Feasting on miscues
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Coeur d'Alene High's Joe Roletto crashes over a Lake City player at the end of his 41-yard catch-and-run to put the Viking's in a first and goal from the four-yard line during the second half of the Viking's 62-21 win Thursday over Lake City.</p>
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Lake City High's Danny Brum sprints past the Coeur d'Alene defense on his way to end zone during his 85-yard touchdown run.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Sixty-two points in a game?
The Coeur d’Alene Vikings have been there, done that three times already this high school football season.
But it was the way the Vikings got to 62 on Thursday night which was a little bit different. Coeur d’Alene forced five turnovers and turned them into 31 points en route to a 62-21 victory at Lake City. The win, on a chilly night, clinched the 5A Inland Empire League championship for the Vikings (9-0, 3-0 5A IEL), ranked No. 1 in 5A in Idaho, and clinched a home game next week in the first round of the state playoffs.
“A lot of turnovers, and that’s good, because they’ve been playing great, but we’re used to more turnovers, so it was nice to get back to them creating more turnovers,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “I think our kids, the way they play defense, they fly around so much, it’s just a matter of time with our guys before those things happen.”
Joe Roletto had an interception return for a touchdown, as well as a fumble recovery for Coeur d’Alene, which will play host to the third-place team from the 5A Southern Idaho Conference, which will be determined tonight when Borah (5-3 5A SIC, tied for fourth) plays Capital (6-2, tied for second) at Bronco Stadium and Mountain View (6-2, tied for second) plays at Eagle (8-0, first place). Eagle has clinched the No. 1 seed, and will host the No. 2 team from the 5A IEL next week.
Post Falls (6-2, 1-1) can clinch the No. 2 berth to the playoffs from the 5A IEL with a victory at Lewiston (4-4, 0-2) tonight. If Lewiston wins, then Post Falls, Lake City (5-4, 1-2) and Lewiston would meet early next week in a playoff for the No. 2 berth.
If Post Falls wins, Lake City’s impressive string of 14 straight years in the state playoffs would come to an end.
Coeur d’Alene scored on its first possession on a 6-yard run by Chad Chalich. Roletto then intercepted a pass that deflected off a Lake City receiver’s hands and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings then recovered a Timberwolf fumble, and on the next play Chalich hit Bubba Duran for a 26-yard touchdown for a 21-0 lead after just 5 minutes and 4 seconds.
The Vikings forced four turnovers in the half, turned them into 24 points and led 48-14 at halftime.
“You’re never going to beat a very good football team when you turn the ball over,” Lake City coach Van Troxel said. “We had some opportunities, and we made too many mental mistakes, but that’s a very good football team. We thought we had an opportunity, but you can’t turn the ball over and give them opportunities. What you have to do with a team like that is control the ball and limit their opportunities, and we didn’t do that. So that’s what happened; it’s happened to everybody.”
Carlos Martinez rushed for 107 yards and four touchdowns for Coeur d’Alene. Lake City tried to keep Chalich’s completions to the short variety, and he finished 24 of 35 for 254 yards and two touchdowns, both to Duran. Coeur d’Alene’s defense had at least three sacks and forced at least seven fumbles.
Coeur d’Alene 21 27 14 0 — 62
Lake City 7 7 0 7 — 21
Cd’A — Chad Chalich 6 run (Parker Wilson kick)
Cd’A — Joe Roletto 52 interception return (Wilson kick)
Cd’A — Bubba Duran 26 pass from Chalich (Wilson kick)
LC — Chris Williams 1 run (Andrew Hocking kick)
Cd’A — Duran 23 pass from Chalich (Wilson kick)
LC — Danny Brum 85 pass from Bruce Shipley (Hocking kick)
Cd’A — Carlos Martinez 50 run (Wilson kick)
Cd’A — Martinez 4 run (Wilson kick)
Cd’A — FG Wilson 37
Cd’A — FG Wilson 38
Cd’A — Martinez 7 run (Wilson kick)
Cd’A — Martinez 10 run (Wilson kick)
LC — Levi Hewitt 3 run (Hocking kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Cd’A, Chalich 8-35, Martinez 13-107, Montee 2-7, Amos 3-(minus 11), Mort 5-16. LC, Williams 3-8, Shipley 16-(minus 14), Mitchell 1-0, Johnson 8-54, Houlihan 1-1, Hewitt 1-3.
PASSING — Cd’A, Chalich 24-35-1-254, Amos 1-4-0-8. LC, Traverse 2-4-1-17, Shipley 24-37-1-289.
RECEIVING — Cd’A, Watson 5-54, Martinez 4-4, Johnson 3-29, Roletto 5-71, Duran 7-96, Carlson 1-8. LC, Bevacqua 2-18, Mitchell 6-46, Balison 6-46, Brum 1-85, Baker 4-37, Johnson 1-(minus 1), Traverse 3-12, Houlihan 1-30, Mullen 1-3, Hocking 1-30.