Game of inches

By MARK NELKE

mnelke@cdapress.com

COEUR d’ALENE — Very little has separated Coeur d’Alene and Highland on the football field over the past three seasons.

On Friday night, the difference was about 1 foot.

A host of Highland players stopped Coeur d’Alene wide receiver Colby Daniels just short of the goal line in the waning seconds, the clock ran out before the Vikings could run another play, and the top-ranked Rams from Pocatello celebrated a 13-10 victory at Viking Field, in a rematch of last season’s state 5A championship game.

“Another boring game with Highland,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos deadpanned. “It was a tough one, but they’re good. I’m interested in seeing how close we were to scoring; we were pretty close.”

The ending capped a wild last four minutes of a game which, up to that point, had been filled with defense and field goals. Second-ranked Coeur d’Alene (4-1) scored to take the lead, then Highland (5-0) scored to go back on top, only to see Coeur d’Alene nearly pull out the victory in much the same way the Vikings rallied to win the state title game.

“I looked out and saw the clock and where they were and said, ‘wow, that’s deja vu right now from the championship game,’” Highland coach Gino Mariani said. “Then they drove down and I said ‘hopefully we’ll make a tackle,’ and we did.”

Coeur d’Alene took a 10-6 lead with 3:19 left in the game when Cole Williams took a short pass from Austin Lee, broke a couple of tackles and sprinted down the middle of the field for a 67-yard touchdown. Williams finished with nine catches for 147 yards; Lee was 31 of 45 for 360 yards and one interception.

But Highland answered with a 67-yard, seven-play drive. Running back Garret Christensen took a short pass from Dakota Tillotson and scrambled 19 yards to the Viking 17. On the next play, Tillotson hit Kamron Farnsworth on a slant pattern at the goal line for the go-ahead score with 1:19 left.

Coeur d’Alene took over at its 30 with 1:18 left. In last year’s state title game, the Vikings took over at their 20 with 1:31 left and Lee drove his team 80 yards, running the last 15 himself for the winning TD with 47 seconds left.

This year, Lee hit Jonny Plum for 14 yards and Daniels for 26 to the Highland 20. Three more runs put the ball at the Rams’ 6, and Coeur d’Alene used its last timeout with 16.3 seconds left.

On third and goal, Lee rolled right and hit Daniels over the middle, inside the 5. He fought toward the goal line, but Highland defenders were able to stop his progress just short. The clock stopped for some reason with nine seconds left, while the two teams scrambled. The clock started again as the Vikings rushed their field goal team onto the field, but time expired before Coeur d’Alene could snap the ball.

“We responded; the sign of a good football team,” Amos said. “They could have panicked with a minute and something left, but instead we drove down and gave ourselves a chance to win that football game.”

Highland kicked field goals on its first and third possessions, after potential touchdown passes were dropped. Coeur d’Alene turned the ball over on downs twice in the first half, Lee was sacked twice, and was intercepted in the end zone at the end of the half.

“Both defenses were pretty impressive,” Amos said. “It was a helluva defensive performance on both sides of the ball. And I think both offenses are good. It was a slugfest, like we need, like we want.”

“If you’d have told me 13-10, I’d have said you were crazy,” Mariani said. “Usually these offenses put some points on the board. We moved up and down the field; we were our own worst enemy when we got down in the red zone and didn’t really execute very well. We dropped a few touchdowns ... but we made a drive when we had to and that was huge.”

Highland won the regular-season matchup between the two teams for the third straight year. The teams also met in the postseason each of the past two seasons, with the Vikings winning both times.

Another playoff rematch is possible, but both coaches cautioned there’s still a long way to go before then.

“We try not to look too far forward,” Amos said. “We’ve got a lot of work to get out of our league, and give ourselves a chance. And once you get in the playoffs it doesn’t matter who you play. We don’t care; they don’t care. We just want to get in there.”

Highland 6 0 0 7 — 13

Coeur d’Alene 0 0 3 7 — 10

First quarter

High — FG Jake Sorenson 26, 7:58

High — FG Sorenson 32, :5.6

Third quarter

Cd’A — FG Brennen Barber 25, 2:21

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Cole Williams 67 pass from Austin Lee (Barber kick), 3:19

High — Kamron Farnsworth 17 pass from Dakota Tillotson (Sorenson kick), 1:19

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — High, Christensen 12-74, Tillotson 10-7, Schmidt 1-0. Cd’A, Berger 11-50, Green 5-2, Lee 13-14, Le 3-13, Plum 2-(minus 15).

PASSING — High, Tillotson 23-34-0-245. Cd’A, Lee 31-45-1-360, Williams 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — High, Farnsworth 2-29, Harding 3-28, Schmidt 10-96, Campbell 5-66, Christensen 2-18, Hall 1-8. Cd’A, Williams 9-147, Berger 3-24, Hutchings 2-21, Walde 1-10, Skinner 1-13, Plum 4-28, Green 2-11, Johnson 3-27, Daniels 4-70, Schneider 1-5, Le 1-3.