NORTHWEST NOTES June 25, 2016

| June 25, 2016 9:00 PM

NIC Booster Club annual

meeting to be held June 30

The North Idaho College Booster Club will hold its annual meeting Thursday, June 30 at 7 a.m. at the Best Western Plus-Coeur d’Alene Inn. The meeting is open to the public and nominations for consideration to join the Booster Club Board of Directors will be accepted. Breakfast will be provided as well.

Information: 769-3348

Empire visit Billings for

final regular season game

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Spokane Empire (12-3) will go on the road for their final regular season game of the 2016 Indoor Football League season to take on the Billings Wolves (7-8) at Rimrock Auto Arena at Metra Park (tonight, 6 p.m. PDT, ESPN 700, IFLLive.TV).

Spokane leads the regular season series over the Wolves 2-1. The lone loss took place in Week 4 in Billings. In their last two matchups in Spokane, the Empire outscored the Wolves 126-69.

Last week, the Wolves posted their highest point total of the season as they defeated the Tri-Cities Fever 67-23 in Billings. With Nebraska losing its Week 18 matchup against the Colorado Crush, Billings has clinched the second seed in the Intense Conference and will host the Danger on July 9. The winner of that first round game will travel to Spokane to face the Empire in the Intense Conference Championship game the following weekend.

Spokane suffered another key injury last week. Wide receiver Carl Sims, who played in all 15 games this season and led the Empire with 71 receptions for 822 yards and 20 touchdowns, went down with a broken wrist and will miss the remainder of the season.

Wolves quarterback Cory Murphy is coming off a nine-touchdown performance last week against the Fever. Murphy completed 14 of 23 passes for 224 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed 13 times for 67 yards and six TDs.

After the injury to running back Trevor Kennedy just a few weeks ago, Spokane activated Andrew Pierce from the refuse to report list (RTR). Due to the required activation period from RTR, Pierce is ineligible to play in this week’s game but will be eligible for the playoffs in July. Defensive back Josh Ferguson will continue to serve as the primary option in the backfield with quarterback Charles Dowdell.

• The Empire signed defensive back Cassius Sendish (6-0, 195, Kansas).