'Mighty Mites' swarm
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Ryan Fenter braces for impact after losing his helmet while he and his teammate Matt Howard went after Sandpoint quarterback Brandon Hawkins during Friday's game.</p>
<p>Coeur d'Alene High's Matt Lambert pivots as he heads upfield after evading Sandpoint defenders Joe Duarte, left, and Luther Morgan. Lambert eventually made his way into the end zone after powering through one more defender.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The Coeur d'Alene Vikings don't blitz everybody on every play - it may just look like that to the other team.
Ask the Sandpoint Bulldog quarterbacks, who were under constant, swarming pressure from the Vikings, who recorded six sacks, forced two interceptions and recovered four fumbles Friday night.
The result - a 55-7 shellacking by the 5A Vikings (3-1) of the 4A Bulldogs (2-2) on homecoming at Viking Field.
"That's kind of how we play - it doesn't really matter who," said Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos of his defense, nicknamed the 'Mighty Mites', who were looking to bounce back after giving up 36 points in a loss two weeks ago at Skyview of Vancouver, Wash. "We like to bring guys from all different angles. We don't bring as many as it seems, but there are different guys coming all the time."
Sandpoint trailed 49-7 at the half, and committed six turnovers for the game against Coeur d'Alene, ranked fourth in the state.
"I thought they played very well; they're a good football team. That's the worst we've ever tackled in history," Sandpoint coach Mike Mitchell said. "And I don't know why we picked tonight to play that poorly. We didn't give our opponent a respectable ballgame tonight, and we're not used to that."
Zach Keiser, in his first game back since suffering a foot injury in the season opener, rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries for Coeur d'Alene.
"It's nice to have the workhorse back, for sure," said Amos, who said Keiser is "probably at about 90 (percent); we're hoping by next week he'll be 100 percent."
Chad Chalich passed for five touchdowns (on just nine completions), two each to Jake Matheson and Matt Lambert. Chalich threw four TD passes in the second quarter, then one more on the first drive of the third quarter before calling it a night.
Matheson also had two interceptions, and the Vikings recovered four Bulldog fumbles. Gabe Ross had two of the sacks for Coeur d'Alene. Sandpoint fumbled eight times in the game.
Anthony Gold scored the game's first touchdown for Sandpoint 3 minutes into the game on a 3-yard run - which was set up by a blocked punt by Derek Lang - but the Vikings held the shifty junior back to 56 yards on 15 carries for the game.
After Coeur d'Alene tied it on Keiser's 33-yard run less than a minute later, Sandpoint drove to the Viking 32, where Gold fumbled and Coeur d'Alene's Matt Howard recovered.
From that point on, the Vikings dominated the rest of the half, scoring on their last six possessions of the half. On Sandpoint's next six drives following that lost fumble, the Bulldogs totaled minus-14 yards, lost two more fumbles and suffered an interception.
"We started out rough; we're still learning with this group," Amos said. "We don't want to start like that again."
Sandpoint's quarterbacks were sacked six times against the blitzing Vikings. The Bulldogs finished with 18 rushing yards and were outgained 411-105.
"We didn't hold up," Mitchell said. "We worked all week at handling the blitz ... we didn't pick up their linebacker blitzes and they got pressure on us. We're a much better football team than we just looked like."
Coeur d'Alene plays host to second-ranked Rocky Mountain of Meridian next Friday.
Sandpoint 7 0 0 0 - 7
Coeur d'Alene 14 35 6 0 - 55
Spt - Anthony Gold 3 run (Cole Fuhrman kick)
Cd'A - Zach Keiser 33 run (Parker Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Keiser 31 run (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Keiser 4 run (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Matt Lambert 12 pass from Chad Chalich (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Jake Matheson 17 pass from Chalich (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Lambert 13 pass from Chalich (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Deon Watson 39 pass from Chalich (Wilson kick)
Cd'A - Matheson 40 pass from Chalich (kick failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - Spt, Morgan 4-11, Gold 15-56, Hawkins 8-(-6), Schmid 7-(-44), Nikssarian 1-(-1), Brown 1-1, Kingsley 1-1. Cd'A, Keiser 18-174, Turbin 1-7, Chalich 4-2, DeHaas 6-26, Comack 2-2, Johnson 3-31.
PASSING - Spt, Hawkins 7-15-2-40, Schmid 3-10-0-47. Cd'A, Chalich 9-14-0-165, DeHaas 2-5-0-4.
RECEIVING - Spt, Nikssarian 5-32, Gold 1-7, Magro 1-1, Clad 2-36, Heuscher 1-11. Cd'A, Martinez 1-1, Lambert 3-32, Matheson 2-57, Watson 2-61, Turbin 1-14, Comack 1-(-3), Kane 1-1.