Going back-to-back-to-back

LAKEWOOD – Playing late in the season has become second nature for the Royal Knights, who took on Mount Baker in the 1A Gridiron Classic championship game, their sixth appearance in a state title game since 2015 and 14th time overall.

The Knights once again left the field victorious, taking down the No. 10 seed Mountaineers 35-20 to finish the 2022 season with a 12-1 record and another trophy.

“It feels awesome,” junior tight end Bennett Brown said. “We’ve been working for this forever, we lost all those seniors (from last year), and just to come back and do it again, it’s awesome.”

Twenty-two seniors from the 2021 Royal roster had graduated, leaving this year’s Knight squad with several holes to fill across the roster.

“That was a realistic approach I think, but honestly after camp, we did have to re-evaluate because our kids really played well,” Royal Head Coach Wiley Allred said. “The kids, they worked really hard in the off-season and then just kept getting better and better. The experience through this season has helped them.”

Royal’s 2022 season began as it typically does – the Knights started with three-straight wins over Toppenish, Othello and Zillah, playing lights-out defense and taking advantage of opponent’s mistakes.

However, Royal found themselves in unfamiliar territory with a 21-14 loss to Lynden Christian that snapped its 36-game win streak, dating back to the 2018 season.

“I think we saw that we need to work harder, and that’s what we did,” Brown said. “We put our heads down, we grinded, we knew this is where we wanted to be. No matter what team it was, we got here.”

Following the loss where they tied for their lowest scoring output of the season, the Knights returned to the field with offensive firepower during their next three games. Royal took on Wahluke, where they scored 51 points in the first half; Kiona-Benton City, where senior running back Kaleb Hernandez scored three touchdowns in a 63-6 win; and College Place, where the Knights scored a season-high 69 points. Royal closed out the regular season with a 51-6 win over Naches Valley during the Week 10 crossover.

The early season loss to Lynden Christian provided an extra push for the team, according to senior defensive lineman Detton Jenks.

“(It gave us) motivation to win,” Jenks said. “We wanted to be the best in 1A, so we couldn’t lose now.”

Senior quarterback Dylan Allred described the loss to the Lyncs as a “wakeup call.”

“It was a wakeup call, we’ve got to focus on every game,” he said. “We can’t take anyone lightly, and we just had a mindset of we might have some bumps on the way, but as long as we’re on the uphill trajectory and working every day, good things will happen.”

Entering the postseason with an 8-1 record (Royal’s game against Foss scheduled for Oct. 15 was canceled), the Knights cruised through the first three rounds with a 41-7 win over Cascade Christian in the first round, a 41-9 win over Montesano in the quarterfinals and a 57-21 win over Freeman in the state semifinals. The playoff run was a byproduct of the team finding their roles and more, Wiley Allred said.

“I think just familiarity, just what our roles were, and having some confidence in all the players,” he said.

The state championship game saw the Knights explode with a 21-point fourth quarter to seal their 11th state championship title.

“It feels great,” junior defensive lineman Juan Morales said. “Nobody thought we were going to be here, and we did it.”

The euphoria of winning a state title has been felt by Royal players for the three state playoffs held since 2019 (2021’s spring season didn’t have a postseason), with Royal’s seniors experiencing the school winning three titles during their high school careers.

“It just feels like you’re on top of the world,” Jenks said. “You can take on anything.”

Wiley Allred said that this year’s senior class excelled in keeping the tradition alive and stepping into new roles left by last year’s senior class.

“They would probably say they didn’t have a lot to do with it when they were freshman, which is true, but they kept the program and legacy going and did a great job,” Wiley Allred said. “We had seniors that didn’t play much that just helped us out every day in practice and deserve a ton of credit for that.”

The Knights will graduate 12 seniors from this season’s roster, ranging from all-league players to significant voices heard in the locker room.

“As you go on through the years, it’s like you found a family,” Jenks said. “By the end of the season, it’s just the best feeling ever to win as a team. It’s awesome.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Editor’s note: The team at the Columbia Basin Herald congratulates the Royal High School Knights for an amazing season on the football field. We hope that you know how proud the community is of all of your accomplishments. Carry that winning attitude that served you so well on the gridiron into your classrooms, hobbies, careers and life in general as you move forward. You’ve done the whole of the Columbia Basin proud and we look forward to watching what you can do in fall of 2023. – R. Hans “Rob” Miller, Managing Editor