Vikings, Amos survive scares

SPOKANE VALLEY — Coeur d’Alene High football coach Shawn Amos watched his Vikings survive a never-quit Central Valley squad 29-27 in non league high school football on Friday night.

But that was nothing compared to Amos’ scary trip back from Pocatello on Thursday night, after driving to Pocatello to watch his son, Gunnar, a backup quarterback at Idaho State.

“I almost died,” Amos said.

Just outside of the Dillon, Mont., exit, traveling alone in his mother-in-law’s car and going 85 mph, the front wheel on the driver’s side came off.

He got the car stopped.

“I just got lucky,” Amos said. “I saw sparks flying, and I never did find my wheel. I don’t know how far it went.”

His nephew, who lives in Dillon, came and got him, and he spent the night in Dillon before driving home Friday.

“It was pretty scary,” he said.

As for Friday night’s game, it was a puntfest before Caleb Beggerly took the 15th punt of the game on the run and returned it 55 yards to put Coeur d’Alene (1-1) up 22-13 with 11:40 left in the game. That started a flurry of four straight touchdowns, two by each team.

Coeur d’Alene never trailed, but could never really exhale until Central Valley ran out of time on its final drive, reaching the Viking 42 before time expired.

“It was kind of a sloppy good high school football game,” Amos said. “It got crazy (at the end).”

Before that, the game was a combination of misfiring offenses and a handful of strong defensive plays.

Third-string Viking quarterback Brady Campbell, starting his second straight game in place of the injured Colson Yankoff, passed for 200 yards and a touchdown to Kyler Prendergast in the fourth quarter, and also dashed around right end for 11 yards and the game’s first touchdown.

The Bears sacked Thompson four times.

“We’re all hopeful for Colson to come back,” Amos said. “But it’s good for these guys, a lot of guys are getting a chance to step up in leadership roles, and battle a lot of adversity, which will pay dividends down the road.”

“Brady was running around like Colson today,” Amos said.

Shilo Morgon ran 1 yard out of the wildcat formation for a TD to put Cd’A up 15-7 in the second quarter.

Garrett Hegel of the Vikings had an interception, and Ben Hoffman recovered a fumble.

Fifteen of the first 25 possessions resulted in punts.

Central Valley, in its season opener, lost quarterback Matt Gabbert, nephew of NFL QB Blaine Gabbert, to a broken collarbone late in the first half. But backup Grant Hannan shined, passing for 239 yards and two touchdowns, both to Austin Tomlinson.

Tomlinson finished with 10 catches for 217 yards and three touchdowns, and prevented a Coeur d’Alene touchdown when he chased down Viking wide receiver Cole Ramseyer on a long pass-and-run and stripped the ball from behind. The ball bounded into the end zone and the Bears recovered for a touchback.

“They had game legs; we didn’t,” CV coach Ryan Butner said of Coeur d’Alene. “And that showed. They had an extra week and a half on us, and had a game on us, and that pretty much in my opinion proved to be the difference tonight. They just out-physicalled us, because they had that game under their belt.”

Amos didn’t know if Yankoff, recovering from a torn meniscus, would be ready next Friday, when the Vikings host Mead

“He’ll tell us,” Amos said. “When he feels ready, he’ll play.”

Coeur d’Alene 8 7 0 14 — 29

Central Valley 7 0 6 13 — 27

First quarter

Cd’A — Brady Thompson 11 run (Shilo Morgon run), 6:14

CV — Austin Tomlinson 36 pass from Matt Gabbert (Landon Rehkow kick), 1:01

Second quarter

Cd’A — Morgon 1 run (Seth Harrison kick), 2:36

Third quarter

CV — Grant Hannon 47 run (run failed), 5:43

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Caleb Beggerly 55 punt return (Harrison kick), 11:40

CV — Tomlinson 44 pass from Hannan (Rehkow kick), 9:24

Cd’A — Kyler Prendergast 14 pass from Brady Thompson (Harrison kick), 6:23

CV — Tomlinson 43 pass from Hannan (Rehkow kick), 4:25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cd’A, Thompson 10-21, Beggerly 9-62, Morgon 13-49, Throm 2-5, Prendergast 1-(minus 5). CV, Gabbert 4-(minus 3), Chodorowski 12-32, Harper 3-(minus 5), Hannan 6-88.

PASSING — Cd’A, Thompson 19-27-0-200, Friesz 4-7-0-21. CV, Gabbert 8-13-0-80, Hannan 16-27-1-239.

RECEIVING — Cd’A, Gove 2-11, Ramseyer 4-94, Dawson 1-5, Morgon 2-12, Beggerly 1-1, Matheson 4-16, K. Hagel 4-28, Prendergast 4-51, Kettell 1-4. CV, Tomlinson 10-217, Caffrey 3-10, Quinn 2-23, Harper 6-40, Chodorowski 2-16, Mason 1-7.