Top ranked Knights roll over Cashmere, 55-6
Valente Cortez, Isaac Ellis, Hunter Follett, Juan Niebla and Andy Villafana
ROYAL CITY — Cashmere played evenly for a while with No. 1-ranked Royal at Royal Friday night then slowly lost, 55-6, to a team that gives up points grudgingly and scores even with reserves in the game.
The Knights scored seven points in the first quarter, 14 in the second, 20 in the third and 14 in the fourth. They played reserves liberally in the second half.
The Knights, ranked No. 1 in the state 1A poll, will travel to Basin rival Wahluke this Friday for a 7 p.m. game. Royal is 4-0 overall and in first place in the South Central A Conference East with a 2-0 mark.
Wahluke is 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference. The Warriors were flattened by Connell, 48-0, Friday. The victory came in their lone home game against Warden.
The Warriors have no passing game to speak of. They depend on the run, and a 300-500 yard rushing game is not unusual for them.
“I know they believe they can beat us,” Royal coach Wiley Allred said. “Our line better stay low on defense. We will need to win the battle up front.”
Last Friday, Allred pulled back on the reins after his horses were in clear control of the game. Fleet running back Joe Lang had only seven carries. He did not score for the first time this year.
The touchdowns were spread out among seven players. First to find the end zone at the end of a 38-yard hook-up with quarterback Kaden Jenks was wide receiver Corbin Christensen.
Jenks dove in from one-yard for the first second quarter score. Then he found wide receiver Jose Ponce with an 84-yard connection, which brought the crowd to its feet, to make the score 21-0 at halftime.
That was a one-play drive that came after a long punt return by Ponce was called back on a penalty.
Next to score for the Knights was wide receiver Sam Christensen, taking in a one-yard pass from Jenks. The score mounted to 34-0 when Danny Cuevas pounced on a loose ball in the end zone after a high snap on a Cashmere punt attempt.
The score got to 41-0 on a 5-yard pass from Jenks to wide receive Isaac Ellis. It was the sophomore Ellis’s first score in his career at Royal.
“Our offensive line (Hugo Ledezma, Hunter Follett, Juan Garcia, Valente Cortez, Victor Villanueva) showed improvement from last week,” Allred said.
The Bulldogs scored against a reserve Royal defense to make the score 41-6.
Keeping the ball on the ground, the Knights got touchdown runs from Danny Cuevas of one yard and Juan Niebla of 12 yards. It was Niebla’s lone carry of the game and lone touchdown this year. He played quarterback the entire fourth quarter.
Others who played the fourth quarter and got Allred’s attention were junior RB/LB Johnny Garcia, junior OL/LB Tyler Dorsing and sophomore OL/DL Raynor Beierle.
“Johnny Garcia was in on nearly every play in the fourth quarter,” Allred said.
The defense was led by tough line play. Whereas linemen mostly routed Connell runners to the linebackers and defensive backs the week before, this time they turned in eight primary tackles and 22 assists.
Valente Cortez and Andy Villafana had three tackles each, and Hunter Follett had two. Cortez made 11 assists, Villafana had six, Follett had one and Derek Alatorre made four.
Other defensive plays of note were interceptions by Lang and Jenks. Ponce ran one punt back for 37 yards. Lang had one kickoff return of 26 yards, Ponce punted once for 60 yards, and he booted three kickoffs into the end zone. Adrian Trinidad blocked a Cashmere extra point attempt.
There were other stellar individual defensive performances. Juan Garcia and Sam Christensen had three primary tackles and four assists. Ponce had three primaries and one assist.
Carson Gilbert had two primaries and six assists. Steven Toro had two primaries. Sawyer Stakkeland and Adrian Trinidad had one primary and one assist each. Lang had three assists.
Because of the way the game played out, there were no sparkling individual stats on offense. Lang ran the ball seven times for 100 yards. Cuevas carried eight times for 37 yards and Juan Niebla carried once for 12 yards.
Jenks had solid night throwing. He nailed 9-13 passes for 185 yards and four touchdowns.
Catching the aerials were Ponce, 1-84; C. Christensen, 3-60; Lang 2-13; S. Christensen, 2-15; and Ellis, 1-5.
Royal nearly doubled Cashmere’s total offense, 344-174. The Knights limited their penalties to only five. They converted two of four third down plays and their lone fourth down attempt.
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