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Local and National News - Kootenai County, Idaho

Post Falls muddies up 5A IEL race

Posted: Thursday, Oct 29, 2009 - 11:19:18 pm PDT
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Trojans dump Coeur d'Alene, stay in hunt for tiebreaker, clinch playoff spot for Lake City

By MARK NELKE
Sports editor

COEUR d'ALENE -- Another head-scratching night in 5A Inland Empire League football ended with a 2-6 team (Lake City) clinching a playoff berth, and its two county rivals rooting for it to win tonight.

Post Falls, with its top two tailbacks sidelined with injuries, turned to its quarterback for ball carrying duties and grounded out a 13-7 victory over Coeur d'Alene on Thursday night at Viking Field to keep its playoff hopes alive.

"We're still alive," said Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz, whose team lost its first two league games in disappointing fashion.

Now, Post Falls (6-3, 1-2 5A IEL) and Coeur d'Alene (6-3, 1-2) need Lake City (2-6, 2-0) to win tonight at Lewiston (4-4, 1-1) to force a three-way tie for the second berth to the state playoffs.

If that happens, Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston would meet Monday at 6 p.m. at Lake City for a Kansas tiebreaker to decide that second berth. If Lewiston wins, Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene are eliminated, and Lake City would travel to Lewiston for the first round of the playoffs.

"Rooting for Lake City, that's always strange, but we've still got to do it," said Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos, whose team lost at Lake City last week. "That was two tough ones in a row."

With tailbacks Marcus Colbert (high ankle sprain) and Jordan Pastras (lacerated kidney) unable to play, Post Falls turned to junior Nick Dyk, but quickly found success simply snapping the ball to quarterback Matt Lickfold and running out of the shotgun formation. The 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior carried 27 times for 71 yards, and he also threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Zach Carter in the second quarter as the Trojans took a 10-0 halftime lead.

Post Falls brought the rush against Coeur d'Alene quarterback Ryan Dunton, sacking him five times and pressuring him into two interceptions -- one by Jose Chavez at the Viking 1-yard line in the third quarter. Dunton completed 9 of 27 passes for 141 yards.

"If we let him sit back there, he'll pick us apart," Hinz said. "So we really needed to put some heat on him, and make him make a quick decision and a quick throw."

Dunton threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Steven Casley that pulled the Vikings within six points with 2:06 remaining. But Jeremy Cragin of Post Falls recovered the onside kick, and the Trojans ran out the clock as the Vikings were out of timeouts.

"Our kids played great; we played great defense tonight," Hinz said. "The pick by Jose Chavez down by the goal line, that was a game-saving interception by him, and just the ball control, with Matt running the ball. Matt did a fantastic job running the ball."

Scott Benner booted line-drive field goals of 36 and 41 yards in the first and third quarters for Post Falls, the second one hiking the Trojans' lead to 13-0 midway through the third quarter.

Post Falls outgained Coeur d'Alene 211-180 and beat the Vikings for the third straight year. The Vikings had just 39 rushing yards. Post Falls turned the ball over four times, but Coeur d'Alene was unable to take advantage of any of them.

"We didn't play well enough in the first half to win that football game," Amos said. "This time of year, you've got to play better football. The first half, they put good pressure on us, and we couldn't run the ball very effectively. And they did it basically with D-linemen, so when they do that, we've got to be able to protect, throw and catch."

Post Falls 3 7 3 0 -- 13

Coeur d'Alene 0 0 0 7 -- 7

PF -- FG Scott Benner 36

PF -- Zach Carter 30 pass from Matt Lickfold (Benner kick)

PF -- FG Benner 41

Cd'A -- Steven Casley 66 pass from Ryan Dunton (Connor Williams kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- PF, Kennedy 1-0, Dyk 7-14, Lickfold 27-71, Wood 3-7. Cd'A, Keiser 9-33, Dunton 11-11, Comack 1-(minus 1), Mendoza 1-(minus 4).

PASSING -- PF, Lickfold 8-19-2-119. Cd'A, Dunton 9-27-2-141, Williams 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING -- PF, Clark 5-61, Carter 2-42, Haskew 1-16. Cd'A, Keiser 3-16, Watson 1-11, Lambert 1-11, Matheson 1-12, Casley 2-76, Mendoza 1-15.


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23451982 wrote on Oct 30, 2009 8:25 PM:

" CHS football . . . ZERO intensity . . . softer than a 24 pack of Charmin. A lot of really nice coaches and a lot of really nice players. Cut them some slack! They are a bunch of really nice guys. Won't change either!!! But we love them. "

daleh wrote on Oct 30, 2009 6:24 PM:

" Once again it is obvious that CHS is outcoached. I didn't see the game against Post Falls but I saw the one against Lake City. Poor play calling, poor adjustments on defense and just overall poor leadership.
It is comical to watch the other coaches take advantage of the CHS coaching staff.
The JV team at CHS has beaten their opponants the past 2 years by something like 50 points per game average. They demolished Lake City JV this year by over 40 points but..... watch what happens when those same players become varsity. They will by beaten by Lake City again.. get used to it! "

123451 wrote on Oct 30, 2009 11:46 AM:

" Amos needs to leave, its been five years since the vikings have done anything and it had nothing to do with the coaching but more with the talent and players...just look at what troxel and others have been able to produce. Lets face it cda isnt going to go anywhere this year and they will be lucky to even get to the playoffs which is a sad sight considering how well they started "

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