THE FRONT ROW with Mark Nelke Oct. 24, 2013
This Coeur d'Alene-Lake City high school football rivalry has favored one team or the other for many years.
Meaning, there hasn't been a stretch where the teams traded victories for several seasons, and you never knew who was going to win - one team has dominated for years, then the other, etc.
Starting when Coeur d'Alene split and Lake City opened in 1994, Coeur d'Alene won the first four games, Lake City won the next 11 games. Coeur d'Alene won twice in 2004 en route to an appearance in the state 5A title game.
Lake City then won seven straight, before Coeur d'Alene broke through in the first round of the 2009 playoffs, winning at Lake City for the first time since 1995. That started a string of five straight Coeur d'Alene wins, which is where we stand today.
In the series, Lake City has won 18 games, Coeur d'Alene 11 - including those last five.
LOOKING BACK, in nearly all of the matchups, there usually seemed to be a favorite going into the game - one of the teams was on a roll, and the other was trying to knock them off. In very few of them could you look back and say it was a pick-em game.
In general, Coeur d'Alene has won the games it probably should have won, as has Lake City. Lake City probably picked off a game or two when the Vikings were considered the favorite. One upset for sure would have been in 2009, when Lake City, 1-6 at the time, won 23-15 at home over Coeur d'Alene, which was 6-1 at the time.
Of course, two weeks later Coeur d'Alene romped to a 38-14 win at Lake City in the first round of the state playoffs, and the Vikings have been regulars in the playoffs since, and haven't lost to Lake City since.
SO WHAT do we make of Friday's matchup, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Lake City?
In all likelihood, the winner will wind up in the state playoffs in two weeks, and the loser will miss the playoffs - though Friday's winner will still have to win the following week to officially clinch the North's lone berth to the state 5A playoffs.
My humble opinion - Lake City can win this game, but it's up to the Timberwolves to make it a game. Lake City has the speed and the explosiveness it has lacked in recent years to challenge the Vikings.
But Coeur d'Alene has explosiveness of late that can appear routine - the Vikings can seemingly score at any time, on any play, from any point on the field.
Lake City actually comes into the game with a better record - 5-2, to Coeur d'Alene's 4-3 - though the Vikings went through a brutal four-game stretch to open the season and emerged 1-3.
Still, just on recent success, Coeur d'Alene has earned the favorite's role for this game. The Timberwolves started the year thinking they had a chance to beat the Vikings, though few outside the program might have thought that.
So who knows if the Vikings will stay on top of the rivalry of late, or if Lake City has gotten better through last year and this year to make it one of those rivalry games where you go into it having no idea how it is going to turn out.
The fun part is, we'll get to find out Friday night.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.