Efficiently dominant

COEUR d’ALENE — The undermanned underdog fought hard throughout, but a few miscues kept the Lake City Timberwolves from making it a game.

The heavily favored Coeur d’Alene Vikings got a shutout from their defense and a workmanlike effort from their offense in a 34-0 victory in 5A Inland Empire League football Friday night at Lake City.

“We had some times on offense we were a little off where we’d like to be,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “But, you beat your crosstown rival at their home, and we secured the No. 1 seed out of the North, and that’s a nice position to be in.”

Coeur d’Alene (7-1, 2-0 5A IEL), which won its seventh straight game, wrapped up a bye in the first round of the 12-team state 5A playoffs in two weeks, and will host a quarterfinal game in early November, and a semifinal game the next week if the Vikings win.

Coeur d’Alene needed just a little over two minutes to take an 8-0 lead, as Austin Lee broke a tackle in the backfield and ran it in from 13 yards out, and ran in the two-point conversion.

Lake City (2-6, 1-1) forced the Vikings to punt on their next two possessions, and had them stopped on a third when a defensive holding penalty kept the drive alive. Four plays later, Joseph Vang took a screen pass from Colson Yankoff and ran it in from 11 yards out.

Lake City fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Coeur d’Alene recovered. The Vikings scored five plays later on Griphen Le’s 3-yard run for a 20-0 halftime lead.

Lake City has been plagued by injuries all season, and suffered a few more last week in a win at Post Falls in the league opener. Backup quarterback Matt Duchow suffered a broken hand, fullback Dakota Kielblock broke his arm, and wideout Jason Pierard broke his collarbone Tuesday in practice. All told, Troxel said the T-Wolves have lost 13 players to either injury or concussion. And another key player moved away early in the season.

“We competed; it (Coeur d’Alene) is a pretty good football team,” Lake City coach Van Troxel said. “Our kids competed hard, we still made too many mistakes that stopped drives, or missed tackles. If you’re going to win, you have to play at a little bit higher level. But I’m proud of our guys; they didn’t roll over ... we could come up with a lot of excuses, but Coeur d’Alene was a better football team tonight, and we’ve got a week left, and we’ve got to get better.”

Lake City turned the ball over on downs three times in Coeur d’Alene territory, twice in the second half. Viking Alec Seibold had an interception in the end zone to thwart another drive, and the T-Wolves had a TD pass called back because of an ineligible lineman downfield.

“We did what we were capable of doing,” Troxel said. “We’ve just got to execute better.”

Lee, wearing Brian Skinner’s jersey in the second half after his was torn in the first half, completed 12 of 16 passes for 107 yards. Yankoff was 12 of 18 for 174 yards and two scores, including a 60-yard pass-and-run to James Kile.

Skinner sat out the game with a knee injury, but is expected back next week.

“They played hard, they slowed the game down, they did some good things,” Amos said of Lake City. “Our defense did a really nice job. Down at the end they started running it up the middle on us, but overall we feel pretty good about (our defense against) a team that could score.”

Starting quarterback Collin Hunter, who injured his ankle against Shadle Park and missed the last three games, returned vs. Coeur d’Alene and played the whole way. Fullback Cameron Chun ran for 68 yards on 10 carries for Lake City, which was outgained 422-193 in total yardage.

It was Coeur d’Alene’s first shutout of Lake City since 1995 — Lake City’s second season of football — when the Vikings won 27-0.

Next Friday, Coeur d’Alene plays host to Post Falls, and Lake City is home vs. Lewiston, in what likely will determine the league’s second berth to the state 5A playoffs.

Coeur d’Alene 8 12 7 7 — 34

Lake City 0 0 0 0 — 0

First quarter

Cd’A — Austin Lee 13 run (Lee run), 9:43

Second quarter

Cd’A — Joseph Vang 11 pass from Colson Yankoff (run failed), 6:08

Cd’A — Griphen Le 3 run (pass failed), 4:29

Third quarter

Cd’A — Le 5 run (Alec Seibold kick), 1:20

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — James Kile 60 pass from Yankoff (Seibold kick), 5:50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cd’A, Le 6-30, Bonacci 2-4, Lee 7-26, Vang 7-18, Yankoff 6-31, Throm 3-30, Price 1-2. LC, Hunter 10-0, Lettau 8-21, Chun 10-68, McMaster 1-3.

PASSING — Cd’A, Lee 12-16-0-107, Yankoff 12-18-0-174. LC, Hunter 14-29-1-101.

RECEIVING — Cd’A, Naccarato 4-45, Bonacci 3-35, Kile 2-60, Richmond 2-4, Lundblad 3-37, Lee 1-(minus 10), Ramseyer 2-19, Vang 3-38, Hutchings 1-4, Lynn 1-9, Seibold 2-25. LC, Blank 1-7, Lettau 2-7, McMaster 2-13, Stapleton 4-18, Davis 4-40, Watkins 1-16.