Royal rolls past River View, remains undefeated
ROYAL CITY — The Knights continued their dominance over their SCAC East Conference foes with a 75-0 shellacking of the River View Panthers at home Friday.
“Our kids are playing well,” coach Wiley Allred said. “River View was undermanned — had some players injured coming into the game — so we were able to do what we needed to do.”
Playing well is a bit of an understatement, as Royal (9-0, 7-0) has outscored its opponents 496-31 on the season, and with the win, extends its win streak to 36 games. But you won’t hear Allred or his team crowing about their success because they take the one-game at a time mentality onto the gridiron each time out.
This contest was a perfect example of superior cohesiveness as the Knights got scoring efforts from their offense, defense and special teams unit that put Royal’s first TD on the scoreboard on a 64-yard punt return from Angel Farias.
“Angel was returning the kick because Corbin (Christensen) was dealing with a slightly sprained ankle,” Allred said. “After the return, they tried to keep it away from him by kicking the ball out of bounds.”
It was the first of three touchdowns from Farias in the ball game.
“He had a 52-yard receiving touchdown in the first quarter as well, and then a fumble recovery for a score in the second quarter.” Allred said. “It was on a kick off. He punched the ball out of the returners hand and picked it up and scored.”
Juan Ojeda came up big on the defensive side of the ball for the Knights with two interceptions – one of which was a 41-yard pick-6.
“Juan was reading the ball really well and jumping routes,” Allred said. “He’s been doing that particularly well the past two weeks.”
Quarterback Sawyer Jenks tossed another multiple touchdown game with five scoring strikes on seven of the eight passes he attempted in the contest. Two went to Isaac Ellis, and one each to C.J. Quintero, Corbin Christensen and Farias. The Knights added two second half rushing TDs from Tucker Janett and one from Lorenzo Myrick; all made possible by a makeshift offensive line.
“Daniel Paxtian and Javier Huitron replaced a couple of injured starters and we really didn’t notice the difference at all,” Allred said. “Tucker is a good looking freshman running back – we’re looking forward to his play in the future.”
Next up for Royal is crossover matchup at home Friday with LaSalle, the West Conference No. 4 seed.
“We played LaSalle in the first round of the playoffs last year at our place,” Allred said. “They have a lot of different players this year, but run the same offense and have the same coach. They run mostly a spread offense. Their quarterback is their primary runner as well — he’s a tall kid and pretty quick.”
The game with the Lightning is a loser out contest. A Royal win puts the Knights against the winner of the Cashmere-Freeman game at David Nielsen Stadium Nov. 11. The time is yet to be determined.