Still a work in progress
POST FALLS - Against an East Valley team still humming along without one of the key cogs to its machine, the Post Falls Trojans looked like a team still in need of some tuning up.
The Trojans showed signs of life throughout, but a few breakdowns here and there spelled the difference in a 35-14 loss to the Knights in nonleague high school football action Friday night at Trojans Stadium.
"They're a good football team," Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said of East Valley (3-0), which already had beaten Sandpoint and Lakeland this season. "They sustained drives and we didn't. They had a great ball-control offense throughout the game. In the second quarter we only ran seven plays, and we couldn't get off the field (defensively) on third down. And ... on third down, we couldn't convert. Stalling out on that opening drive in the third quarter hurt a little bit. But we've just got to get back to the drawing board and get better, and league starts next week."
Junior Joey Pfennigs passed for 241 yards and a pair of touchdowns for Post Falls (1-2). But Trojan miscues led to three East Valley touchdowns.
The Trojans muffed a punt in the first quarter, and East Valley turned it into a 2-yard touchdown run by Ben Baker.
On the first drive of the third quarter, with Post Falls trailing 14-7, a 37-yard field goal by Tim Mueller was blocked by Roger Benegar of East Valley. Three plays later, Isaac Jordan scooted 21 yards up the middle for a 21-7 lead.
Post Falls' third and final turnover of the game, a lost fumble by Pfennigs, was turned into the Knights' next score, a 30-yard pass from Taylor Watkins to J.T. Phelan for a 28-7 lead with 8:06 left in the game.
Not that East Valley needed the extra help. The balanced Knights did most of their work on the ground, controlling the clock with 44 rushes - many coming from a power-I formation - compared to 17 passes. Jordan finished with 103 yards on 23 carries.
In the second quarter, the Knights ran the ball on 15 plays in a 16-play drive, chewing up 9:47 off the clock and resulting in a 1-yard run by Baker for a 14-0 lead.
“We just stuck with it,” East Valley coach Adam Fisher said. “We had a negative play, and the down and distance didn’t allow us to continue running the ball. Later on, our down and distance on our first play enabled us to run the ball.”
But when he needed to, Watkins also utilized his talented receivers. Of his 10 completions for 183 yards, seven went to Gage Burland, a 6-1 junior, for 134 yards and one score.
East Valley played without star running back Adam Talley, who quit the team because of conflicts between his job and the team’s practices (he was missing two hours a week of practices due to work), but the Knights showed they have plenty of other weapons.
“I was very pleased; we’re a very cohesive unit,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t be more pleased of how it’s galvanized our team. And I’m proud of the 53 guys on our roster. Our running backs stepped up; the next guys stepped up.”
Pfennigs’ 57-yard completion to a wide-open Michael McKeown set up the Trojans’ first score, an 8-yard pass to Ryan Morris with 34.7 seconds left in the half. Pfennigs connected with Braden Davenport on a 47-yard scoring play midway through the fourth to cut East Valley’s lead to 28-14.
But the Knights recovered an onside kick, and marched to the clinching score.
“They’ve got speed at receivers, they’ve got a physical O-line, they’ve got great backs, even without (Talley),” Hinz said.
Morris and Curtis Triplett had interceptions for Post Falls, and Alex Gibson recovered a fumble. But the Trojans were unable to turn any of those takeaways into points.
Post Falls opens 5A Inland Empire League play next Friday at Lake City.
East Valley 6 8 7 14 — 35
Post Falls 0 7 0 7 — 14
EV — Ben Baker 2 run (kick failed)
EV — Baker 1 run (J.T. Phelan pass from Taylor Watkins)
PF — Ryan Morris 8 pass from Joey Pfennigs (Tim Mueller kick)
EV — Isaac Jordan 21 run (Seth Killingsworth kick)
EV — Phelan 30 pass from Watkins (Killingsworth kick)
PF — Braden Davenport 47 pass from Pfennigs (Mueller kick)
EV — Gage Burland 6 pass from Watkins (Killingsworth kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — EV, Hofstee 6-5, Watkins 3-24, Jordan 23-103, Baker 11-21, Warzon 1-0. PF, Agueros 15-60, Pfennigs 6-(minus 6), Davide 1-5, Hensley 2-9.
PASSING — EV, Watkins 10-17-1-183, Hofstee 0-1-1-0. PF, Pfennigs 15-25-0-241.
RECEIVING — Phelan 1-14, Gonzales 1-5, Burland 7-134, Phelan 1-30. PF, Hensley 3-43, McKeown 1-57, Morris 4-29, Agueros 1-9, Buschbacher 1-20, Davenport 1-47, Liebergot 3-22, Wagoner 1-14.