Royal sends Huskies home with bitter taste in their mouths
ROAYL CITY — Royal Football continues its dominance on the gridiron with a resounding 35-0 win over the Othello Huskies in a makeup game at David Nielsen Stadium Monday night.
The win was the second in a row over CWAC opponents on the Knights nonleague schedule, and the 29th consecutive victory for the team. Royal is yet to give up a point having rolled past Ellensburg 42-0 Sept. 1.
“It was a pretty tough contest — we really had to grind it out,” coach Wiley Allred said. “Othello is a tough team — they made us earn everything we got — Angel Farias, Gage Christensen and Juan Ojeda made some spectacular catches.“
The first quarter went without a score as both teams exchanged field position throughout. But the second 8 minutes of the game was a different story as the Knights exploded for 22 points on two Alonso Hernandez rushing TDs and a 13-yard hook up from Sawyer Jenks to Isaac Ellis.
“We protected the ball well — mixed our passing and running game well and that was key for us,” Allred said. “Our defense kept giving the ball back to the offense — forcing a lot of punts. We didn’t have a lot of turnovers but we came up with a key one when they were inside our 10-yard line and they fumbled on their option play.”
Royal made it 29-0 when Jenks connected with Farias for a 16-yard score in the third quarter. The Knights pushed their lead to 35-0 on a 4-yard fourth quarter scamper from Lorenzo Myrick.
Jenks completed 17 of 27 passes for 188 yards and two TDs. Hernandez rushed for 121 yards on 16 carries and hit pay dirt twice. Myrick ran for 67 yards and scored the final touchdown of the contest.
“We kept at them from both sides of the ball and that was the difference in the game,” Allred said. “I thought our offensive line — center Micah Albert, guards Chase Janett and Raynor Beierle, tackles Ramses Gonzalez and Manny Alvarez, and tight ends Isaac Ellis and CJ Quintero did a really good job of opening holes for our running backs and protecting Sawyer.”
Penalties were the only noticeable flaw in the Knights game, as the refs tossed 11 hankies totaling 79 yards onto the turf.
“We had some trouble with our snap counts — were a little jumpy — wasn’t very disciplined in that respect after not practicing for three days,” Allred said. “We had a few offside penalties too. The mistakes are all correctable.”
Royal is back on the gridiron Friday in Warden as they take on the Cougars to open league play.
“They got beat pretty good by Okanogan and then beat Mabton by 50,” Allred said. “So I think we need to refocus — correct those snap count penalties — continue to execute well and keep working to get better and find different kids to step up for us.”
Kickoff is 7 p.m.