Cruisers fall short in chase for state title

On Saturday, the Eatonville Cruisers played in their first WIAA 1A state championship game in 29 years. Unfortunately, they struggled to get their offense going and were stymied on defense, and they fell to the Royal Knights 41-0.

The Knights received the opening kickoff, marched 70 yards and capped the drive with a 21-yard \touchdown run by senior running back Avery Ellis. Royal took an early 7-0 lead and never look back.

The normally efficient Cruiser offense was unable to get anything going and turned the ball over three times in the game. The Knights' defense held the Cruisers to a season-low 48 total yards.

“They were able to defend the run without a ton of guys actually up in the box,” Cruisers head coach Gavin Kralik said. “That was surprising. I wasn’t expecting it.”

The Royal offense gashed the Cruisers for 472 total yards. Ellis set a WIAA 1A state championship game record with five touchdowns. Ellis scored on runs of 1, 14 and 21 yards, ran in a botched snap for a score and caught an 11-yard pass to set the record. Quarterback Derek Bergeson had 121 rushing yards and 169 yards through the air with one rushing touchdown and one passing.

“Hats off to Royal,” Kralik said. “Our offense really put our defense in a tough position. They’re good on both sides of the ball and the kicking game, but I wish we could have played better today.”

While the outcome wasn’t what many expected, the Cruisers fought until the very end.

“I saw lots of young men expressing their appreciation and love for each other during an extremely difficult situation,” said Jason Lewis, father of junior Tristan Lewis. “They also recognized the support of their community and encouraged each other to keep fighting until the very end.

“It’s hard to see these things while the pain of the loss is so fresh, but as far as building good men, this will be a valuable experience in their life,” Lewis added.

The town of Eatonville showed up and packed the away side stands to support their team.

“Their support for these kids ... it’s been a hard two years on a lot of people,” Kralik said. “This has been the unifying thing for our community.”

The Cruisers finished the season at 13-1, capturing the Evergreen 1A League title and took second place in the state in the 1A classification.