Royal LBs get chance to shine

Royal seniors Valente Cortez-Lopez and Andy Villafana once dreamed of finding their way to a state championship as running backs.

The pair has embraced a different reality, however. Instead of taking handoffs and finding holes, Cortez-Lopez and Villafana are tracking handoffs and plugging holes. Instead of scoring touchdowns on offense, they’re preventing them at middle linebacker.

And they’ve done a bang-up job (pun intended) of making Royal’s defense arguably the best in the state, at any level. In 13 games so far, the Knights have allowed just 63 points for an average of 4.9 per game. Only Port Townsend allowed fewer points this year (56), but they only played 11 games.

The Knights have also scored more points (706) than any team in the state above the 8-man level. That’s an average of over 54 points a game.

Top-ranked Royal (13-0) will face King’s (12-1) in the Class 1A state title game at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

“They’ve gotten to be be pretty good high school football players,” Knights coach Wiley Allred said. “They love the contact. They’re very physical kids.”

When they first arrived at Royal, Villafana and Cortez-Lopez started as a backfield tandem, with the fullback Villafana leading the way for Cortez-Lopez at tailback.

“It was kind of cool. People were telling us we’re like twins. They called us the ‘Bash Brothers.’ We were a good 1-2 punch,” Cortez-Lopez said.

But circumstances changed, and Allred and defensive coach Jeremy Scroggins decided they might find themselves on the defensive side of the ball. After some growing pains — Allred admits they “were not that good last year” — they have learned to work well as part of a strong defensive unit that includes fellow all SCAC East selections Sawyer Stakkeland, Juan Hernandez and Hunter Follett on the defensive line, Carson Gilbert at outside linebacker, and Sam Christensen, Joe Lang and Jose Ponce in the secondary.

“People can be the judge of (how good we are). We’re pretty balanced everywhere, and we all trust each other,” Cortez-Lopez said. “We have this motto where we tell each other, ‘Do your job.’ ”

Both Cortez-Lopez and Villafana are comparable in size — about 5-feet-8, 200 pounds — but it’s their athleticism that sets them apart. Villafana recently had 10 tackles in a 21-7 quarterfinal win over Colville. Cortez is also a first-team all-SCAC East offensive tackle.

“I like hitting people in the open field,” Cortez-Lopez said. “It doesn’t happen very often. You have to get a really good read. I had a few last Saturday (in a 47-7 semifinal win over Connell), but I missed one of them.”

Coincidentally, the pair also plays defense for the Knights’ soccer team in the spring. Villafana said his coach (and his uncle) Enrique Villafana encourages him to be aggressive, which tends to land him in trouble.

“I get a yellow card almost every game. I have to protect the goal box,” Villafana said.

Villafana remembers his freshman year, when Royal lost to Montesano 43-28 in the Class 1A state title game. The memories of the loss, and his teammates’ reactions, still haunt him.

“I saw all my teammates crying, but I knew they played their hearts out,” he said. “I’ve dreamed about this since then. It’s like a dream to get back.”

It’s a dream for any high school player to play in a state championship, but both Cortez-Lopez and Villafana will be looking to turn the lights out against King’s.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Royal LBs get chance to shine."