Cruisers State Title Chase Falls Short

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 as they fell to the Royal Knights 41-0, ending their season.

Eatonville seniors Kaden Miller (71), Julian Evans (70), and Brandon Storm (31) lead the Cruisers onto the field one last time before the WIAA 1A State Championship game on Saturday. Eatonville would fall to the Royal Knights 41-0. Photo: Trinity Potter.

The Knights would receive the opening kickoff and march 70 yards and cap the drive with a 21-yard Avery Ellis touchdown run. Royal would take an early 7-0 lead and never look back.

The normally efficient Cruiser offense was unable to get anything going offensively and would turn the ball over 3 times in the game. The Knight's defense would hold 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,” Kralik said. “That was surprising. I wasn’t expecting it.”

The Royal offense would gash the Cruisers for 472 total yards. Senior running back Avery Ellis would set a WIAA 1A state championship game record with 5 total touchdowns. Ellis would score on runs of 1, 14, and 21 yards, run in a botched snap for a score, and catch an 11-yard pass to set the record. Quarterback Derek Bergeson had 121 rushing yards and 169 yards through the air with 1 rushing touchdown and 1 passing.

“Hats off to Royal,” Cruisers head coach Gavin 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 continued to fight until the very end.

While trying to find some positives in a loss like this is difficult, one Eatonville parent summed it up well.

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

“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 went on to say.

The town of Eatonville showed up and packed the away side stands for this game 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 finish the season at 13-1, capturing the Evergreen 1A League title, and took 2nd place in the state in the 1A classification.