Lakeland avenge 'sour' loss to Bears

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

RATHDRUM - Next Friday night is why high school athletes wake up early on summer vacation.

One game.

Winner to state.

Loser stays home.

Thanks to Lakeland's 42-14 win over the visiting Moscow Bears on Friday night at Corbit Field, they'll get that opportunity next Friday, when the Hawks travel to Sandpoint to face the Bulldogs in the 4A Inland Empire League finale for both.

It also determines the lone berth to the state 4A playoffs from the league.

"We've been working for winning against both Moscow and Sandpoint," Lakeland coach Tim Kiefer said. "It comes down to this, and we'll see what happens."

Lakeland opened the scoring in the final seconds of the first quarter as senior Colton Butcher ran 69 yards on a fake punt to give the Hawks a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.

"They'd been showing on film that they wanted to come after it," Kiefer said. "Coach (Rick) Anderson, our special teams coordinator said something about wanting to run the fake. I was kind of impressed we pulled the trigger on it and they did a great job."

Lakeland (4-4, 1-0 4A IEL) extended the advantage to 21-0 at halftime on a 3-yard run by quarterback Tyrel Derrick, who later found senior wideout Brett Webb on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 14 seconds remaining in the half.

It was the first of three scores by Webb, who admitted that last year's loss to the Bears in Moscow left a sour taste in his mouth.

"We came out wanting to send a statement, not only to Moscow, but to Sandpoint as well," Webb said. "In the fourth quarter, we could tell they were tired and wanted to turn up the tempo on them."

Turn it up they did, scoring 21 points in the final quarter, two touchdowns coming by Webb in a matter of four minutes.

"We went to Moscow last year and played a great game, but they came out on top," Webb said. "Getting this win, it feels good to be on top."

Butcher finished with 110 yards rushing filling in for starting tailback Tuekota Tate (who is going by Tate, though he is listed as Tuekota Vandever on the roster). Tate was injured in the first half after carrying for 71 yards.

"Tuekota's a great running back, and he'll be fine for next week," Kiefer said. "But Colton is a heck of a back too. We felt comfortable with him running the ball. Quite frankly, the reason he doesn't run it more is because he's full-time defense."

Moscow cut the deficit to 28-14 with 10:30 remaining, but couldn't get any closer.

"They were just better than us tonight," second-year Moscow coach Phil Helbling said. "We stumbled a little bit in the middle of the season and lost our competitive edge. It's been a sign of where we've been. It was just a little too much, too late. I thought we could string some things together, but they were just a better team than us tonight. It will be a good game with them and Sandpoint next week."

Moscow finishes 3-6, 0-2.

Moscow 0 0 7 7 - 14

Lakeland 7 14 0 21 - 42

First quarter

LL - Colton Bucher 69 run (Joey Ledbetter kick), 0:01

Second quarter

LL - Tyrel Derrick 3 run (kick failed), 4:16

LL - Brett Webb 12 pass from Derrick (Kenny Cooper run), 0:14

Third quarter

Mos - Nick Ellison 15 pass from Jake Clark (Alex Albrecht kick), 8:13

Fourth quarter

LL - Webb 31 run (Ledbetter kick), 11:50

Mos - Jack Akey 16 pass from Clark (Albrecht kick), 10:13

LL - Webb 16 run (Ledbetter kick), 8:39

LL - Butcher 1 run (Ledbetter kick), 6:42

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Mos, Mcneel 2-4, Clark 6-(-3), Kiblen 2-5, Redinger 2-0. LL, Nosworthy 7-39, Tate 9-71, Butcher 16-108, Derrick 10-21, Bodak 4-60, Webb 4-72.

PASSING - Mos, Clark 24-34-1-286. LL, Derrick 3-7-1-36.

RECEIVING - Mos, Kiblen 4-18, Lewis 9-121, Akey 8-100, Ellison 3-47, Robertson 2-0. LL, Butcher 2-24, Webb 1-12.