Royal Knights earn another 1A WA football title. It’s the 7th time in 8 years

Does it ever get old in Royal City?

Doubtful.

For the fourth consecutive season, Royal’s football team won the Class 1A state championship on Friday, this time beating Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls by a 49-7 score at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

Lance Allred, the junior who has pretty much dominated the football field all season, was again the catalyst.

The quarterback rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries. But he also tossed three TD passes, going 12 for 16 for 182 yards.

Royal completed its season with a perfect 13-0 record, and Lakeside’s one touchdown in the game was the only score the Knights defense gave up in the postseason.

The Knights have won the state 1A title seven of the last eight years; 12 overall in school history; and head coach Wiley Allred has now been a part of 11 state championships.

He’s run out of fingers for his rings.

▪ Kamiakin junior David Kuku was outstanding this season for the Braves on the football field.

The defensive back was named first-team All-MCC at his position, as opponents rarely threw the ball his way.

College coaches have noticed, and he’s already drawing interesting from plenty of schools.

Nebraska, Idaho and Arizona State have offered him scholarships, while Nevada, California and Washington are also recruiting him.

Expect plenty more schools to come after him.

College volleyball

Walla Walla High School grad Hannah Hair could not have asked for a better finish to her college volleyball career.

The senior middle blocker was named as the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year when the all-conference team came out on Nov. 21.

Hair, playing for Seattle Pacific University, helped lead the Falcons to a 22-5 record, and she had a total of 160 blocks this season, and 163 kills.

Her block numbers averaged out to 1.63 blocks per set, which led all of the NCAA D-2 level.

It was the third season in a row that Hair was named to the GNAC all-conference first team.

The Falcons saw their season end on Nov. 30, as Cal State LA beat SPU 3-1 in the West Regionals.

Girls bowling

With all winter high school sports under way recently, girls bowling has been up and running for four weeks in the Mid-Columbia Conference.

Through matches of Dec. 1, the Kennewick Lions are atop the rest of the MCC in the standings at 6-0.

The rest of the standings has Kamiakin at 5-1, Richland at 4-2, Chiawana at 3-3, Hermiston and Walla Walla both at at 3-4, Pasco and Southridge both at 2-4, and Hanford at 0-6.

The top returning bowlers are spread out throughout the MCC: Richland senior Malia Haynes, Kamiakin sophomore Alyssa Martinez, Hermiston junior Lily Fields, Walla Walla senior Morgan Perron, and Kennewick senior Kourtnie Foss.

Foss is the early leader among MCC scoring, averaging 187.8 pins a game.

In fact, Kennewick has the top three scorers, with sophomore Lexis McGarity second at 183.7; and Lions junior Samantha McMaster third at 182.1.

Kamiakin junior Clara Demerest so far has the best individual game, rolling a 267 on Nov. 16 against Richland.

Kennewick is the top scoring team, averaging 170.2 pins a game. Chiawana is second at 158.6 pins.

Meanwhile, Chiawana has the best Baker Scoring average at 166.7, while Kennewick is second at 162.9 pins.

Baker Scoring comes as each of five teammates takes turns rolling a frame during a contest.

Quick note: Kamiakin grad Hayden Bennett, who won the Class 4A individual state championship the last two seasons, is at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania as a member of the school’s women’s bowling team.

Girls basketball

Here’s a player I neglected to mention among the area’s top girls high school basketball players to watch this season: Richland’s senior Macie Milum.

My old eyes just happened to skip right over her name when I was writing off of the list I compiled.

She was supposed to be among the 10 players to watch. Turns out I had only listed nine in the story.

Milum was the Bombers’ No. 2 scorer last season before a season-ending knee injury sidelined her for the remainder of the postseason. It happened on a breakaway layup in a 61-55 Class 4A District 8 championship game, as Milum crumpled to the floor and had to be helped to the locker room.

Milum spent the offseason rehabbing the knee and is ready to lead Richland this season.

Great outside shooter, and a tough defender.

Milum returned to the Bombers for their season opener on Saturday, and she scored a game-high 18 points that included 3-for-9 shooting from the 3-point line.

She’s back.

College football

Central Washington University’s football team had its season end on Saturday in the NCAA Division II playoffs with a 38-14 loss at top-seeded Colorado School of the Mines.

No matter. It was a great season for CWU head coach Chris Fisk, his coaching staff and all of the Wildcat players.

The team had a rough start to the season, losing its first two games — one at Weber State and the other a home loss to NAIA school Montana Tech.

But then the Wildcats caught fire, reeling off seven consecutive victories in Lonestar Conference play. A 42-14 loss to end the regular season at Texas Permian Basin out Central in a second-place finish in the conference standings.

It also was enough to get CWU into the NCAA playoffs, and the Wildcats opened postseason play with a 16-13 overtime win at Western Colorado. They followed that up with a 21-17 road win at Bemidji State before bowing out at Colorado School of the Mines.

Final record was 9-4.

I had a chance to do some color commentary this season on the Lonestar Conference Digital Network, working three home games with Jamie Council (who did great play by play work).

Central was fun to watch and it was a great season.

The Mid-Columbia has three players on this Wildcats roster: Dustyn Coughlin, Bridger Feldmann and Jalen Webber.

Coughlin is a 6-5, 300-pound offensive lineman who played at Hermiston High School, then Western Oregon, before transferring to CWU.

Feldmann is a redshirt junior defensive lineman. The 6-3, 230-pound standout started at times for the Wildcats, and he finished the year with 30 tackles (4 for loss) and two quarterback sacks.

Webber is a redshirt sophomore who is a defensive back. The 5-10, 185-pounder worked a lot of special teams play — which became a team strength after a rough season start. He collected 5 tackles, most of which were on kickoff coverage.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.