This time, it counts
POST FALLS - They proved it.
After beating the Lake City Timberwolves in a nonleague game earlier this season, the Post Falls Trojans held on late to win the 5A Inland Empire League opener for both schools 17-10 at Trojan Stadium on Friday night.
"It feels good," Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. "I like how this feels right now, but it's a long season and we've still got a ways to go. I've been trying to knock them off since I've been here, but it feels good to get them in the end."
Tyson Johnson finished the game with 23 carries for 87 yards and two touchdowns for Post Falls (5-1, 1-0 5A IEL).
"We needed this win to step up to the playoffs," Johnson said. "All week it wasn't about wanting to get it - but taking it from them. Lake City and Post Falls is always a big rivalry and we went out and took it tonight."
Sophomore quarterback Joey Pfennigs finished with 178 yards passing for Post Falls.
"He's been throwing really well," said Johnson of Pfennigs. "He's really been stepping up as a sophomore. I'm really proud of him."
With less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Post Falls was forced to punt after a drive stalled on the 40-yard line. On the punt, the ball deflected off Johnson's back, sending the ball back to the Lake City 20 and opening the door for the Timberwolves offense.
"We really flipped the field on that," Hinz said. "We've never gotten a break in this game and when that happened, I thought here we go again."
Lake City (2-3, 0-1) drove to the 5-yard line, but had a sweep by Kaleb Mitchell stopped short of the goal line by a group of swarming Post Falls defenders.
"That was a tremendous job by our defense," Hinz said. "They wanted it and flew around and played great assignment football on those four plays on the goal line."
"We'd been looking at that play all game," Lake City coach Van Troxel said. "We've been working on things all week and should have gone to our 2-point play instead. You can blame that decision on me."
Post Falls didn't allow Lake City to take the ball over again as Pfennigs scrambled for a first down from the back of the end zone and runs by Johnson and Marcus Colbert allowed the Trojans to run out the clock.
"He's been growing up out there as a sophomore," Hinz said of Pfennigs. "The way he scrambled out of the pocket for the first down was amazing tonight."
Bobby Traverse completed 16 of 27 passes for 202 yards for Lake City.
"I was pleased with how Bobby played tonight," Troxel said. "We've got some good kids out there, but we had a few drops in the first half that really cost us from moving the ball. Our defense played really hard tonight. This was a very good high school football game."
Post Falls took the lead for good late in the second quarter as Colbert, taking the snap in the wildcat formation, hit Johnson looping out of the backfield to his right on a 5-yard TD pass to make it 17-10.
"We didn't read our keys on that play," Troxel said. "We got caught in the backfield on that."
Next Friday, Lake City hosts Lewiston in another rematch of teams that played earlier this season in a nonleague game.
"We're going to have to gear up and win some games," Troxel said. "We worked all week on things and if we catch the ball, we really could have been moving early on."
Post Falls hosts Sandpoint next Friday.
Lake City 7 3 0 0 - 10
Post Falls 3 14 0 0 - 17
PF - FG Timmy Mueller 27
LC - Chris Williams 1 run (Andrew Hocking kick)
PF - Tyson Johnson 3 run (Mueller kick)
LC - FG Hocking 30
PF - Johnson 5 pass from Marcus Colbert (Mueller kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - LC, Williams 5-3, Traverse 3-8, Bevacqua 2-9, Johnson 2-2, Burgess 1-10, Mitchell 1-5, Houlihan 2-1. PF, Colbert 8-26, Johnson 23-87, Pfennigs 3-12, Hensley 5-13, Slater 2-8.
PASSING - LC, Traverse, 16-27-1-202. PF, Pfennigs 10-19-0-178.
RECEIVING - LC, Baker 2-23, Burgess 2-19, Brum 1-12, Bevacqua 4-70, Ballison 1-29, Mitchell 3-31, Williams 2-15, Hewitt 1-3. PF, Colbert 1-25, Johnson 2-24, Haskew 4-73, Anderson 3-53, Hensley 1-8.