Royal ready to make run for title

ROYAL CITY — There is still a season, Royal City football fans, and you have a team that could go all of the way to the state championship. The Knights are ready for the challenge.

Royal High School, the No. l-ranked class A team in the state, will host Goldendale at 7 p.m. Friday. Not a lot is known about Goldendale except that it lost to Zillah and LaSalle to finish third in the South Central A Conference West.

If Royal wins that contest, it will be designated the No. 2 team from District 5 in the state playoffs. They will start at home against the No. 3 team from District three (Tacoma area).

Then, if the Knights win their opener, the tournament will get really tough. The next likely opponent would be Colville or somewhere in that area. Then the semifinal would likely be Connell or Zillah or Wahluke.

What Goldendale is going to learn in Friday’s game is that Royal may just be the best class A high school team ever assembled. The Knights have running, passing, receiving and defense.

They have outscored their opponents an average of 55-5 points per game. Forty-eight points would be a point a minute.

The dominance is not just in scoring. The Knights have outgained the opposition 3,788-663 in total offense and 1,879-318 in rushing. They pass for 209 yards a game and give up 35.

At 65.75 percent, 6-2, 200 junior quarterback Kaden Jenks has a completion rate that pro and college throwers hope for. He has connected on 96 of 146 passes for 1,832 yards.

The scariest note on the pass offense for opposing teams is that 14 receivers have caught passes and nine have scored. Whom and how do you cover?

Jose Ponce leads the receivers with 21 catches for 486 yards and nine touchdowns, Sam Christensen has gathered 20 passes for 364 yards and eight touchdowns, and Corbin Christensen has 16 catches for 323 yards and three touchdowns.

The fifth leading receiver is running back Joe Lang with 19 catches for 321 yards and five scores. Sawyer Stakkeland has scored two receiving touchdowns, and Danny Cuevas, Isaac Ellis, Carson Gilbert and Randy Dunn have scored once receiving.

The rushing is not as spread out. Lang, a long jumper, triple jumper and high hurdler in track, leads with 806 yards on 89 carries for a 9.06 average per play.

The back-up is Danny Cuevas, a little scatback who surprises defenders with his power and speed. He averages 7.6 yards per play on 363 yards on 50 carries.

Thirteen Knights have carried the ball. Five average more than 10 yards a carry, and three move average more than six yards.

Lang leads in touchdowns with 16. Sam Christensen has scored 10, Cuevas has scored nine, and Jenks has scored six.

Lang is the leading scorer with 96 points. Second is the diminutive Ponce. He has added 45 PAT kicks and one field goal to his nine touchdowns to total 84 points.

The Royal defense scored six times, pitched four shutouts and allowed double digit scoring only once. It is led by linebackers Valente Cortez and Andy Villafana and defensive backs Carson Gilbert and Sam Christensen.

They have 194 of the total 515 tackles and 130 of the total 311 assists. Cortez had 58 tackles and 35 assists, Carson went 49 and 37, Christensen did 48-33, and Villafana registered 39-25.

Juan Garcia, Sawyer Stakkeland, Jenks, Lang, Trinidad had more than 20 tackles each. Seven more players were in double digits.

The team was credited with 50 additional tackles. The team also had 47 tackles for loss, including 12 quarterback sacks.

Lang made three interceptions, Lang and Victor Villanueva had two each, and Cuevas and Ponce had one each. Gilbert and Trinidad recovered three fumbles each, Juan Hernandez and Jenks snapped up two each, and Sam Christensen and Juan Garcia had one each.