STATE 5A FOOTBALL PLAYOFF QUARTERFINALS: Madden-ing loss

COEUR d’ALENE — The quick passes the Coeur d’Alene Vikings often spring for big plays were held to short gains — and sometimes short losses — by the Madison Bobcats on Friday night.

And the few times Coeur d’Alene did connect on a big play, it would be called back by a penalty.

It was one of those rare frustrating postseason performances in recent years by the Vikings, who fell to Madison of Rexburg 22-12 in the quarterfinals of the state 5A football playoffs at Viking Field.

“They just made some big plays at the end,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “They’re a good football team; it was a great battle all the way through. Games like that, a couple big plays at the end, that’s what happens. I was very proud of our guys; great battle.”

Following a defensive battle for three quarters, Madison (9-1) scored touchdowns on three straight possessions in the fourth quarter, turning a 6-3 deficit into a 22-6 lead.

The Bobcats held the normally explosive Coeur d’Alene offense to 262 total yards.

“I don’t know if people understand it, but you get there because of your defense,” Madison coach Mitch Buck said. “It’s hard to score on good defenses, and you found that tonight.”

Madison, in particular, did a nice job keeping Coeur d’Alene’s bubble screens to small gains — and sometimes small losses.

“They did a great job of fending off our blocks on the outside,” Amos said. “They were real aggressive, and we didn’t have as much success out there as we hoped. Because we had the matchups out there, but we had a hard time blocking them.”

Madison plays Mountain View (10-0) of Meridian in the semifinals next week at Holt Arena in Pocatello. Mountain View defeated Capital of Boise 42-14.

Coeur d’Alene finished 7-3. It was the Vikings’ first playoff loss at home since the semifinals to Eagle in 2009 — the first year of Coeur d’Alene’s current run of seven straight trips to the playoffs.

Madison took the opening kickoff and drove to Curtis Hathaway’s 24-yard field goal.

Coeur d’Alene took a 6-3 lead early in the second quarter when Brody Lundblad took a slightly backwards pass from Colson Yankoff in the left flat, and scurried 20 yards into the end zone. That score followed back-to-back 15-yard penalties on Madison.

The Vikings missed a 25-yard field goal late in the half. Madison nearly scored on a deep pass to Zach Anderson in the waning seconds, but he was ruled to have caught the ball out of bounds.

The first seven drives of the second half resulted in five punts and two drives where the ball was turned over on downs. Madison had a 51-yard touchdown pass from Konner Stoneberg to Anderson called back on a holding penalty.

Early in the fourth quarter, Madison took over at the Viking 40-yard line — the third time in the half the Bobcats started a drive in Coeur d’Alene territory. A pass interference penalty kept the drive alive, and Madison took the lead when shifty wideout Josh Crane took a swing pass in from Stoneberg in the right flat, cut back, deked at least three Viking defenders and ran it in from 3 yards out.

Coeur d’Alene had a 20-yard pass play wiped out by a holding call, and two plays later, Yankoff’s deep pass was intercepted by Brycen Siddoway, and returned to the Viking 44. On the next play, Stoneberg threw a deep ball down the right sideline, and the 6-foot-4 Anderson made the catch near the goal line for a 16-6 lead with 7:02 to play.

“We were just hoping for no help over our tall guy, and we got it, and we scored on it, and that was the one that really solidified it,” Buck said. “Then we were able to run it a little bit, and got that two-score lead.”

Madison stopped Coeur d’Alene on downs at the Bobcats’ 49, then scored six plays later on Conner Wills’ 2-yard run to make it 22-6 with 3:19 left.

Yankoff connected with Cayden Bonacci on a 23-yard touchdown pass with 1:36 left to pull the Vikings within 22-12. Coeur d’Alene was successful on the two-point conversion, but a holding penalty wiped out the score, and the next try, from the 15, fell incomplete.

“They’re very physical; we knew it was going to be a game like this,” Amos said. “They have as good a chance as anybody to win the whole thing.”

Yankoff played most of the final three quarters after starter Austin Lee, who played the first quarter, re-aggravated a foot injury early in the third quarter.

Stoneberg passed for 187 yards and ran for 84 more for Madison, which beat Coeur d’Alene in the 2012 state title game. The Bobcats totaled 314 yards.

“The penalties at the end; obviously there were a couple killer holding calls,” Amos said. “Two holding calls killed us. They made a couple big plays, and a couple holding calls kept us out of sync at the end,” Amos said.

Madison 3 0 0 19 — 22

Coeur d’Alene 0 6 0 6 — 12

First quarter

Mad — FG Curtis Hathaway 24, 8:09

Second quarter

Cd’A — Brody Lundblad 20 run (run failed), 10:12

Fourth quarter

Mad — Josh Crane 3 pass from Konner Stoneberg (Hathaway kick), 8:46

Mad — Zach Anderson 44 pass from Stoneberg (kick failed), 7:02

Mad — Conner Wills 2 run (run failed), 3:19

Cd’A — Cayden Bonacci 23 pass from Colson Yankoff (pass failed), 1:36

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Mad, Wills 15-43, Stoneberg 18-84. Cd’A, Lee 6-(minus 4), Vang 2-10, Skinner 6-21, Lundblad 2-14, Le 3-14, Yankoff 6-34.

PASSING — Mad, Stoneberg 18-32-1-187. Cd’A, Lee 7-9-0-33, Yankoff 19-31-1-140.

RECEIVING — Mad, Hathaway 3-55, Crane 6-24, Anderson 7-102, Downey 1-2, Wills 1-4. Cd’A, Bonacci 9-47, Naccarato 2-13, Lynn 2-15, Hutchings 8-31, Le 1-17, Ramseyer 1-17, Lundblad 2-13, Richmond 1-20.