Longtime foe Connell in way of state title

ROYAL CITY — Royal and Connell High Schools have played football against each other numerous times over the years and, for the second time, they will face each other for the state 1A championship.

Anticipation should be high for a barn-burner, The game should feature lots of passing. Royal has the top-rated senior quarterback in the Northwest. Connell’s passer is excellent to superior.

As evidenced by the 28-21 Royal win at mid-season in Connell, these teams are evenly matched. Royal’s margin of victory for the season was 48-9. Connell’s was 48-12.

The 7-point margin in the mid-season clash is all that kept Connell from being No. 1 in the SCAC East or No. 1 in the SCAC all together.

Last year, Royal kept Connell from the title game with a semifinal victory. This year, because the SCAC allotment of tournament berths rose, Connell played in the western Washington half-bracket. That allowed for this clash.

Saturday’s contest with Connell, 12-1, will be played at 10 a.m. at the Tacoma Dome. It will be the second meeting between the two teams this year.

Connell has won its share of match-ups with Royal. Royal has had the upper hand lately, winning two meetings last year. Connell will be looking to avenge the recent losses.

Royal, too, has good reason to be up for this game. The Knights have an opportunity for a repeat of back-to-back titles. They accomplished that feat in 2004 and 2005.

This state title match-up happened once before. Royal defeated the Eagles, 28-16, for the 2007 crown.

This will be Royal’s 10th appearance in the title game. It has won six championships. This will be Connell’s seventh state championship game. It has won the title twice.

Royal’s offense is balanced, rushing for 1,941 yards and passing for 2,380. It has scored 36 touchdowns on the ground and 36 through the air.

Senior Kaden Jenks completed 64.11 percent of his passes or 134 of 209. He produced 34 touchdowns, threw five interceptions and was sacked six times. Jenks also ran for 399 yards and 14 touchdowns, mostly in the playoffs.

But the ball-carrying leader was senior tailback Danny Cuevas. Playing only eight games, he ran for 771 yards and seven touchdowns.

Three ball carriers scored three touchdowns each, one scored twice and four scored once.

Other than Jenks, the greatest feature of the passing attack is the number of sticky-fingered receivers available. Junior Corbin Christensen caught 47 passes and scored 18 times.

Adrian Trinidad caught 22 passes, Juan Niebla 21, Isaac Ellis 13, Cuevas 12, Juan Ojeda 10 and C.J. Quintero 8. They combined for 18 scores.

The defense is also balanced, with seven players with 31 tackles or more. Sophomore linebacker Alonzo Hernandez led the way with 76 tackles. Linebacker Jhonny Garcia had 63, linebacker Ellis had 40 and down lineman Ramses Gonzalez had 39.

Others with double digits in tackling were Christensen, Jenks, Juan Hernandez, Adrian Trinidad, Juan Ojeda, Angel Farias, Sawyer Stakkeland and Juan Niebla.