilio Bustos and tackles Cristian Fernandez and Kent Christensen was nearly impenetrable.
"Kent Christensen had a monster night on defense," Allred said.
Indeed. Christensen had six tackles, including three sacks of the Kodiak quarterback.
Leading the defense again, with eight tackles, was linebacker Marcos Morales. Alex Myrick had three of the first four tackles, and Brady Dixon had five tackles, including one for loss.
Laddie Goroski had an interception, De La Rosa pounced on a Kodiak fumble in the Cascade end zone, Bustos grabbed a fumble out of the air, and Christian Guerrero caused and recovered a fumble.
The offense totaled 612 yards, rushing for 421. The Knights had 27 first downs to eight for Cascade.
De La Rosa rolled to 187 yards and three touchdowns in 14 carries. Myrick ran 12 times for 136 yards and a touchdown. He completed nine of 12 passes for 191 yards and three scores, with all scoring passes going to Guerrero.
After Cascade went up 7-0, Royal answered with an 18-yard scoring run by Goroski.
De La Rosa made the score 14-7 at the end of one quarter with an 11-yard blast.
The score mounted to 35-7 in the second frame as Myrick scored from 51 yards, De La Rosa recovered the scoring fumble and Guerrero corralled a 32-yard pass from Myrick.
Alvarez executed his second scoring kickoff return from 96 yards to make it 35-14. Myrick answered with a 47-yard pass to Guerrero, and the score was 42-14 at the half.
The second half was all Royal. The Knights added a 15-yard pass from Myrick to Guerrero, a 20-yard run by De La Rosa, the 2-yarder by De La Rosa and a final score by Manny Quintero.
Additional rushers for Royal were Miguel Ayala, 8-79, Guerrero, 1-43, Quintero, 7-27, Carter Allred, 1-5, and Sam Christensen, 1-4.
Catching passes were Guerrero, 4-121, Brady Dixon, 2-17, Goroski, 1-36, and Kent Christensen, 2-17.