Prosser, Royal, Connell and Tri-Cities Prep advance to state football quarterfinals

High school football teams from Prosser, Royal, Connell and Tri-Cities Prep were big winners over the weekend and will advance to state football quarterfinals.

Also, cross country, volleyball and girls soccer results from the weekend’s state and regional high school action.

Prep football

• Logan Candanoza broke free for a 72-yard touchdown run, giving the No. 7-seeded Prosser Mustangs the lead for good in a 41-23 victory over No. 11 Eatonville in a first-round Class 2A state playoff game at Fiker Stadium.

The Mustangs scored 34 unanswered points in the win.

Candanoza had a big game, carrying the football 20 times for 210 yards rushing. Prosser quarterback Kaiden Rivera was 30 for 37 passing for 272 yards.

Prosser advances to the 2A quarterfinals. The Mustangs will play at 7 p.m. Friday at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma, against No. 2-seeded Steilacoom.

• No. 13 seed Othello lost to No. 3 Lynden 41-14 on Saturday night in the Class 2A state football playoffs.

Lynden jumped out to a 20-0 lead and never looked back.

• Top-seeded Royal jumped out to a 29-0 first-quarter lead and never looked back, pounding 16-seed Charles Wright Academy 64-7 in a first-round Class 1A state playoff game Friday night in Royal City.

The Knights defense allowed just 81 yards of total offense to Charles Wright.

Lorenzo Myrick was the offensive star for Royal, rushing 11 times for 116 yards and three touchdowns.

Cooper Christensen caught 2 passes for 70 yards and a score, plus he had a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Royal will play host to No. 8-seed Omak in a 1A state quarterfinal game, set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Royal.

• Connell’s stingy defense held No. 4 La Center to just seven points on Saturday, and the No. 13 visiting Eagles went on to win their first-round 1A state playoff game 17-7.

Senior running back Jekoby Tuttle rushed 23 times for 70 yards and two touchdowns to lead Connell in the win.

Tuttle’s younger brother, Jaxsen Tuttle, carried the ball 13 times for 89 yards in the win.

Connell now takes on No. 5-seed Mt. Baker at 1 p.m. Saturday in Moses Lake for a 1A state quarterfinal game.

• Dante Maiuri passed for 335 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 9 Tri-Cities Prep past No. 8 Asotin 37-0 on Friday night in Asotin in a Class 2B first-round state playoff game.

Landon Amato caught seven of Maiuri’s passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns for the Jaguars.

Sam Stewart led the Prep defense with 12 tackles, while Jacob Levy had 11 tackles and a fumble recovery, as Asotin could only muster 74 yards of offense.

Tri-Cities Prep now advances to the 2B quarterfinals, where the Jags will play top-ranked Onalaska at 1 p.m. Saturday at Centralia High School.

• Andrez Zavala passed for 232 yards and two TDs, and Alexis Galarza added 6 catches for 142 yards, but it wasn’t enough as No. 15-seed Mabton lost at No. 2-seeded Napavine 51-14 in the first round of the 2B state playoffs on Saturday.

• No. 5 seed Kennewick, which won its Class 3A first-round state playoff game 35-34 in overtime Saturday over No. 11 Yelm (see Herald story in Sunday’s paper), now advances to play at No. 4 Bethel at 6 p.m. Saturday in the 3A quarterfinals.

• Quick note on Chiawana senior Roy Colvin, who in the Riverhawks’ 46-21 loss to Mount Si in the 4A playoffs, had a monster defensive game at linebacker. Colvin had 13 tackles (two for loss), four quarterback sacks, and a forced fumble. Outstanding effort.

NWAC cross country

Kennewick High grad Johan Correa, running for Spokane Community College, finished first on Monday at the NWAC Championships, which were run at the St. Martin’s University campus in Lacey.

Correa covered the 8-kilometer course in 25 minutes, 37.74 seconds for the victory.

Teammate Keanu Daos (Southridge) finished fourth in 25:57.79.

Two runners from Lane Community College – Anthony Stone (Richland) and Jesse Todd (Richland) – placed seventh and 10th, respectively.

Jolene Whiteley of Spokane CC won the 5K women’s race with a time of 18:25.99.

State volleyball

• The Tri-Cities will send two teams to the Class 4A-3A state volleyball tournament this coming Friday and Saturday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

Richland qualified for the 4A tournament on Saturday as the District 8 No. 2 seed.

The Bomber lost a 3-2 marathon match to Mead in the district championship in Spokane, giving Mead the top seed.

Meanwhile, Chiawana eliminated University 3-0, setting up a winner-to-state, loser-out match between Chiawana and Richland later that day.

The Bombers prevailed 3-1 over the Riverhawks.

In the 3A district tournament last Thursday, Mt. Spokane beat Kamiakin 3-1 in the title match for the top seed to state. In a loser-out match that same day, Kennewick eliminated Hermiston 3-1.

That set up a winner-to-state match of Kennewick at Kamiakin on Saturday afternoon, and Kennewick won it 3-2.

In Friday’s first-round state matchups, Richland takes on North Creek at 1:30 p.m., while Kennewick will play Lakeside of Seattle at 9:45 a.m.

• Tri-Cities Prep finished fourth in the 2B state volleyball tournament in Yakima last Friday.

The Jaguars opened tournament play with identical 3-0 wins, first over Chewelah and then Kalama.

In the Friday semifinals, they fell 3-1 to Northwest Christian of Colbert, and then 3-0 to Mossyrock in the third-place game.

The Jaguars finished with a 16-5 record.

Walla Walla Valley Academy went 1-2 in the 2B state tournament.

Girls soccer

Kamiakin was the last Mid-Columbia team eliminated from the state playoffs.

The Braves lost to Bellevue 2-1 on penalty kicks in the 3A state quarterfinals on Saturday.

Maddie Kutschkau scored Kamiakin’s goal just 3 minutes into the match.

But Bellevue answered 7 minutes later in a goal by Audrey Miller.

Neither team could score the rest of the match, and through two overtimes. So it went to penalty kicks, and the host Wolverines won 3-2 in those for the victory.

Kamiakin finished the season with a 14-7, and Braves coach Chris Erikson loses just two seniors off of this team.

Note: Please check Wednesday’s Herald for a recap on state swimming, Nike regional cross country and NWAC soccer.