Royal Knights dominate in 55-0 win

ROYAL CITY — On the second play of the Homecoming game against Kiona-Benton on Friday, Royal quarterback Lance Allred took the snap, faked a handoff and flipped the ball to receiver Cade Allred. Cade Allred threw 36 yards to receiver Case Christensen for the touchdown. The Knights scored 35 points in the first quarter en route to a 55-0 win over Ki-Be.

Lance Allred said after the game the key to a good performance is preparation.

“(Watching) film,” he said. “Just seeing what we have, what they don’t — trying to find where we can penetrate, so we just hit that. We execute it every day in practice. It plays out on the field.”

With Royal leading 14-0, running back Brody Bishop took the handoff from Lance Allred, swept around the end and ran 14 yards for the touchdown, breaking numerous tackles along the way. The Knights pushed the lead to 28-0 on a 30-yard punt return for a touchdown by receiver Shea Stevenson.

Coach Wiley Allred said the focus for the Knights, regardless of anything else, is improvement.

“We try to play to our standard and play to a certain level,” Allred said. “And that’s what we’re trying to convince the kids, regardless of who they’re playing, they need to get better. We’re on a mission to get better each week, and I thought they did a good job of that.”

Lance Allred rolled out and found Christensen alone in the end zone for Royal’s final first-quarter touchdown, which came with about 56 seconds left in the quarter. The Knights added two more touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 49-0 lead at the half.

Royal also dominated on defense, with Kiona-Benton gaining 51 yards in total offense, not gaining any rushing yards and in fact finishing the game with -35 yards rushing.

The Bears’ best scoring chance came in the third quarter when Ki-Be quarterback Keegan Kintner completed a pass to the Royal 15. But two plays later Kintner’s pass was intercepted in the end zone, ending that drive.

Lineman Noel Alatorre said a dominating defensive performance is built around focusing on the job at hand.

“I learned, like, the little mistakes that I can fix throughout the game,” he said. “I can work on my stuff.”

Lance Allred said the Knights still have some work to do.

“We did learn a couple of things, just talking in the locker room, especially at halftime. Just communicating on offense and defense. It wasn’t a perfect game, so we still have stuff to work on.”

Royal’s next game is against College Place on Oct. 20 in College Place.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box score

Kiona-Benton: 0 0 0 0 — 0

Royal: 35 14 0 6 — 55