What's wrong with Royal?
Highlander football team has lost seven of its last nine games
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers SEARCHING FOR SUCCESS- Royal quarterback Trevor Shubert has pass protection from offensive lineman Scott Holty during last week's 37-27 loss to Westlake, a defeat that dropped RHS to 1-5.

It's only been three years since the Royal High football team won a Marmonte League title and made the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division IV playoffs. After the Highlanders' tough start in '07, one might think the glory days were a lifetime ago.

After a 37-27 loss at home last week to Westlake High, the Highlanders have fallen to 1-5 overall and have earned a share of the cellar in the Marmonte League.

For years, RHS rose to dominance by featuring a strong running game from backs such as Marcus Hunt, Curtis Marsh and Daniel Mosier.

This year's squad is no different, as senior Derek Morris has rushed 108 times for 574 yards and seven touchdowns. Morris has also caught nine passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

"Derek has had a great year for us, and he is in a long line of brothers that have played well for us," Royal head coach Gene Uebelhardt said. "We've had a lot of great running backs at this school, but the goal is always to run 50 percent of our plays on the ground and the other 50 from the passing game."

Morris said he wants to make the playoffs more than ever in his last season wearing the green and gold.

"Last year or not, I always want to get into the playoffs," Morris said. "But being my senior year, I want to go more than ever."

So with the running game clicking on all cylinders once again, one has to ask: What's wrong with Royal?

"We are a very young team," Uebelhardt said. "This may in fact be the youngest team I've coached at Royal. I mean, we have five starting sophomores."

While the running game has been productive, not much else has been.

It could be speculated that a turning point for the football program came when former quarterback Kevin Harrington was injured at the start of the 2005 season. Harrington would later be drafted as a baseball player by the Minnesota Twins in the spring of 2006, but ever since his injury the Highlanders have struggled.

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers PRESSURE- Royal defensive lineman Brad Dade, left, chases down Westlake wide receiver Kyle Oglesby during last week's game.

Since Harrington went down, the team has gone 12-15, while losing its only playoff game to Canyon High last season, 63-3. Allowing so many points may have had a negative affect on the defense; the Highlanders haven't been the same since. Coming into this season, it looked as if Royal's defense would be stellar with last year's league interceptions leader, Jake Mittel, as well as the league's leading tackler, Cameron Flye, returning for their senior years. Unfortunately for RHS, the defense has been sub-par. In six games the defense has allowed 172 points, an average of 29 points per game, good enough for seventh in the league.

During the game against Westlake, Royal had a tough time wrapping up, as many of Warrior running back Cooper Shockley's 224 yards on the ground came off missed tackles.

The special teams needs help too. With 9:58 remaining in the fourth quarter, Royal put up an impressive six-play, 80-yard drive that ended with 23yard touchdown run by Morris.

The touchdown pulled Royal within seven points, but was quickly erased 9 seconds later when Justin Lilley returned the following kickoff 87 yards for a Westlake score.

Although the loss put them at 0-3 in league, Uebelhardt would not say if this was a rebuilding year or not.

"At this point in the season, it's too tough to tell if it's a rebuilding year for us," Uebelhardt said. "We need to get better on special teams, but we also need to get better in a lot of other positions as well.

"We are improving each week, and I thought even though we lost (to Westlake), we grew up a lot and I think this was our best output of the season."

Morris agreed with his coach and said that he and the team aren't giving up on the season.

"We need to keep playing hard," Morris said. "We have started off slow but we have been working on everything in practice and we are getting a little better each week.

"We need to avoid stupid mistakes each week and hopefully we can get back on track."

Royal will look to turn things around when they hosts Thousand Oaks tonight at 7 p.m.