In a back and forth battle between two undefeated teams the Royal Knights won the 1A Football State Championship, beating the Meridian Trojans 33-27 in the Tacoma Dome on Saturday.
After the Trojans won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, the Knights started things off late in the first quarter. Senior Corbin Christensen caught a ten yard touchdown catch from junior quarterback Sawyer Jenks. The Trojans answered back with Bryce VandenHaak completing a pass from Simon Burkett to tie the game in the first minute of the second.
The Knights scored another touchdown when Angel Farias caught a pass with two-minutes and twelve seconds left in the second quarter. Meridian responded with a quick drive down the field and Burkett running in a touchdown. However the Trojans missed their extra point with a little over a minute left before the first half. Royal ran in one last touchdown with fourteen seconds left before breaking for halftime.
The Trojans came out strong in the second half with a touchdown completion by Dawson Logan on a fifty-five yard pass with 11:21 left in the third quarter. Meridian’s momentum continued with a successful completion of a two-point conversion by Lukas Hemenway catching a pass by Burkett.
After battling back and forth for much of quarter three, Royal ran in a touchdown with a little under four minutes on the clock in the third quarter. However, the extra point kick was deflected by Meridian, bringing the game to 27-21.
As the Trojans kicked off the final quarter Burkett ran ten yards to complete a rushing touchdown with , but after Taylor Snook’s extra point kick failed, Meridian and Royal were tied 27-27. With two-minutes and thirty-two seconds left on the clock, the Knights’ Alonso Hernandez Rangel ran in a seven yard touchdown leaving the Trojans scurrying to catch them with minimal amount of time left. After the teams traded possessions, the Trojans secured their fate with an incomplete pass to VandenHaak on their final play.
To see photos of the 1A State Championship game at the Tacoma Dome on our website, click here or on our Facebook page, click here.
