Connell on a roll since early loss to Royal

CONNELL — Since the third week 27-20 loss to Royal, the Connell High School football team has been on a collision course with the Knights.

That battle will be played this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Lions’ Field in Moses Lake. The winner will get one of the two tickets to the state title game in the Tacoma Dome a week later.

On the other side of the state, Montesano will be playing King’s of Seattle in the other state semifinal. Montesano blitzed Mt. Baker, 51-21, and King’s thumped Hoquiam, 42-21, last Saturday.

Statistically, Royal handled Connell in that first meeting, but the Eagles stuck to the Knights like nails and forced them to score the winning touchdown at the end of the game.

A meaningful Royal-Connell clash is not unusual. The two schools pretty much own eastern Washington class 1A football. Officially, Connell finished No. 2 this year, but you wouldn’t be wrong to refer to the Eagles as No. 1A compared to Royal’s No 1.

The Eagles had to defeat No. 4 Zillah twice, 31-28 and 14-13 to get to this point. They intercepted a Zillah pass near the end zone to sew up the playoff contest.

Connell started the season as hot as Royal, downing Othello, 37-7, and Cashmere, 45-7. After the loss, the Eagles went on a tear during which they scored 338 points to 94 for the opposition. For the season, they beat their opponents 420-108, or by an average score of 39-10.

Connell coach Wayne Reiner believes his team is ready for Saturday. Sunday he said Connell navigated a tough road to get here.

“We’ve been battle tested,” he said. “We played a tough Zillah team twice. LaSalle is a very good team.”

Reiner is expecting “a good game” with Royal, much like the one played at Royal in the third week of the regular season. But, he said, it may be a case of his team trying to keep pace.

“Royal is so explosive,” he said. “They can score at any time.”

The Knights can, indeed, score, crushing the opposition by an average score of 55-5. The season totals are 659-56.

Connell is a lot like Royal. It is led by a couple of stud upper class athletes.

Quarterback Brian Hawkins (5) has completed 105-177 passes for 1,539 yards and 17 touchdowns with only two interceptions. He has rushed 51 times for 296 yards and nine more touchdowns.

He ran five yards for the first score against Zillah last Saturday. He passed 57 yards for the second. He finished 9-16 for 132 yards with no interceptions.

Another of Connell’s stud athletes, Jax Whitby (25) rushed for 116 yards. He was backed by the 45 yards of Parker McClary (21). For the season, Whitby ran for 700 yards and seven touchdowns on 100 carries. McClary totaled 710 yards and 15 touchdowns on 15 carries.