Photo supplied, Gordon Doxey

ROY — One would be hard-pressed to say a defense was on its heels when it had a 20-14 lead in the fourth quarter and the opposing offense was starting a drive at its own 12-yard line.

Roy High’s defense was indeed on its heels against Woods Cross.

The Wildcats’ prior two drives were long, bruising 80-yarders that ended in touchdowns and featured tough running from 6-foot-2, 220-pound fullback Viliami Tapa’atoutai.

Both drives made Roy’s defense tired, almost to the breaking point.

Almost.

Photo supplied, Gordon Doxey

The Royals got a critical stop, thanks to a tackle for loss by Colby Frokjer and a batted ball by Ryker Cordero, that forced a punt with 10:02 left in the game.

“We knew if we could get them to third down and cover their play action, we knew they could get them off the field,” Roy senior Logan Cella said.

Then, Roy handed the ball to Cella seven times on the next drive, the seventh of which was a touchdown for a 27-14 lead that became a 33-14 win.

The win keeps the Royals (7-0, 4-0 Region 5) unbeaten.

Roy’s public address announcer had warned the visiting Woods Cross fans, ahead of the Royals’ homecoming game, that there would be fireworks shot off from behind the north stands during the game.

After Cella’s late TD, the fireworks, which were launched whenever Roy scored, weren’t done.

Zay Morris intercepted WX’s Jesse Simmons and ran it back corner to corner for a 100-yard touchdown, ending any Wildcat comeback hopes.

Morris collapsed from exhaustion on the sideline afterward.

“I just took off and I (saw) a pursuit, three or four players from Woods Cross cut it back, and I’m just seeing green grass again,” Morris said. “Colby (Frokjer), he was running side by side with me, he had a great block, he allowed me to get in the end zone.”

Earlier in the drive, Morris gave up a 38-yard pass on fourth-and-10; the home sideline screamed for a pass interference flag that was never thrown.

“They went at me and they caught a ball … I kept my head up and I knew they were going to try me,” Morris said.

Where Morris ended the game with a bang, Cella started the game with one.

He ran for a 19-yard touchdown on Roy’s first drive, part of a 125-yard rushing night according to unofficial stats.

The run gave the Royals a 6-0 lead and set up the big challenge: stopping the Wildcats’ triple-option offense.

Though Woods Cross was 4-2 — albeit against the statistically weakest schedule in 5A — the thing about the triple option is you can’t effectively simulate it in practice: you need experience against the real thing.

WX came in averaging 7.2 yards per rush and, unofficially, ran 39 times for 125 yards, or 3.2 yards per carry. That came one week after scoring 50 points and running for 494 yards on 8.1 per carry against Viewmont.

“We had a really good game plan. We had one dive player, one pitch player and one quarterback player. As long as we were doing our jobs, and getting to our spots … we knew we were going to get it done,” Cella said.

Jaxton Schoffield was a recurring tackler for Roy, which held all the non-Tapa’atoutai rushers to minus-2 yards (Tapa’atoutai unofficially had 127 yards on 23 carries).

Roy cornerback Rhett Slater had two interceptions on either side of the Morris pick-six.

Cella, Robert Young (8-yard run) and Morris (1-yard pass from Dru Gardner) scored touchdowns to put Roy up 20-7 at the break.

The Wildcats marched 13 plays and 80 yards for a touchdown (20-14) to start the second half, then forced a Roy punt to give themselves a chance to take the lead early in the fourth, but the Royals ended that chance.