On Oct. 15, the Royals played in the Conference Championship for the first time in the 11-year Coach DenHartog era. The game ended 28-34, with Eden Prairie winning in the last minutes of the game.

Even after the close loss, the boys were ranked number 10 in the metro high school football rankings and two in the Lake Conference before beating Edina and then losing to Lakeville North in section playoffs.

Tyler Lee, senior, only lost three games while starting at the quarterback position.

“It is a pretty good feeling not losing a lot of games and knowing that your team has your back. The group of guys that are playing together mesh really well.” Lee said. “We just have each other’s backs.”

In the 2013 season, the football team did not win a single conference game, and was ranked last in the Lake conference. This year, they beat every team in the Lake Conference except the perennial powerhouse, Eden Prairie.

“We worked hard for it. We are all very competitive and we want to win,” said Harry Momoh, senior captain.

Drew Sension, senior captain, has reasons for why he thinks the team did well this year.

“We are playing more as a team and not individuals. We know we are a family and have to play as a family, ” Sension said.

The coaching staff was also pleased with the team’s performance and results in the season.

“I was really proud of our effort [at Eden Prairie] in the first half, we gave up a couple touchdowns and got behind a little bit, but our kids showed really good character and came out in the second half and did a great job working hard and we got real close,” DenHartog said. “I think if we had a little bit more time, we could have gotten them in the end.”

Heading into the Lakeville  North section game, they had won 5 out of their last 6 games with the only loss being to Eden Prairie and a win in the first section game to Edina with a score of 37-36.

On Friday, Oct. 31, the team lost 26-7. Coach DenHartog was proud of the boys even after the loss to Lakeville and reflected on what made the season different from the past.

“The senior class’ leadership  helped out in really close games. In other years, they might not have had as good of leaders as we have had this year,” said DenHartog.

The football team had about 40 seniors this year.

“Hopefully this year’s senior group set a great example of how to work hard and be good teammates, and I think the younger players saw that and I hope in the future they can be similar to this group,” said DenHartog.