PREP FOOTBALL: Vikings nab playoff berth, end Post Falls' season
<p>LOREN BENOIT/Press Coeur d'Alene High School quarterback Cole Yankoff rushes the ball downfield for a 65-yard run score against Post Falls Friday night. Yankoff rushed for 240 yards, threw for 196 and had six touchdowns total to help propel the Vikings over the Trojans for the 48-27 on the road at Post Falls High School.</p>
<p>LOREN BENOIT/Press Post Falls running back Quin Bennett (33) stiff arms a defender during Friday night's game against Coeur d'Alene High School. The Vikings won 48-27.</p>
POST FALLS — Big-time players make big-time plays in big games.
On Friday night — in the biggest game of the season for both the Coeur d’Alene Vikings and Post Falls Trojans — at Trojan Stadium, there was nobody on the field bigger than Viking junior quarterback Colson Yankoff.
Yankoff accounted for 436 yards and six touchdowns as the Vikings beat the Trojans 48-27 in a 5A Inland Empire League football game.
More importantly, it locked up the second seed to the state playoffs for Coeur d’Alene (5-3, 2-1 5A IEL) out of the league. Thanks to Kuna beating Timberline earlier on Friday, the loss ended the season for Post Falls (6-3, 1-2).
“Coeur d’Alene’s a great football team,” Post Falls interim coach Blaine Bennett said. “Coach Amos does a great job with them and they’ve got a great quarterback. Good players sometimes make you look bad, and he had some very nice runs and big plays on offense.”
Yankoff, the Oregon commit, scored on runs of 67, 9, 1, 65 and 27 yards and threw for another score.
“I’m going to run the play the coach calls and take what the defense gives us,” Yankoff said. “That’s what we did tonight. This season has been incredible. It’s been a pleasure to be on the field with them. There’s nobody else I’d want to play with, especially going against a really tough team in Folsom (Calif.) to begin the season. It helped us and kicked us into gear and (we’ve) become a better team.”
“He made some huge plays when we needed some big plays,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said of Yankoff. “It wasn’t as clean as we’d like, but until we play the perfect game, we won’t be happy. To keep playing, we need to continue to get better and better.”
Coeur d’Alene had just 11 snaps on offense in the first quarter, but led 13-7. The Vikings extended the advantage to 21-7 on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Yankoff to Brody Lundblad on a slant pass.
Coeur d’Alene will host a first-round playoff game next Friday. If Eagle beats Borah today, the Vikings will face Borah.
Post Falls opened the scoring on a 45-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Mills to Nate Buer, then cut the deficit to 21-13 on a 6-yard strike from Buer to Quin Bennett with 6:03 remaining in the third quarter. Coeur d’Alene scored 27 straight points to put the game away before the Trojans punched in a pair of scores after recovering fumbles deep in Vikings territory.
“Offensively we went 3-and-out three straight times, and then they got their offense going,” Blaine Bennett said. “At that point, it just kind of got away from us. Coeur d’Alene did a great job.”
Before the game, Post Falls dedicated a new scoreboard to the memory of coach Jeff Hinz, who passed away after a three-year battle with cancer in July.
“It was still a very special night,” Blaine Bennett said. “It was special for the seniors, and the memory of coach Hinz.”
Coeur d’Alene 13 8 14 13 — 48
Post Falls 7 0 6 14 — 27
First quarter
PF — Matthew Mills 45 pass from Nate Buer (Braden Vaughan kick), 10:00
Cd’A — Colson Yankoff 67 run (Seth Harrison kick), 9:46
Cd’A — Yankoff 9 run (kick failed), 3:40
Second quarter
Cd’A — Brody Lundblad 40 pass from Yankoff (Yankoff run), :37.1
Third quarter
PF — Quin Bennett 6 pass from Buer (kick failed), 6:03
Cd’A — Yankoff 1 run (kick failed), 3:15
Cd’A — Yankoff 65 run (Joe Vang run), 1:12
Fourth quarter
Cd’A — Caleb Beggerly 21 run (Harrison kick), 11:20
Cd’A — Yankoff 27 run (kick failed), 8:19
PF — Vaughan 2 run (Vaughan kick), 4:21
PF — Dusty Weeks 4 run (Vaughan kick), 2:38
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Cd’A, Yankoff 14-240, Vang 12-69, Gove 1-5, Beggerly 5-40, Andersen 1-8, Edwards 1-2, Morgan 5-23. PF, Buer 12-(-16), Bennett 23-63, Vaughan 4-14, Weeks 1-4.
PASSING — Cd’A, Yankoff, 14-26-0-196, Thompson, 1-1-0-(-2). PF, Buer, 14-22-0-160.
RECEIVING — Cd’A, Prendergast 6-74, Gove 1-2, Sumner 1-11, Naccarato 1-6, Lundblad 2-56, Ramseyer 1-24, Vang 1-6, Thompson 1-1, Beggerly 2-35, Morgan 1-(-2). PF, Walton 1-4, M. Mills 3-66, Gering 3-20, Bennett 2-31, Vaughan 1-5, Gering 1-6, Sciortino 1-10, Ballew 2-20.