Coeur d'Alene throttles Ferris
SPOKANE - They started a lot faster than the game did, but once the Coeur d'Alene Vikings and Ferris Saxons finally hit the field on Friday night at Joe Albi Stadium, it was well worth the wait.
Coeur d'Alene pitched a shutout until the final minute, beating Ferris 31-8 in the long-awaited nonleague game.
"Our defense was flying around tonight," Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos said. "To pitch an almost shutout against a great team like this is tough to do. We got to play a lot of kids tonight, and they play hard and fast."
The game started at 9:01 p.m., following an overtime game at Albi between Moses Lake and Lewis and Clark, won by Moses Lake 19-16.
Coeur d'Alene opened the scoring a little over a minute into the game as quarterback Austin Lee hit Colby Daniels on a 75-yard screen pass, setting up the Vikings' first score on a 1-yard run by Lee to take a 7-0 lead.
Then, it slowed way down.
After a quick 3-and-out by the Coeur d'Alene defense, the offense took over
see VIKINGS, B2
again, moving into Ferris territory on a 40-yard pass from Lee to Cole Williams, but had the drive stall out on a botched snap on third down.
The teams exchanged turnovers in the second quarter as Gibson Green recovered a Ferris fumble and returned it to the 14-yard line. On the next play of the drive, Coeur d'Alene returned the favor, as Ferris recovered a fumble by Lee on the 20-yard line.
On the ensuing drive, Ferris forced another fumble, which was recovered by Joel Kaplan at their own 24-yard line.
With 43 seconds remaining in the first half, Coeur d'Alene drove to the Ferris 29-yard line, but a late field goal fell short just before halftime.
Green intercepted a Mitch PIke pass off a deflection to give the Vikings good field position at the start of the third at the Ferris 29. Brennen Barber gave Coeur d'Alene a 10-0 lead with a 29-yard field goal with 9:37 left in the third quarter.
After a Ferris punt, junior KC Hutchings caught a Lee pass and outran the Saxon defense for a 71-yard touchdown to give Coeur d'Alene a 17-0 lead.
Drew Berger jumped in front of a Ferris pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown to give Coeur d'Alene a 24-0 lead late in the third quarter.
Ferris got on the board late in the fourth on a 21-yard pass from Logan Bunker to Tim Kirby.
Coeur d'Alene finished with four turnovers, Ferris two.
"We've got to do a bettter job of keeping the ball after putting it on the ground like 5,000 times," Amos said. "We've still got to take care of the ball."
Coeur d'Alene travels to Moses Lake next Friday. Ferris plays University High at Joe Albi Stadium on Thursday. The Vikings are the No. 2 team in this week's 5A media prep football poll.
Ferris, which opened the season on Sept. 5 with a 20-13 loss at Olympia, is the ranked 10th in this week's Associated Press Washington high school football poll.
Coeur d'Alene 7 0 17 7 - 31
Ferris 0 0 0 8 - 8
First quarter
Cd'A - Austin Lee 1 run (Brennen Barber kick), 10:37.
Third quarter
Cd'A - FG Barber, 29. 9:37
Cd'A - KC Hutchings 71 pass from Lee (Barber kick), 5:52.
Cd'A - Drew Berger 70 interception return (Barber kick), 1:50.
Fourth quarter
Cd'A - Griphen Le 11 pass from Lee (Barber kick), 7:21.
Fer - Tim Kirby 21 pass from Logan Bunker (Kirby run), 1:14.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING - Cd'A, Lee, 8-(-8), Green, 4-10, Berger, 2-13. Ferris, Pike 16-11, Hicks, Beaulaurier, 6-36, Via, 10-42.
PASSING - Cd'A, Lee 17-24-0-352. Ferris, Pike, 18-29-2-113, Beaulaurier 0-1-0-0, Bunker, 3-4-0-34.
RECEIVING - Cd'A, Williams, 3-59, Daniels, 5-128, Berger, 1-16, Walde, 2-25, Schneider, 3-37, Johnson 2-10, Le, 1-21, Mahaffy, 1-2. Ferris, Hicks, 4-20, Kirby 9-87, Beaulaurier, 8-15, Lindseth 1-0, Woods, 1-6 , Hicks 4-21.