T-Wolf 'D' stops Trojans
<p>Post Falls High's Ryan Morris tries to complete a catch as Trent Greene, right, from Lake City High applies the defensive pressure to break up the play.</p>
<p>Lake City High's Jerry Louie-McGee is upended after taking a hit from a Post Falls High defender in the Timberwolves 19-7 win Friday over the Trojans.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Lake City's defense gave up some yardage to Post Falls, but when it came down to making stops Friday night, the Timberwolves came up big.
Time ... and time ... and time ... and time ... and time ... and time again.
Post Falls came up with nothing out of its first six drives into Lake City territory, and the T-Wolves did all their scoring in the first 16 1/2 minutes of the game in a 19-7 victory over the Trojans in a state 5A play-in game at Lake City.
"Our defense is playing hard, and they just do a great job," Lake City coach Van Troxel said. "We played better offensively, and got some points and controlled the ball a little bit better. But it's never easy the second time around."
Lake City (5-3-1) qualified for the state playoffs for the 16th straight season, and travels to Eagle (8-2) next Friday in a first-round game. Eagle beat visiting Lake City 35-28 in the season opener.
Lake City beat Post Falls 45-24 in the first meeting of the season on Sept. 24.
Brandon Johnson raced 23 yards untouched up the middle to put Lake City up 7-0 just over 2 minutes into the game.
On fourth and 3 later in the first quarter, Jerry Louie-McGee swept left end, cut back and raced 48 yards for a 13-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Gavan Rosteck broke runs of 37 and 31 yards, leading to his 1-yard TD run to make it 19-0 with 7:24 left in the half.
Post Falls, trying to qualify for the playoffs in 5A for the first time since moving up in 2006, finished 2-7 after an agonizing night of near-misses.
To review:
• After breaking a run inside the Lake City 20, Patrick Agueros fumbled and Erik Redal recovered at the 17.
• Post Falls tried a fake punt on fourth and 8 at the Lake City 40, but up-back Seth McLeod was tripped up by Jacob Kazmierski for a 5-yard loss.
• Post Falls drove to the Lake City 14, where on fourth and 5 McLeod was stopped short by John Howard at the 12.
• Late in the half, on second and goal at the Lake City 4, McLeod was stacked up by a pack of Timberwolves at the 3-yard line. In the pack, however, Rosteck was whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct and ejected. The ball was moved to the 1, but no automatic first down.
A procedure penalty pushed Post Falls back to the 6. Agueros ran it to the 1 on third down, but Tyler Slater was stopped by Caden Robertson and others for a 4-yard loss.
• Midway through the third quarter, on fourth and 4 from the 32, Kazmierski pressured Post Falls quarterback Joey Pfennigs into an interception, by Tucker Louie-McGee. Louie-McGee had another interception late in the fourth quarter.
• Early in the fourth quarter, Pfennigs was sacked on fourth and 7 from the Lake City 36.
“We couldn’t convert in the red zone a couple of times,” Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. “Penalties, turnovers ... the last couple of weeks we’ve been playing cleaner ball than that. We didn’t tonight.”
“Very frustrating, very frustrating,” he added about not being able to finish drives. “But these kids kept working hard for all nine weeks. We’ve had our ups and downs, but ... we just couldn’t finish some ballgames. That’s it.”
Pfennigs raced 50 yards for a touchdown with 7:29 left to put Post Falls on the board. Lake City had a punt blocked (by Curtis Triplett) and lost a fumble in the closing minutes to give Post Falls hope, but the Trojans were unable to capitalize further.
Lake City outgained Post Falls 308-295.
“Both sides of the ball, we have to be more consistent on the little things,” Troxel said. “We missed a lot of tackles early in the game because our heads were down, they bounced off and we didn’t wrap up. We missed some opportunities early, really, because of little things. You’re nine weeks into the season and it’s still about doing the little things right.”
Mitch Bevacqua, Lake City’s speedy wide receiver, missed his third straight game following a high ankle sprain. He also aggravated the injury in practice this week, leaving him in doubt for next week. And Kazmierski, who along with Jonny Mathenia made a lot of big plays on defense, was carried off the field after Friday night’s game with a hip injury.
And Troxel wasn’t sure whether Rosteck, because of the ejection, would be able to play next week.
Post Falls 0 0 0 7 — 7
Lake City 13 6 0 0 — 19
LC — Brandon Johnson 23 run (Andrew Hocking kick)
LC — Jerry Louie-McGee 48 run (pass failed)
LC — Gavan Rosteck 1 run (run failed)
PF — Joey Pfennigs 50 run (Reece Jackson kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — PF, Agueros 10-49, Slater 1-3, McLeod 27-96, Pfennigs 4-65, McKeown 3. LC, Br. Johnson 12-71, J. Louie-McGee 8-72, H. Damschen 3-15, Rosteck 4-71, Shipley 9-7, Hicks 1-4.
PASSING — PF, Pfennigs 8-24-2-79, Davenport 0-1-0-0. LC, Shipley 6-13-0-68.
RECEIVING — PF, Slater 1-5, Hensley 2-24, Morris 3-37, McKeown 2-13. LC, J. Louie-McGee 2-38, Br. Johnson 2-21, Hocking 2-9.