Vikings handle Lake City, set up showdown with Post Falls for 5A IEL title

COEUR d’ALENE — Grant Clark right and Grant Clark left worked pretty well for the host Lake City Timberwolves in the first quarter Friday night.

His first 11 carries went for 53 yards.

Then apparently the Coeur d’Alene Vikings had enough of that, dialed up some run blitzes, and held Clark to minus 2 yards on his next 10 carries.

Meanwhile, Coeur d’Alene was workmanlike on offense, scoring on its first four drives and going on to a methodical 46-10 victory over their city rivals in 5A Inland Empire League play.

“He’s good; he’s a good running back, and they did a good job blocking for him,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said of Clark. “We game-planned for him the whole time because he’s a good player, and they give him the ball, and I would give him the ball too.”

Coeur d’Alene (6-2, 2-0 5A IEL), ranked No. 2 in 5A, clinched a state 5A playoff spot with the win, and set up a showdown next Friday at home with No. 3 Post Falls (8-0, 2-0) for the league title and a first-round playoff bye. Post Falls also clinched a playoff spot Friday night with its 28-12 victory at Lewiston.

“They’re rolling,” Amos said of Post Falls. “It’ll obviously be a real big challenge for us, with a lot on the line. We’ve played in a lot of big games, and I think our kids will come ready to go.”

Lake City (2-5, 0-2) trailed just 7-3 after Marco Rojo’s 22-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

But the Timberwolves, despite moving the ball well at times, were unable to finish any of them in the end zone. Lake City settled for one field goal, and missed two others after fumbled holds. One of the missed field goals came after Travis Jerome picked off Colson Yankoff at the Cd’A 45 and returned it to the 3 — only to see a holding penalty bring it back to the 36.

“We’re our own worst enemy at times,” Lake City coach Bryce Erickson said. “We haven’t been able, with the exception of Sandpoint, to be on all cylinders as a football team — offense, defense and special teams. I was really proud of the way our defense played tonight. I thought our coaches did a tremendous job this week of practice, I think our players did a tremendous job of, again, going against a no-huddle offense. I thought our alignment and assignment was a lot better defensively — now, there’s some plays that we’ve just got to make. We had guys in position, and we were lined up the way we wanted to be lined up defensively. That was a huge improvement from the week before (against Post Falls). And offensively, our struggles are when we get inside the red zone.”

Yankoff was 28 of 42 for 245 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. His TD pass was a 19-yarder to Cole Ramseyer to make it 24-3 late in the first half, when the University of Washington commit rolled right and hit Ramseyer, the Boise State commit who had cut back away from the sideline to gain separation from his defender.

Caleb Beggerly ran for a pair of touchdowns for Coeur d’Alene, and was his usual menace against the run from his linebacker position.

“I thought Lake City did a really good job of managing the clock,” Amos said. “They tackled really well. It was a tough ballgame; the score was closer than it looked. We still have a lot of work to do.”

Mason Morrow had five catches for 43 yards for Lake City, including a 10-yard TD reception from Bryce Buttz in the fourth quarter.

“I felt like our kids competed their butts off for 3 1/2 quarters,” Erickson said. “I did not like the way we finished the game. I thought we lost our composure.”

Zane Lettau ran for 80 yards on 11 carries for Lake City. Clark finished with 51 yards on 21 carries.

Coeur d’Alene out-gained Lake City 463-244.

Lake City wraps up its season Friday at home vs. Lewiston.

Coeur d’Alene 7 17 7 15 — 46

Lake City 0 3 0 7 — 10

First quarter

Cd’A — Colson Yankoff 19 run (Seth Harrison kick), 6:43

Second quarter

LC — FG Marco Rojo 22, 11:22

Cd’A — FG Harrison 25, 8:37

Cd’A — Caleb Beggerly 4 run (Shilo Morgan run), 4:53

Cd’A — Cole Ramseyer 19 pass from Yankoff (run failed), 2:55

Third quarter

Cd’A — Beggerly 12 run (Harrison kick), 2:02

Fourth quarter

LC — Mason Morrow 10 pass from Bryce Buttz (Rojo kick), 4:54

Cd’A — Morgan 16 run (Harrison kick), 3:24

Cd’A — Brennen Crawford 1 run (Garrett Hagel pass from Bo Leifer), 2:13

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cd’A, Beggerly 8-43, Yankoff 7-83, Morgan 9-71, Crawford 1-1. LC, Clark 21-51, Buttz 3-(minus 16), Lettau 11-80, team 2-(minus 20).

PASSING — Cd’A, Yankoff 28-42-1-245, Edwards 3-3-0-20. LC, Buttz 12-22-0-149.

RECEIVING — Cd’A, Matheson 7-33, Beggerly 2-12, K. Hegel 4-44, Kettell 2-14, Morgan 2-20, Ramseyer 5-80, Prendergast 3-10, Dawson 3-14, Chadderdon 1-34, Gove 1-1, Leifer 1-5. LC, Morrow 5-43, Jerome 2-18, Felix 2-49, Pollow 1-27, Clark 1-(minus 4), Torres 1-16.