Royal Knights ruin Cascade's senior night

PESHASTIN - The Royal High Knights transformed the Cascade Kodiaks' senior night into a "fright night" in a Halloween tilt between two league champions with an overwhelming 42-13 victory.

For recent Kodiak opponents, stopping senior running back Dennis Merritt has been like trying to tackle the invisible man.

In each of the past five Cascade contests Merritt has gained more than 200 yards rushing and averaged more than four touchdowns per outing.

Over the streak, each rushing total surpassed the previous and was capped off the week before by his best performance of the season. Merritt ran wild for 285 yards and five touchdowns to secure the Caribou Trail League championship over the Cashmere Bulldogs.

Royal came in with a few streaks of its own, winning four straight and having 100-yard-plus rushers in each of its past six. In this matchup between league champions, some streaks would be broken.

After Merritt's first offensive touch it appeared he was off to another great start. He took a sweep handoff, beat the defense to the edge, and burst up the sideline for a 21-yard gain before being knocked out of bounds by Royal safety Carson Gilbert.

"We were waiting to see how they would block their buck sweep," defensive coordinator Jeremy Scroggins said. "We weren't sure if they would try to down block our outside linebacker on the play side or try to kick him out. After Merritt's first run, we adjusted our formation and attack angles."

It was as if the Royal coaching staff had reached out and stripped Merritt of his invisibility cloak. From that point forward, the Royal defense held Merritt to 14 total yards on 10 carries. He finished with a season-low 35 yards.

Offensively, the Knights racked up 430 yards, and it all started at the line of scrimmage. The offensive line mauled the Kodiak defensive front on play after play and never let up.

Speaking of his offensive line, head coach Wiley Allred said, "They played great, we dominated the line of scrimmage."

After some early season shuffling, the Knight offensive front has looked the same for the past few games and is rounding into shape just in time for a deep run into the playoffs. It is led by senior tackles Payten Stakkeland and Teddy Mead.

Hunter Follett has settled in at center. Tony Mercado and Salvador Cavazos anchor the middle as guards. Gerard Weyns and Sawyer Stakkeland control the edges as tight ends.

Behind their curtain of protection, Kaden Jenks completed 9 of 15 pass attempts for 138 yards and three touchdowns. Jenks effectively spread his nine completions to six different receivers.

Each of his touchdown passes was to a different weapon. Jose Ponce caught the first from 12 yards out mid-way through the first quarter to give the Knights an early 7-0 lead.

Early in the third quarter, with the Knights facing 3rd-and-22 from their own 38-yard line, Jenks floated a simple screen pass to receiver Joe Lang along the left edge. Lang worked inside to allow his fellow receivers Jose Ponce and Sam Christensen to set up their blocks.

Meanwhile, linemen Payten Stakkeland and Tony Mercado raced ahead of the play to set the edge for Lang as he worked back to the outside and lengthened his stride to outpace the Kodiaks to the goal line and extend the Royal lead to 28-7.

Lang finished with two catches for 79 yards. Ponce caught two for 23 yards. The final passing touchdown signaled the official return of junior receiver Sam Christensen.

Christensen was injured on the last play of the season-opener and underwent elbow surgery shortly after. His determination to make it back by season's end paid off with an 11-yard touchdown catch in the back left corner of the end zone.

Not to be outdone, the Knight's ground attack also sought to benefit from the dominance of the offensive line. Not only did they keep the 100-yard rusher streak alive, both Miguel Ayala and Darrin Miller eclipsed the century mark.

In fact, they both finished with exactly 111 yards, Ayala in 12 carries and Miller in 13. Each also added another rushing touchdown to their already impressive season totals.

Each runs with a distinctively different style. Miller reads his blocks and uses jump cuts and change of direction to wind his way through a defense.

Miller's best run was a 36-yard counter with three changes of direction in the blink of an eye that left the Kodiaks with no defenders between him and the end zone.

Ayala would rather run you over or stiff-arm you to the ground than bother to divert from his direct route. That style was on full display on the Knights' first scoring drive when he broke through the line, ran over the first potential tackler, stepped through another, then ran into open field before finally being dragged down by three Kodiak defenders 61 yards later.

Weyns, Mead, and Ayala led the Knights defensively. Weyns recorded four tackles-for-loss from his middle linebacker position.

The Royal secondary held Cascade to just one completion on five attempts. Miller and Mercado combined for a quarterback sack late in the first quarter.

Royal will play at home this Friday against the SCAC-West No. 4 seed, which is yet to be determined due to a three-way tie between Granger, Cle Elum, and Naches Valley for the final two berths.

Regardless of the opponent, the winner will move on to the first round of the state playoffs and the loser is done for the season.