Royal Knights stun No. 1 Zillah, 17-7

ROYAL CITY - With a history of rarely being a football underdog, unranked Royal High School stunned the top-ranked Zillah Leopards on the road last Friday and pulled off the biggest upset in program history.

The Knights relied on stellar defensive play and an opportunistic offense to down the Leopards, 17-7, and extend their season into the state playoffs. Zillah, which smashed all nine of its regular season opponents, including Royal, will be staying home.

"As coaches, we really didn't have to say much before the game," coach Wiley Allred said. "The pregame locker room was almost dead silent, and our guys were focused on the challenge."

The Knights will start the state playoffs this Saturday. They will host Riverside (8-2) at 1 p.m.

Royal's quiet determination quickly translated into productivity. The Knights took advantage of two first quarter Leopard turnovers to take an early 10-0 lead.

Zillah (9-1) took the opening kickoff and moved the ball to near mid-field. Then the Leopards threw a pass to the left flat that Royal defender Luis Garcia read perfectly.

Garcia stepped in front for the interception and returned it 50 yards to the Zillah 10-yard line. That led to Cesar Bernal's 23-yard field goal.

Later in the quarter, Emilio Bustos pounced on a Zillah fumble to give Royal possession on the Zillah 25-yard line. On the very next play, quarterback Kaden Jenks connected with Garcia for a 22-yard completion that took the ball to the 3.

Two plays later, running back Gerard Weyns and the offensive line pounded the ball into the end zone to extend the Knights' lead to 10-0.

The next nine minutes were dominated by defensive intensity. Then Zillah cut into the Royal lead on a one-play, 56-yard drive with 5:41 left in the first half.

Some football programs have an offensive series in their history referred to as "The Drive". The Knights had theirs in the first half Friday while they still maintained the lead.

After the Zillah score, Royal embarked on a 14-play drive that chewed up 5:40 of game time, covered 72 yards and produced a touchdown. It was the opposite of the closing minutes of the first half of the regular-season Royal-Zillah meeting.

In the early season matchup, the Knights unraveled in the closing minutes of the first half. Trailing 17-7, Royal pressed to score before halftime, but aggressive play calling backfired. Zillah scored twice to deflate Royal's hopes and jump to an insurmountable margin.

"This time around, with the lead, our goal was to make sure that we used up the clock before half and didn't put the ball in their hands," Allred said. "Scoring the touchdown was a nice bonus."

The drive began and ended with passes. In between, the determined running of Weyns, Miguel Ayala, and Darrin Miller pounded the Leopard defensive front and churned out four first downs.

That set up the Knights up with 3rd-and-goal from the 3-yard line with five seconds left on the clock. Jenks capped the drive by finding Garcia just across the right side of the goal line for a 17-7 lead to close the half.

"We had their defense guessing between run and pass, and their safety just wasn't able to react in time," Allred said.

The touchdown was the only sustained scoring drive by either squad and sent the two teams to the locker room with vastly different mindsets.

The key play off the possession came on 3rd-and-9 inside the red zone. Weyns carried the ball over the left side and appeared to be stopped for a short gain.

But Weyns absorbed a tackle attempt and regained his balance to pick up eight yards before being brought down just short of the first down marker. An offside penalty against Zillah on the next play aided the drive.

The second half was all about sustained defensive intensity for the Knights. They looked to shut down a Leopard offense that had average 59 points per game this season.

Royal used as much clock as possible when it had the ball. It limited Zillah to just two offensive possessions the entire second half, both unproductive.

Zillah's first possession of the second half lasted 18 plays and covered the 80 yards between the ten-yard lines. But a missed field goal turned the ball back over to Royal.

Rarely does a defensive game plan include the phrase "bend but don't break", but the Knights were certainly pleased that theirs turned out that way.

On the first play after a Royal punt gave Zillah the ball back, linebacker Darrin Miller made a sack and pushed the Leopards back inside their own 10-yard line. Fourteen plays later, the drive was thwarted by the Knights on the Royal 25-yard line.

The Knights then managed to salt away the rest of the game on their final possession. Ayala carried the ball on the final seven plays and picked up three critical first downs.

The Knights were aided by a 15-yard face mask penalty that was doubled by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Zillah sideline. Royal took a knee inside the Zillah red zone as the final horn sounded.

"The plan was to protect the ball and stay in bounds to use clock," Ayala said.

The three Royal running backs combined for 135 rushing yards. Jenks completed only six passes while managing the offense, but four of those completions went for either first downs or touchdowns.

The Knights did not commit any turnovers and allowed only one quarterback sack.