THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE, Oct. 16, 2014

As strong as the Lake City and Coeur d'Alene high school football teams have been over the past two decades, the results have been decidedly one-sided - in either direction - over that time.

Starting in 1994, Coeur d'Alene won the first four meetings. Then starting in 1997, Lake City won the next 11 games.

Coeur d'Alene won both matchups in 2004, but Lake City won the next seven games.

And now, Coeur d'Alene is riding a six-game winning streak in the rivalry, heading into Friday night's 31st meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at Coeur d'Alene's Viking Field.

All told, Lake City leads the series 18 wins to 12.

In 10 of the seasons, the teams met twice - either both times in the regular season, or a second time in the playoffs. Only one year - 2009 - did the team that won the first matchup not win the second.

Here's a look at the rivalry, through the eyes of those from Coeur d'Alene and Lake City who played in it:

KYLE AHLF was a three-year starter at quarterback for Coeur d'Alene, graduating in 2001.

At that point, the Vikings were rebuilding under a new coach by the name of Shawn Amos, who took over in 1997. Lake City, which opened in 1994 and has had the same head coach (Van Troxel) since, was starting to become a state power.

"Compared to where it is now, it was the complete opposite then," Ahlf said. "Lake City was very dominant, and at Coeur d'Alene my sophomore year, I think we won two games. Lake City was competing for state titles, and we weren't there yet."

When Ahlf was a junior, the Vikings were playing Lake City tough over at Lake City when Ahlf suffered a broken ankle in a pileup near the Lake City sideline in the second half. He was hauled away in an ambulance, and Lake City went on to win 28-14.

"I think they were up one score," Ahlf recalled. "We had some momentum. I ran a quarterback keeper, and my ankle just got tangled up underneath. I just remember going into that drive, thinking we're going to go down and tie it up, and it all went away."

The game the next season might have been more painful - and there was no injury this time.

Coeur d'Alene came in undefeated, Lake City with one loss, and an overflow crowd gathered at Viking Field. Coeur d'Alene jumped out to an early lead, but Lake City rallied for a 29-19 victory.

"We got out to a lead, and then we couldn't do anything," Ahlf recalled. "I remember just feeling like we had it in control, but we slowly let it slip away."

These days, Ahlf lives in Portland, working on his doctorate to be a psychologist. He already has two masters degrees, so he's obviously moved on.

Plus, the Vikings made the playoffs in 2000 for the first time since 1994, so that was a nice way to finish the high school football career.

"We lost the rivalry, but both teams made the playoffs," Ahlf said. "It was good for football in the city."

CARSON YORK was a sophomore lineman in 2004 when Coeur d'Alene beat Lake City twice - once in the regular season, and once in the first round of the state playoffs - for the Vikings' first two victories over the Timberwolves since the 1996 season.

York was suited up, but didn't play in those '04 games.

"It became sort of an accepted fact that Lake City was going to beat Coeur d'Alene," York said of that time. "It (the Vikings' two wins in '04) might have jolted us a little bit. It might have been the springboard for what happened after that (seven straight LC wins)."

York recalled playing Junior Tackle in the sixth grade on a team where half of the kids eventually went to Lake City, the other half to Coeur d'Alene. There were two other teams of future Coeur d'Alene players, one other of future T-Wolves.

"The Coeur d'Alene kids had absolutely crushed us in Junior Tackle," York recalled.

When York was a junior and senior, Lake City beat Coeur d'Alene twice each of those seasons, including the first round of the state playoffs both years. In 2006, Lake City capped a 12-0 season with a state title.

"Even though we'd gone so many years with Lake City winning, you could make an argument that two of the top three teams in the state were in Coeur d'Alene," said York, who went on to become a standout offensive lineman at Oregon, and now lives in Portland doing marketing for NIKE+. "Never was one dominant and the other wasn't very good."

As for the "rivalry," many of the kids grew up either playing on the same teams, or against, the kids who would end up going to the "other" high school. Years later, athletes on both sides of the rivalry remain good friends.

"Looking back, it seems silly how much we cared about it," York said. "Before the Coeur d'Alene game one year I told my mom, 'I've been waiting six years for this game, and today it's finally here.' It seems ridiculous how much we cared, but we cared a ton."

ZACH KEISER and MARK SMYLY were juniors in 2009, Keiser a running back at Coeur d'Alene, Smyly a quarterback at Lake City.

"That was the transition from Lake City's dominance to Coeur d'Alene's dominance," Smyly recalled of that era.

In '09, the Vikings came to Lake City heavily favored (the T-Wolves had just one win to that point), but Lake City pulled out a 23-15 victory. It turned out to be the T-Wolves' last win in the rivalry.

"When there's a rivalry, there's bound to be an upset," Keiser said. "I think it was the Troxel factor; he always finds a way to win; I'd been watching it since Junior Tackle. It fired us up to win the next game."

"Going into that game, we had that expectation to win," Smyly said. "Nobody had us winning that game at the time."

Coeur d'Alene went on to lose to Post Falls the next week, then had to beat the Trojans and Lewiston in a Kansas tiebreaker just to make the playoffs. The following week, the Vikings returned to Lake City and romped to a 38-14 victory.

"Really, what it came down to is, they had a better game plan, and they executed it," Smyly said. "They just threw some things at us that we weren't expecting."

Coeur d'Alene made it as far as the semifinals that season, and has been in the state title game every year since. Amos is now in his 18th season as Viking coach.

The following season, 2010, Coeur d'Alene squeezed out a 19-14 victory at home. Then, in the rematch in the playoffs, the Vikings rolled 45-13.

"I kinda thought they were going to win the first game, but we stuck with the game plan," Keiser said. "I feel like they always do a good job of stopping the run."

Lake City kept it close in the first game without Smyly, who had suffered a separated shoulder and didn't play. For the rematch, he was able to play in a limited role.

"I think we were comparable teams," said Smyly, who is on track to graduate from Washington State in May, and then plans to go on to medical school. "They had a plan (in the second game) and they executed it at a high efficiency rate."

These days, Keiser is finishing up his studies at Boise State, where he's on track to graduate next fall with a business degree, majoring in information technology management. He walked on to the Broncos football team in 2011, but three knee surgeries in a little more than a year changed his plans.

No regrets, he says.

"If I have any advice for the younger kids," Keiser said of the rivalry, "it's about being able to keep your emotions in check. It's a fun game."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.