THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Oct. 4, 2014

Today might be considered showdown Saturday for area high school soccer teams.

For a couple of area high schools, with league hopes still alive, it's now or never.

WHILE THE state high school soccer tournament doesn't start today, next week or the week after that, those around the 5A Inland Empire League might point to today as the day that those teams contending for bids get things started.

On the boys side, the Lake City Timberwolves (11-0, 4-0 5A IEL) host Coeur d'Alene (11-1, 3-1) at noon at the Irma Anderl Soccer Complex. A win by Lake City locks up the No. 1 seed to the Region 1 tournament starting next Saturday.

If Coeur d'Alene wins, then the teams will be even in the standings with games against Post Falls remaining later this week.

Post Falls' boys (6-4-1, 1-3) fell to Lewiston (5-8, 1-5) on Thursday, taking themselves out of the league title race.

In the girls standings, Lake City (10-2, 3-1) visits Coeur d'Alene (6-4-1, 2-2) today at Coeur d'Alene, also at noon. Lake City needs wins today and Tuesday at Post Falls to clinch the league title.

A loss to Coeur d'Alene, along with another Viking win against visiting Post Falls (3-7-1, 0-4) on Thursday could create a three-way tie for the league title. Lewiston (10-3, 4-2) has completed league play, and is just sitting back and waiting to see what happens up north.

ANYTHING CAN happen when it comes to the postseason, just look at what happened two years ago with the Lake City girls soccer program.

Lake City had to win in a shootout just to advance to state, then had two more shootouts - the biggest coming in a 1-0 victory in the All-North Idaho championship game with Post Falls at Coeur d'Alene High.

From that roster, seven players that played on that team are now seniors.

Can lightning strike again in Idaho Falls Oct. 23-25?

Lake City lost its state opener last year to Boise 3-1. Boise beat Centennial in the title game.

"It's great retention for our program," Lake City coach Matt Ruchti said. "In our opinion, and some other programs in the tournament felt that was the state title match. We've been a consistent program and this group, we don't talk about state titles, or district titles, we don't set a goal to do any of those things. We talk about being good soccer players, being good teammates, working hard and getting better every day. And it's been a formula that has worked for us."

RUCHTI KNOWS a little something about what works with the Lake City program, leading the Timberwolves to a 112-69-42 record since taking over the program in 2003.

A little uncharacteristic this year has been the team's lack of ties - Lake City has none this season.

Ruchti's teams have had as many as six tie scores in two different seasons, and three ties in five other seasons.

"We've lost to the defending (4A Washington) champion Central Valley and Lewiston," Ruchti said. "We're a team that's difficult to beat on any given day and get a lot of productivity from different places."

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.