Small-School football glace: SCAC East, EWAC up for grabs in Connell-Royal, Holy Bowl
Two small-school football games in the area will all but clinch league titles for the victors Friday.
In the SCAC East, it’s a rematch of the 2016 state championship game as undefeated Connell travels to undefeated Royal, a team that has outscored its opponents 330-3 this season, and is on a 33-game win streak dating to 2015.
The only two teams with 4-0 records in the EWAC square off as Tri-Cities Prep (5-1, 4-0) heads to DeSales (5-1, 4-0) for the Holy Bowl. TCP whooped DeSales 52-0 last year, but this Irish squad is much improved from its 5-6 team in 2016, as it downed previously unbeaten Kittitas/Thorp 27-6 last week.
Not broken down in this week’s factboxes is a CWAC South matchup that will decide the division’s No. 2 team as the Toppenish Wildcats (5-1, 2-1) play host to the Prosser Mustangs (4-2, 1-1). Despite losing to Othello (a CWAC North club) and Selah (the CWAC South champion) in back-to-back weeks near the end of September, Prosser can still clinch a meaningful Week 9 game with a win here, against either East Valley (3-2, 1-1) or Ephrata (5-1, 2-1).
Friday Small School Football
Connell (6-0, 4-0 SCAC East) at Royal (6-0, 4-0)
When, where: 7 p.m., David Nielsen Stadium
Last year: Royal 28, Connell 21 in Week 7; Royal 25, Connell 10 in Class 1A state championship
Key players: Connell—QB/SS Austin Smith; RB/OLB Tristen Garland; WR/DE Silas Chase; T/DT Seer Dines; WR/CB Peyton Riner; G/DT Anthony Peralta. Royal—QB/FS Sawyer Jenks; WR/CB Corbin Christensen; WR/CB Juan Ojeda; TE/OLB CJ Quintero; RB/MLB Alonso Hernandez; RB/OLB Isaac Ellis; T/DE Rams Gonzalez; G/DT Raynor Bierele.
Connell: Outscoring opponents 200-70. Beat River View 42-6 last week. Hosts College Place then plays at Wahluke to finish regular season.
Royal: Given up just three points while scoring 330. Beat Kiona-Benton 49-0 last week. Closes regular season at Columbia (Burbank) then hosts River View.
Tri-Cities Prep (5-1, 4-0 EWAC) at DeSales (5-1, 4-0)
When, where: 7 p.m., Ty Baffney Field
Last year: Tri-Cities Prep 52, DeSales 0
Key players: TCP—QB/FS Kobe Singleton (41 of 71, 6TD, 5INT pass; 76-667, 8TD rush; 4INT, 4PD); RB Bubba Valencia (96-860, 7TD); RB/LB Zerek Baker (32-302 rush; 11-199 rec; 8 total TD; 2INT, 2PD); WR/CB Cole Hiett (18-228 rec; 2INT, 8PD); LB Colton Tinnin (63 tackles, 10 TFL, 2 sacks). DeSales—QB Dante Maiuri; WR/DB Joel Rodriguez; WR/DB Connor Leahy; WR/DB Juan Montero; RB/SS Josh Elmenhurst; HB/DB Zach Mahan.
Last week: TCP def. Liberty Christian 36-6; DeSales def. Kittitas/Thorp (4-1, 3-1) 27-6
Next 2 weeks: TCP at Mabton, vs. Kittitas/Thorp; DeSales at Lyle/Wishram, at White Swan
This story was originally published October 12, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Small-School football glace: SCAC East, EWAC up for grabs in Connell-Royal, Holy Bowl."