ROYAL CITY - Brady Dixon scored four times in the first half to lead Royal High School to a 42-27 victory over Kiona-Benton to conclude the South Central 1A Conference East slate last Friday.

The Knights, 7-2, will conclude their regular season this Friday at home against Goldendale of the SCAC West at Royal. Although Royal finished second in the East, this game matters.

This will be a state tournament play-in game. The winner will travel the following week to either Omak or Colville for the first round of state.

"I think Colville will be favored (in their game)," Royal coach Wiley Allred said.

Allred said his boys need to be sharp for Goldendale. He noted the Timberwolves steamrolled Granger in their SCAC West finale. And Goldendale must be getting tired of losing what seems like an annual trip to Royal.

Allred noted Goldendale has a good passing quarterback who can also run. He plays much in the style of Royal's own quick quarterback Alex Myrick.

There is other reason to be wary. After building a 35-0 half-time lead last Friday, the Knight lost focus and became sloppy. That and improved Bear play tightened the score in the second half.

The Knights fumbled the ball three times, threw an interception, fumbled a punt and had a wild punt snap.

However, the game really was out of reach when Ki-Be started its comeback. And some of Royal's second-half miscues were due to the utilization of several lightly-used players.

When the front-line players were in, the Knights were in charge. It seemed as if they hadn't skipped a beat after the loss to Connell.

Hot for the Knights was Dixon. He scored from the one-yard line, then caught touchdown passes of 28, 20 and 25 yards from quarterback Alex Myrick.

Myrick closed out the first-half scoring with a 10-yard run. Damien DeLaRosa scored from five yards in the second half.

Dixon finished the night with four receptions for 79 yards. Myrick completed 13 of 19 passes for 177 yards. He also rushed six times for 78 yards.

DeLaRosa, who took over for injured starter Alex Ramirez, led the rushers with 115 yards on 15 carries. Ramirez had 31 yards on six carries when he left the game. Christian Guerrero had two carries for 11 yards.

The rest of the receiving was Guerrero 3-22, DeLaRosa 2-26, Zack Christensen 2-15, Danny Vermeer 1-18 and Johnny Villanueva 1-17.