T-Wolves win on late TD

Jerry Louie-McGee escapes for winning score in final minute

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

POST FALLS - The Louie-McGee brothers were a slippery duo to bring down throughout the game Friday night.

And that was no more apparent - or important - than on the go-ahead score in the final minute.

Junior Jerry Louie-McGee slipped out of a horse collar tackle and scooted into the end zone from 13 yards out for the tiebreaking touchdown with 58.2 seconds left, lifting the Lake City Timberwolves past the Post Falls Trojans 36-30 in a wild 5A Inland Empire League football opener for both teams at Trojan Stadium.

Louie-McGee took a handoff from his brother, senior quarterback Tucker Louie-McGee, and swept around the left end. He was grabbed around the back of the shoulder pads, causing flags to be thrown. He was spun around but only his hand touched the ground. He kept his balance and continued the final 8 or so yards into the end zone.

"I just kept moving my feet, and stayed positive," Jerry Louie-McGee said. "I had my hand on the ground, and I just kept moving my feet."

The play capped a second half of offense up and down the field that some might have expected throughout. Instead, Lake City (3-2) led just 8-0 at the half, and led 23-8 in the third quarter before Post Falls (2-3) came back to tie it at 30 with 5:32 left.

Then, Lake City drove 78 yards in 13 plays through a steady rain for the go-ahead score.

"That's what Post Falls-Lake City, Post Falls-Coeur d'Alene, Coeur d'Alene-Lake City, that's what these games are - they're for bragging rights, and it's important to kids, and it's important to towns," Lake City coach Van Troxel said. "It was a very good ballgame. Their kids played very well; I thought they played extremely hard. Early in the season, I saw them hang their head a little bit; boy, they didn't hang for a second, they competed really well. And that's really what you want this league to be, is a competition, and we had everything that we could ask for."

Tucker Louie-McGee rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. He also passed for 249 yards and two scores, 177 of those coming in the second half.

Lake City totaled 534 yards, Post Falls 259.

"We didn't lose, we just ran out of time, man. We just ran out of time," Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. "I'm proud of our kids, showing a lot of resiliency, down by two scores there in the second half. We just kept plugging and plugging and plugging, and just ran out of time there at the end."

Tucker Louie-McGee scored the lone first-half TD on the last play of the first quarter, escaping the rush and sprinting into the end zone from 12 yards out. He connected with Jerry Louie-McGee on a 31-yard pass-and-run TD early in the third quarter to make it 16-0.

Joey Pfennigs' 57-yard completion to Dalton Thompson on a play-action pass which fooled nearly everybody set up Seth McLeod's 7-yard TD run for Post Falls. He ran in the two-point conversion to cut the Lake City lead to 16-8.

Lake City receiver Nathan Newby went up over top of a Trojan defender to haul in a 26-yard TD pass from Tucker Louie-McGee with 3:47 left in the third quarter to make it 23-8. But Post Falls answered when Marc Conradi returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a score, cutting the deficit to 23-14.

Jacob Koski's interception set up McLeod's 1-yard run with 9:53 left, and the two-point conversion pulled Post Falls within 23-22.

Lake City answered on the next play after the kickoff, as Tucker Louie-McGee kept the ball and dashed 70 yards for a 30-22 lead with 9:34 left. Post Falls answered with the game-tying drive, Michael McKeown making a leaping catch in the corner of the end zone of a 17-yard pass from Pfennigs, and McLeod running in the tying two-point conversion.

After Lake City's go-ahead score, Post Falls was unable to get a first down

"We're still a work in progress," Troxel said. "Defensive, I thought, really played well, but those two (the Louie-McGees) are very exciting players. Having a bye, we can get Gavan (Rosteck) and Tucker and some other guys healthier."

Next Friday, Post Falls plays host to Lakeland. Lake City is idle.

Lake City 8 0 15 13 - 36

Post Falls 0 0 14 16 - 30

First quarter

LC - Tucker Louie-McGee 12 run (Gavan Rosteck run), :00

Third quarter

LC - Jerry Louie-McGee 31 pass from T. Louie-McGee (Michael Goggin run), 10:01

PF - Seth McLeod 7 run (McLeod run), 6:40.

LC - Nathan Newby 26 pass from T. Louie-McGee (Casey Bourque kick), 3:47

PF - Marc Conradi 89 kickoff return (kick failed), 3:34

Fourth quarter

PF - McLeod 1 run (Dalton Thompson pass from Joey Pfennigs), 9:53

LC - T. Louie-McGee 70 run (Bourque kick), 9:34

PF - Michael McKeown 17 pass from Pfennigs (McLeod kick), 5:32

LC - J. Louie-McGee 13 run (kick failed), :58

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - LC, T. Louie-McGee 20-131, Rosteck 18-85, J. Louie-McGee 12-57, McKenzie 1-2. PF, Agueros 4-17, Pfennigs 15-84, McLeod 11-31, Conradi 2-14.

PASSING - LC, T. Louie-McGee 12-29-1-249. PF, Pfennigs 9-25-1-113.

RECEIVING - LC, Newby 5-89, J. Louie-McGee 3-79, Turner 1-14, Dahl 2-28, R. Damschen 1-39. PF, McKeown 5-39, Thompson 2-64, Davenport 1-3, Morris 1-7.