Royal takes down Okanogan to remain unbeaten

ROYAL CITY — Royal remained undefeated on the season with a home win over Okanaogan on Friday, 55-7.

The Knights opened up the scoring in the first quarter with a 12-yard strike from quarterback Caleb Christensen to Cooper Christensen to go up, before the duo connected a second time on the first play of the next drive for a 40-yard touchdown to put Royal up 14-0 early.

Lorenzo Myrick ran in from 10 yards out to build on the lead, with a fumble recovery by Tyler Allred for the score putting the Knights up 28-0 going into the second quarter.

The Bulldogs were unsuccessful on a field goal that would have put them on the board, before a mishap on the snap on a Royal punt led to a recovery by Okanogan to cut the lead to 28-7.

Cooper Christensen grabbed his third touchdown of the half with just over 48 seconds to play to put Royal up 35-7. Caleb Christensen connected with Aldo Farias with one second left in the first half for a 56-yard score as the Knights headed into the locker room up 41-7.

After being backed up by penalties on third down, Christensen connected again with Christensen for the 69-yard score with just over eight minutes to play in the third quarter. Elliot Delay capped off the scoring for Royal with a 38-yard run in the third as Royal went on to the win.

Caleb Christensen went 14-18 passing in the game, with five touchdowns. Cooper Christensen caught four of those, going for eight catches and 269 yards. Myrick led the way for the Knights on the ground, with eight carries for 76 yards and the score. Kevin Reyes led the team in tackles with five, including a pair of sacks in the game.

After a hot start, the Bulldogs were able to bottle up the Knights somewhat at the beginning of the second quarter, as Royal head coach Wiley Allred said he will look to work on keeping that consistency moving forward.

“I think we just had to settle down and, obviously, the mistake in the end zone on the punt, and then settle down our offense a little bit,” he said. “And then realize there were some areas that we could exploit and we needed to exploit them.”

Allred said he felt the defense played really well against a team that runs their offense well in Okanogan.

“I think they didn’t have answers for some of the receivers and different things,” Allred said. “We’d obviously like to run the ball a little better in that second quarter.”

After Christensen’s big day receiving, Allred said that it just happened to fall that way today, but said they’ll look utilize all their weapons a little more moving forward.

“It just happens,” Allred said. “Two weeks ago, everybody caught a couple balls and I think Cooper had one catch.We’ve got some really good receivers, it just so happened that Caleb looked at Cooper at little more tonight.”

After coming off with a little hobbled near the end of the first half, Cooper Christensen said he wasn’t sure he’d come back in the second half.

“I didn’t think I was gonna play, but I started running and it felt good,” he said.

With a few big games under his belt already this year, Cooper Christensen said time spent after practice working with his quarterback has helped them build their connection.

“Obviously, during practice you’re gonna learn, but always playing catch after practice, he knows where I’m gonna be at,” he said.

Next up, the Knights will travel to Warden High School on Friday to face the Cougars.