No. 2 Royal Crowns Colfax Sutor, Murphy Lead Knights Into 1A Finals

Will Sutor’s arm and Chris Murphy’s legs were a combination Colfax couldn’t unlock.

Sutor threw three touchdown passes and Murphy ran for 162 yards and two scores as second-ranked Royal rolled to a 32-7 win over No. 5 Colfax in the State 1A football semifinals on a frigid and foggy Friday night at Albi Stadium.

“We got beat by a better team tonight,” Colfax coach Mike Morgan said. “We knew they were capable of the big play and they proved it. Royal was the real deal.”

Royal (12-0) earned its first trip to the championship game since winning the 1996 title with a 70-0 rout of Toledo. The finale is a week from today in Tacoma against the winner of the game today between Kalama and Tacoma Baptist.

The Knights won with five scoring drives that went two plays, two plays, one play, three plays and seven plays. “I just told them they’re awesome. It doesn’t take much to coach a group like that,” Royal coach Wiley Allred said. “Hopefully, we’ll get it done for the East Side.”

After stopping Royal cold to open the game, Colfax (11-1) put together an impressive 15-play, 81-yard drive that consumed 7-1/2-minutes.

The touchdown came on a 7-yard trap play run by Derek McClintock. Quarterback John White hit two big passes and had the Knights dropped a potential interception at the goal line.

However, White suffered a broken collarbone on a 6-yard run the play before the touchdown, and after holding for Tommy Tribbett’s extra point never returned to the game.

“Our quarterback went down, but that wasn’t the difference,” Morgan said. “You don’t run into any weak teams in the semifinals.”

But after gaining 86 yards on the opening drive, Colfax only added 107 the rest of the night.

“They’re a good team,” Colfax running back Andy Gylling said after being held to 51 yards. “They’re quick. They know their assignments. They just ran us down. We couldn’t get any offense going.”

Royal bounced right back with a two-play drive. First was Murphy’s 18-yard run, then Sutor hit Nate Debar with a 49-touchdown pass. Rolling left, Sutor lofted the ball back the opposite way with Debar outjumping Gylling for a one-handed catch at the 20 and breaking away. However, the kick missed and Colfax led 7-6.

Royal, after Mark Anderson’s interception on the Colfax 23, took the lead when facing a first-and-goal from the 31. Sutor found Murphy wide open on the left side for an easy score. The pass for conversion failed and it was 12-7 at halftime.

On the Knights’ second possession of the third quarter, Murphy burst 72 yards up the middle for a touchdown.

“They just came out and played hard,” McClintock said. “We got a little mentally down a couple of times and they took advantage with a couple of big plays. That’s what they needed to do to get a spark going.”

Sutor hit 9 of 16 passes for 146 yards to five different receivers.

“It’s a deadly combination,” Morgan said. “The Sutor kid, with his ability to spread the field and with his arm strength, forces you to defend the whole field. Then they turn around and Murphy runs right up the field.” The Knights’ next possession, set up by a good punt return by Debar, was only 35 yards, with Sutor hitting Anderson for a 20-yard score.

“The second half we came out fired up,” end/safety Jeremy Scroggins said. “We didn’t think they could stay with us for 48 minutes and we took it to them on both sides of the ball.”

After a 12-yard run to open the second half, Colfax didn’t get a first down until the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs used two quarterbacks after White went out, but the Knights didn’t let either of them get comfortable.

“The quarterback hurting his collarbone took away from a lot of their offense,” Allred said. The 1A and 2A doubleheader drew 2,150 fans to Albi Stadium.

Royal 32, Colfax 7

Colfax 7 0 0 0 - 7

Royal 6 6 13 7 - 32

Colfax - McClintock 7 run (Tribbett kick) Royal - Debar 49 pass from Sutor (kick failed) Royal - Murphy 31 pass from Sutor (pass failed) Royal - Murphy 72 run (pass failed) Royal - Anderson 20 pass from Sutor (Bozoroth kick) Royal - Murphy 3 run (Bozoroth kick)