Emotional finish
COEUR d’ALENE — For as many battles as the Post Falls Trojan football team has been through — whether that be injuries, the coach fighting a battle with cancer, or close losses — Friday’s 24-21 5A Inland Empire League victory over the Coeur d’Alene Vikings was about the best way for the team to finish the season.
Nathan Gregory kicked a 35-yard field goal with 29.9 seconds remaining at Viking Field, giving the Trojans the lead for good in the regular season finale for both schools.
Post Falls finishes 4-5, 1-2 in the 5A IEL. Coeur d’Alene, which locked up a first-round bye in the state playoffs with a 34-0 win at Lake City on Oct. 16, is 7-2, 1-2.
“We’ve had kind of a roller coaster season,” Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz said. “We’ve been in so many close ballgames. Our kids have had tremendous, tremendous effort. Lake City we had our ups and downs, Lewiston we had our ups and downs. Tonight, we just wanted to get after it. That was our goal this week. These kids worked hard and did a great job of that.”
Coeur d’Alene opened the scoring on the third play from scrimmage as Austin Lee hit Brody Lundblad on a curl route, then Lundblad ran 50 yards for a touchdown after the defender had fallen down. Post Falls tied the game five minutes later on a 24-yard touchdown run by Gregory.
Senior tailback Austin Jackson ran for 38 yards in the first quarter, but injured his right knee early in the second quarter. Kaden Nelson, a junior wide receiver, finished the game at tailback, running the ball for 90 yards on 20 carries.
“Kaden’s a tremendous back,” Hinz said. “We’ve got A.J. (Austin Jackson), but he went down with a knee injury and Kaden just stepped it up in the second, third and fourth and did a great job of carrying the ball for us.”
A 31-yard touchdown pass from Lee to Jakob Lynn gave Coeur d’Alene a 13-7 lead after the first quarter. Post Falls took a 14-13 halftime lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Gregory to Jayden Gering with 15.9 seconds remaining in the half. The Trojans extended the advantage to 21-13 on a 4-yard run by Colin Hildreth with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter.
Coeur d’Alene tied it quickly in the fourth quarter as Cole Yankoff ran 33 yards for a touchdown, then ran in a two-point conversion to even the game with 11:02 remaining.
Post Falls took possession of the ball for the final time with five minutes remaining, and drove to set up Gregory’s field goal with 29.9 seconds remaining.
“It was great that he came in and did that,” Hinz said. “That was an awesome kick.”
“We’d been preaching, just do it like in practice,” Gregory said of the kick. “It was the greatest feeling in the world watching it go in.”
Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos attempted to call a timeout before the kick, but was not granted as officials could not hear him yelling for a timeout.
“We shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position,” Amos said. “Give credit to Post Falls, they outplayed us. They earned the game.”
Post Falls beat Coeur d’Alene 37-36 in 2014 at Post Falls in the regular season finale.
Gregory finished the game with 120 yards passing, as well as 65 yards rushing for Post Falls.
“It’s an amazing feeling to get this win,” Gregory said. “That’s what this season was for, was for coach Hinz. Unfortunately, it’s ending a little earlier than we’d like, but fortunately we got this win. We just came together and just played a good game.”
Coeur d’Alene will have to wait a week to find out who it will host in the state quarterfinals in two weeks.
“We’ve got a chance to keep playing,” Amos said. “We’re lucky, but we earned it with the season that we had. We’re going to regroup and learn from this. The one thing this group of kids had been is resilient, and when they don’t play well, they own up to it. Hopefully, they’ll own up to it and make the improvements. Because we’ve still got a good football team. We just didn’t play like one tonight.”
Post Falls 7 7 7 3 — 24
Coeur d’Alene 13 0 0 8 — 21
First quarter
Cd’A — Brody Lundblad 50 pass from Austin Lee (Alec Siebold kick), 10:44
PF — Nathan Gregory 24 run (Gregory kick), 5:03
Cd’A — Jakob Lynn 31 pass from Lee (run failed), 2:47
Second quarter
PF — Jayden Gering 20 pass from Gregory (Gregory kick), 15.4
Third quarter
PF — Colin Hildreth 4 run (Gregory kick), 5:10
Fourth quarter
Cd’A — Cole Yankoff 33 run (Yankoff run), 11:02
PF — FG Gregory 35, 29.9.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — PF, Jackson 9-38, Gregory 7-65, Nelson 20-90, Hildreth 6-19. Cd’A, Le 6-42, Lee 8-1, Vang 7-58, Bonacci 1-0, Yankoff 5-15.
PASSING — PF, Gregory, 10-18-0-120, Nelson, 0-1-0-0. Cd’A, Lee, 7-21-1-117, Yankoff, 7-8-0-50.
RECEIVING — PF, Hillman 3-31, Harmon 3-24, Gering 3-37, Nelson 1-28. Cd’A, Lundblad 4-66, Lynn 3-68, Le 2-11, Ramseyer 1-9, Hutchings 1-1, Vang 1-2, Kile 1-10.