Two-minute offense gives Royal victory

Unfortunately, there are no moral victories in playoff football.

With just less than 10 minutes remaining Royal moved wide receiver Blair Collins to tailback and went into its 2-minute offense.

The result was an eight-play, 91-yard drive that produced a 32-27 win over Freeman in a State 1A quarterfinal game at Gonzaga Prep Saturday evening.

That the Knights (12-0) had to rally to end Freeman’s season for the fourth time since 2003 is surprising, all things considered.

The Scotties (9-2) took to the field without all-league receiver Steve Burke because of a neck problem.

Prospects became bleaker when Tanner Laib, who had more than 1,500 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns, left the game with a broken collarbone after gaining 8 yards on the first play of the game.

Then the defending state champions promptly rolled to a 26-6 lead in a sloppy first half.

All the Scotties did was score 21 quick points in a third-quarter blitz to turn the game into a nail-biter.

“The thing I’m most proud of is this team didn’t give up,” Freeman coach Jim Wood said.

That would have been easy.

After trading first-quarter touchdowns, Royal scored three straight. Connor Paysee hit Mark Albertson for 15 yards and Angel Ledezma for 34. Then, on the play after Paysee was hurt, Albertson and Collins connected on a 25-yard score.

“I wish we would have double-covered Collins in the first half,” Wood said. “We just let him run (wild) in the first half. We stopped the run pretty well.”

But the third quarter was a different story.

Jacob Kitterman intercepted Albertson on the third play and on the next Luke Mathews threw a perfect pass to wide-open Issac Hamilton for a 34-yard score, followed by a Matthews to Chris Miller conversion.

Although Freeman didn’t take advantage of a Royal fumble on its next play, stalling out on the 15, the Scotties’ defense held despite Paysee’s return and Mathews hit Hamilton for 28 yards to set up their 20-yard score, cutting the margin to 26-20.

After trading three-and-outs, on Royal’s next play Jacob Kitterman broke perfectly on a Paysee pass and returned it 33 yards for a score. Mathews’ kick put Freeman ahead 27-26.

Freeman appeared poised to add to that lead, getting a first down on the Royal 15, but Mathews barely missed connecting on two passes from the 9.

“Freeman is a good football team,” Royal coach Wiley Allred said. “They do some things offensively to confuse you.”

Royal came back with its winning drive, with Paysee twice hitting Ben Singer on inside screens that picked up 29 yards and Collins covering the other 62 yards on six runs, the last a 15-yarder around right end with 6:36 left to play.

“We went to the 2-minute offense to spread things out and use Blair’s talents,” Allred said. “We had to get a running game and we have more ways him the ball from there.”