Knights passing attack conquers wind to win, 61-8, at Wahluke

ROYAL CITY — It’s often been said that weather is the great equalizer in sports. It didn’t work out that way Friday.

Royal quarterback Kaden Jenks, in perhaps his finest performance yet, conquered high winds at Mattawa for four touchdown passes in a 61-8 South Central A Conference victory. He also scored twice on the ground.

“Kaden is a tough kid. Great leader,” coach Wiley Allred said.

And he has a great supporting cast. His offensive line protected him about as well as he could expect, and his receivers were on their games too.

“Corbin Christensen and Joe Lang made a couple of incredible catches in the wind,” Allred said.

The wind did affect the kicking game for both teams. There were three good extra points kicks. Others failed, or the teams opted for 2-point attempts.

Lang scored the game’s first touchdown. He caught a Jenks pass swinging to his left, snaked through a couple of defenders, then outran the Warriors on the 41-yard play.

Wahluke was up for that challenge and took the next possession to the end zone and an 8-6 lead. It was a bruising ground drive capped off by a three-yard touchdown run through the Royal middle by Jason Cruz.

Then slowly, the differences between the programs began to show. The Warriors started to fumble the ball and sustain penalties. And the Royal defense started to figure out the Wahluke offense. Still, Allred lauded the Warriors.

“It was a very physical game, and both teams played extremely hard,” he said.

Royal, ranked No. 1 in the state, is scoring nearly a point a minute through five games. The Knights’ average is 47.2 per game, and there are only 48 minutes in a game.

This Friday, Royal will host River View. This is usually a tough game, but that’s questionable this year. Warden beat RV, 64-6, right after losing to Wahluke, 63-39. Focus may be a challenge for the Knights.

Royal rambled at Wahluke once the offense got into sync. Total offense was 451 yards. The Knights converted 3-6 third downs and 3-3 fourth downs.

The rest of the scoring was:

A 24-yard pass from Jenks to Jose Ponce in the first period.

A safety by Adrian Trinidad in the second period after a backward pass by Wahluke.

A 3-yard run by Joe Lang in the second quarter.

A 15-yard Jenks to Lang pass play three minutes before half-time.

A 1-yard Jenks run in the third quarter.

A 57-yard pass from Jenks to Ponce in the third quarter.

A Jenks 1-yard run in the third period.

A Danny Cuevas 8-yard run in the fourth period.

A Steven Toro 40-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Jenks finished the evening with 11 completions in 17 pass attempts for 240 yards, four touchdowns and only one interception.

Lang led all ball carriers with 95 yards on 16 totes. Toro was second with his 40-yard scoring run. Jenks ran four times for 16 yards.

Ponce led the receivers with 110 yards on four catches. Lang went 3-65, Corbin Christensen, 3-55.

“Valente Cortez had a couple good blocks to spring Jose Ponce on his punt return and the screen pass that scored,” Allred said.

The defense, which had to deal with the straight-ahead offense of the Warriors, was led by the linemen.

“Andy Villafana, Valente Cortez, Sam Christensen, Hunter Follett, Raynor Beierle and Sawyer Stakkeland had very good defensive games,” Allred said.

Corbin Christensen was brilliant. He made five solo tackles and assisted on eight others. Cortez had five solos and four assists, and Villafana had five solos and one assist.

Other multi-tackle efforts included Carson Gilbert, 5-0; Jenks, 5-2; Juan Garcia 4-0; Adrian Trinidad, 4-0; Sawyer Stakkeland, 3-1; Lang, 3-3; and Follett, 3-2. There were several more with solo tackles. They included Juan Niebla, Danny Cuevas, Toro, Juan Hernandez and Isaac Ellis. Hernandez had seven assists, and Alexis Ramos had two.