ROYAL CITY — A fast start allowed the No. 1 seed Royal Knights to take a 28-0 lead by the end of the first quarter Friday night against No. 9 Omak, advancing to the 1A State Football Tournament semifinals with a 49-0 win over the Pioneers.

Royal scored all 49 of its points in the first half, with many of its drives beginning with short field courtesy of strong defensive play.

“It was big, our defense has been stellar,” Royal coach Wiley Allred said. “Guys up front — Juan Morales, Asher Garnick, Noel Alatorre and Bennett Brown — those are the guys we rotate in a lot — Alex Arceo — they’ve just been doing it all year. It starts at the line of scrimmage, and I think the secondary and the back half played really well, played disciplined.”

The first five drives for Royal’s offense — which all resulted in touchdowns — began at the Omak 47-yard line, their own 45, their own 44, the Omak 15 and their own 41-yard line. The short fields were set up by three three-and-outs, a sack on fourth-and-three and a pass breakup on fourth-and-five.

“They just stayed disciplined, and tried to make the (Beau) Sackman kid uncomfortable enough to keep a consistent drive,” Allred said. “What they’ve been able to do is get big plays, and we just didn’t want to give them any big plays and also challenged the guys at the line of scrimmage.”

    Royal running back Jared Lee (33) carries the football against Eatonville last week. Lee scored three touchdowns in Friday’s win over Omak.
  

Senior Jared Lee scored the first two touchdowns of the night, running into the end zone on carries of six and three yards. Sophomore Shea Stevenson ran in another touchdown on a catch-and-run of 38 yards, breaking tackles to put the Knights up 21-0. On their fourth drive, Knight quarterback Lance Allred scrambled to his right and found receiver Caden Allred, his cousin, on a 15-yard pass for a touchdown.

“They just keep working,” Lance said. “Scrambling, it’s not always convenient, but they always get open and I’m able to find them. That was pretty cool.”

Lance ran in another touchdown from one yard out on the next drive, and Lee recorded a hat trick with his third rushing touchdown of the night on Royal’s ensuing drive. Lee passed the credit on to fellow running back Ethan Ellis, who made his return to the field after missing the last eight games with an ankle injury.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t do anything,” Lee laughingly said. “Ethan (Ellis) got me there every time, and he just let me walk it in. I didn’t really do anything on those, so I feel like I can’t take credit for them.”

Ellis had 82 yards on eight carries, while Lee had five carries for 16 yards and three touchdowns. Fellow back Shea Stevenson didn’t have a carry but caught the 38-yard touchdown earlier in the game.

“I’m just trying to get as much yardage as I can, trying to find open field,” Ellis said. 

    Royal junior Ethan Ellis (22) carries the ball against Othello on Sept. 8. Ellis returned to the field Friday night after missing the last eight games with an injury, rushing for 82 yards on eight carries.
  

“They all bring something,” Wiley said. “Our rotation at running back is good. We were using three guys at running back tonight, and they all contributed.”

Lance capped off the scoring with a 35-yard interception returned for a touchdown with 56 seconds remaining in the first half.

“We’d seen it all week; the slants, our scout team was repping it,” Lance said. “I was able to sit there and get the ball.”

Friday’s win was Royal’s third-straight shutout and fifth overall this season. 

“Just our gameplan — We’ve got good coaches with coach (Jeremy) Scroggins, coach (Wiley) Allred, coach (Kyle) Scroggins — they watch a lot of film, we watch a lot of film. I feel like our scout team really helped us out so far this season,” Royal senior Bennett Brown said. 

    Royal Head Coach Wiley Allred credited the Knights’ defensive line for setting up Royal’s strong defensive showing in Friday’s win.
 

Royal will face the winner of Saturday’s matchup between No. 4 Cashmere and No. 12 Seton Catholic next week. Results were not available in time for press deadline.

Box score

OMK: 0-0-0-0 0
ROY: 28-21-0-0 49