Royal Knights win over rivals

ROYAL CITY - The Royal Knights' offense came alive with a 34-point second quarter to put last Friday's prep football game out of reach of the visiting Wahluke Warriors in a 47-0 triumph.

Under new head coach Mike Foristiere, the Warriors took the field with a renewed focus and a new offensive scheme. They play a physical brand of football that has proven a challenge to their opponents.

The Warriors had seized early momentum in each of their past two contests before relenting. Their goals would be no different against the Knights.

"Offensively, what we do is try to control the ball and be physical," Foristiere said. "Our defensive keys are not to give up the big play and keep the ball in front of us."

Considering those objectives, Foristiere probably couldn't have scripted the first quarter much better. The Warriors took their opening possession from their own 15-yard line to the Royal 37 with a hard-nosed rushing attack, led primarily by Jason Cruz and Randy Foristiere, before yielding the ball to Royal.

The Warriors then held Royal to a 3-and-out series and were, at the very least, winning the field position battle when they took offensive possession at mid-field.

"The first quarter was the best we played all year in the aspect of being physical and sticking to our game plan," Foristiere said.

When Royal faced fourth down and 11 on its next possession early in the second quarter, it appeared the Wahluke defense would again give possession back to its offense.

Then the dam broke.

Inside Wahluke territory, Royal coach Wiley Allred opted to go for it on fourth down despite needing to cover 11 yards to maintain possession.

Royal quarterback Kaden Jenks scanned to his left and threw a dart to leading receiver Jose Ponce for a 21-yard gain that took the ball to the Wahluke 25.

On the very next play, Joe Lang lined up as the lone receiver wide to the right of the formation. He immediately realized that no defender had followed him out to his little island and signaled to Jenks to make sure that he recognized the situation.

As the ball was snapped, the Wahluke safety noticed Lang and reacted as Lang raced to the right corner of the end zone. Jenks delivered the pass with perfect touch over the safety and into Lang's waiting arms for the first points of the game with 11:31 remaining in the second quarter.

"The play was designed to come to me anyway, but when I realized I was uncovered I made sure that Kaden knew it too," Lang said.

When the waters receded, Jenks had thrown five touchdown passes....all in the second quarter.

The Knight defense held the Warrior offense without a first down on each of their four offensive possessions in the second quarter, which gave the Knight offense a plethora of opportunities. The Knights took advantage of every one.

The next three touchdown passes were thrown to Ponce for 14 yards, 56 yards, and six yards respectively. Ponce finished with four catches for 99 yards. His only non-touchdown catch was the fourth down conversion that started it all.

The final scoring drive of the second quarter could be termed the Miguel Ayala drive.

With 1:55 remaining, Ayala started the drive with a 43-yard run up the middle to the Wahluke 9. After he picked up four yards and two yards on the next two snaps, he snuck out of the backfield in the right flat for a 3-yard touchdown reception.

Ayala finished with 119 yards rushing on nine carries, including a 32-yard touchdown run in which he steamrolled a Warrior defender at the 7.

Jenks's historic performance netted 11 completions on 17 attempts for 231 yards and five touchdowns and no interceptions.

Another bright spot for the Knights was the emergence of Teddy Mead as a pass-catching tight end. He finished with two catches for 40 yards.

After picking up 43 yards of offense on their first drive, the Warriors were held to just 39 yards for the rest of the night. Jason Cruz picked up 32 yards on four carries and Randy Foristiere gained 49 yards on 25 touches to lead the Warriors.

"The best thing we can take away from this game is that we played one great quarter but, like all season, we need to put together four good quarters," Coach Foristiere said.

The Warriors will have that opportunity this Friday when they travel to Chelan to face the Goats. Chelan started the season 0-3 but picked up wins in its last two contests.

The Knights will also be on the road as they head to Finley to battle the River View Panthers. The Panthers dropped their most recent game to the Connell Eagles.

So a win for the Knights would put them in the driver's seat for the SCAC East crown. It would also avenge a 48-13 loss last season.