Royal Knights are just too much for Charles Wright Academy

ROYAL CITY — Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong for visiting Charles Wright Academy at Nielsen Stadium last Friday night in the high winds and gusts of central Washington.

The result was a 69-0 steamrolling by Royal High in the first round of the Washington 1A state high school football playoffs. The score was 62-0 at the half.

This Friday, Royal will travel to Gonzaga Prep Stadium in Spokane for a 6 p.m. game against Colville. It’s expected to be the toughest game since the Connell clash on week No. 3 of the regular season.

Colville shut out Eatonville, 29-0, last Saturday.

Charles Wright’s troubles started before the game began. Somehow the coin toss worked out so that Royal got the ball first, and with the wind at its back.

Taking advantage of CWA’s short kickoff, Royal launched its offense from the Royal 39-yard line. It took three plays and 1:24 to score.

Reserve running back Steven Toro ignited the offense with a dash around left end for nine yards. Starter Joe Lang took the ball through the middle for 34 yards to the CWA 18. Then he bulled into the end zone for the score.

CWA started its first possession at its own 20. After a short run and two failed passes, CWA punted out of bounds at the Royal 40. A penalty set the Knights back to their 30, but a pass got a first down at the 50.

From the CWA 41, Lang dazzled the audience with a swivel-hipped run through several defenders along the CWA sideline to score. Jose Ponce made it 14-0 with his kick at the 7:19 mark.

Starting at the 20 again, CWA got a first down on a pass interference penalty. In three plays the Harriers got to the 40 but had to punt. There was a poor snap and Royal got the ball at the CWA 19.

Kaden Jenks zipped the ball to the right side of the end zone to Sam Christensen for a 20-0 lead with still 5:03 left in the half. Ponce missed the kick.

CWA couldn’t move the ball from its 19 and punted out of bounds at the CWA 39. Christensen caught a 28-yard pass from Jenks to score. It was 27-0 with 1:47 left.

The Royal defense forced CWA to punt again from its 36. Danny Cuevas blocked the kick, and Royal got the ball at the 8. Lang bulled in from the 4 to make it 34-0.

The offense scored the points, but the defense set them all up. CWA had minus-12 yards of total offense in the first quarter, and its longest gain was a 15-yard pass interference penalty that netted its lone first down.

“Our defensive line guys (Sawyer Stakkeland, Juan Hernandez, Adrian Trinidad, Derek Alatorre) did a great job.” Allred said.

With the wind at its back for the first time, CWA tried to convert 4th-and-4 at the CWA 27 at the start of the second period. The pass fell incomplete and, on the next play, Christensen made it 41-0 on a pass from Jenks.

If any chance CWA had to get back into the game did not end there, with only 18 seconds gone in the second period, it ended on the next exchange of possessions.

From the Royal 19, Royal worked its way to the 35. After two incomplete passes, Royal was hit with a personal foul that put the ball back at the 20. With fourth and 25, Christensen faked a punt and ran up the middle to a first down at the CWA 25. The CWA sideline was stunned.

“The fake punt was all Sam’s call. Not mine,” Coach Wiley Allred said. “He and some good blocking made it happen.”

On the next play, Danny Cuevas ran nearly the width of the field, from right to left, got around the defense, ran down the sideline and scored.

The onslaught continued with a dash by Jenks from the CWA 33 to make it 55-0 with 5:10 left in the half. With 2:39 left, Jenks found Lang on the left sideline for a 25-yard score.

The second half saw Royal’s reserves and JV players hold their own against the Harriers. They won it, 7-0, on a 17-yard run by Alonso Hernandez in the fourth quarter.

The CWA offense totaled 107 yards for the game but only three in the first half against Royal’s first team. It finished with minus-18 rushing and 125 passing.

Royal rushed for 383 yards and passed for 130. The Knights converted four of seven third downs and two of three fourth downs.

Because of the rushing game, Jenks passed only occasionally. He completed seven of 12 passes with no interceptions for four touchdowns.

CWA’s vaunted senior passer Henry Cheney was held to 10 completions in 31 attempts for 119 yards with two interceptions. The Royal defense, balanced across the field, held Desmond Jackson to minus-4 yards on 12 carries.

Ten Royal runners carried the ball, led by Lang with 101 yards and three touchdowns on seven carries. Sam Christensen went 3-77, Jenks 3-54 and a touchdown, Cuevas 5-37 and one touchdown, Alonso Hernandez 5-34 and a touchdown, Toro 3-30, Juan Niebla, 2-23, Y. Cruz 4-20, Adrian Trinidad 1-5 and Carlos Quintero 1-2.

Sam Christensen led the receivers with four passes for 67 yards and two touchdowns. Lang caught two passes for 36 yards and a touchdown, and Sawyer Stakkeland caught one pass for 27 yards and a touchdown.

The defense was magnificent with no one in particular standing out. Steven Toro led with three tackles, and Carson Gilbert had two tackles and two assists. Andy Villafana and Ramses Gonzalez had two tackles and one assist each, and Lang and A. Hernandez had two tackles each.

Derek Alatorre, Addin Felker, Alexis Ramos, Corbin Christensen, Ponce, Sawyer Stakkeland, Trinidad and Randy Dunn all had one tackle. Recording one assist each were Alatorre, Stakkeland, Trinidad, Valente Cortez, Victor Villanueva, Cuevas and Christensen.

Gilbert and Dunn intercepted passes, and Dunn and Cuevas recovered CWA fumbles. Royal suffered no turnovers.