ROYAL CITY - Mixing brute force and finesse, Royal High School crushed River View on Friday night, 39-7, in what was expected to be a shootout of 1A football unbeatens.

Fullback Damien Delarosa provided the brute force, with 146 yards on 18 carries. It was his most productive night of the year.

Quarterback Alex Myrick was the finesse. He dashed for 146 yards on option runs and connected on 11 of 15 passes for 179 yards.

The result is that Royal sits atop the South Central A Conference East as the only unbeaten, 5-0 overall. The Knights will be highly favored to add a win at Wahluke this Friday.

The Warriors are playing spirited football, but they are young and thin on top-line talent and have suffered key injuries. They fell to Warden, 16-13, on Friday.

As in the contest with Zillah (44-7 win), the battle of unbeatens fizzled early. The Knights led 7-0 after one quarter and 21-0 at the half. There was just too much Myrick and Delarosa for the Panthers to stop.

Delarosa had the play of the game just before half-time. The Knights had the ball on their 2-yard line after an offsides penalty, and Delarosa delivered a 40-yard run that set up the third score.

Delarosa excited the crowd again in the fourth period with a 20-yard run on which he bulldozed the defense. Several defenders rode his back the last 10 yards, and Delarosa's mates helped by pushing the pile forward.

"It was worth the of admission," coach Wiley Allred said.

Myrick produced two of the three first-half touchdowns on runs of 10, four and five yards. Tailback Christian Guerrero made one from two yards.

Delarosa scored from one yard in the third period. Laddie Goroski added a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth.

River View's lone challenge came in the third period. A 15-yard Ruvim Tyutunnik pass made the score 27-7.

Tyutunnik was the dual threat Royal expected. He drove his team into Royal territory several times with 194 yards passing and 53 running, completing 19 of 32 passes.

But the Royal defense stiffened in its end of the field, picking off two of Tyutunnik's passes. It also limited the Panthers to 117 yards on the ground.

Myrick and Guerrero intercepted passes, and Delarosa had a sack. Marcos Morales led the defense with 10 tackles and five assists. Dixon had eight tackles and three assists and Mario Coria had five tackles and five assists.

"(Nose tackle) Christian Fernandez was in their backfield all night, disrupting things," Allred said.

The Knights rambled to 364 rushing yards. Guerrero had 82 on 11 carries.

The receiving, as usual, was spread all over the field. Goroski led with 84 yards on three catches. Brady Dixon caught three passes for 44 yards, and Kent Christensen caught two passes for 35 yards. The rest of the receiving was Delarosa, 2-8 and Jake Janett, 1-9.