Defense ... and tough guys
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene's Ben Hoffman celebrates a turnover during Friday night's game at Coeur d'Alene High School. The Vikings took advantage of five Moses Lake turnovers to win 35-7.
LOREN BENOIT/Press Coeur d’Alene’s Cole Ramseyer recovers a fumble during Friday night’s game at Coeur d’Alene High School. The Vikings took advantage of five Moses Lake turnovers, including two fumbles recovered by Ramseyer.
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene's Caleb Beggerly rushes the ball against Moses Lake on Friday.
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene wide receiver Sam Matheson escapes Payton Castro's tackle during Friday's game against Moses Lake High School.
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene quarterback Cole Yankoff passes the ball to one of his wide receivers during a game against Moses Lake High School on Friday.
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene's Shilo Morgan rushes the ball towards the goal line during Friday night's game at Coeur d'Alene High School.
LOREN BENOIT/PressCoeur d'Alene running back Shilo Morgan rushes the ball during Friday's game against Moses Lake High School. Morgan had two touchdowns in the Viking's 35-7 win over the Chiefs.
COEUR d’ALENE — They call them “gift” routes, as in presents from the defense for playing off Coeur d’Alene’s talented plethora of receivers.
So Colson Yankoff threw quick pass after quick pass to the outside as the Vikings methodically marched to touchdowns on its first two possessions of a 22-point first quarter, and eased to a 35-7 nonleague high school football victory over the Moses Lake Chiefs on Friday night at Viking Field.
“A lot of it ran behind our O-line; it all starts there,” said Coeur d’Alene senior Cole Ramseyer, who caught 8 passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and also recovered two fumbles. “When you get the protection like we did, we can sling it around a little bit.”
Yankoff passed for 149 yards in the first quarter on 14 completions in 16 attempts. For the game, he was 32 of 41 for 274 yards and three touchdowns, and one interception.
“He’s got some options, and we just let him go,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said.
The defense for Coeur d’Alene (3-1) also shined, forcing five turnovers. Kyler Prendergast, Sam Matheson and Kade Palmer all had interceptions for the Vikings.
“Our defense was flying around,” Amos said. “Our defense gets a bad rap, but when you score in three plays, they get a lot more possessions. Moses Lake made us earn all our scores tonight. They played tough defense too; you had to earn all your yards.”
Shilo Morgon ran for a couple of touchdowns for the Vikings, one from 2 yards out from the wildcat formation to cap the opening drive, the other a 49-yard burst up the middle on Coeur d’Alene’s first drive of the third quarter.
Yankoff completed five straight passes on the opening drive on quick throws to the outside — two to Ramseyer, two to Derek Gove, who finished with 8 catches for 56 yards. Yankoff completed nine in a row at one point in the quarter.
Coeur d’Alene faced a first-and-28 on its second possession, but that was no problem. three plays later, on fourth and 8, Yankoff connected with Ramseyer on a slant pattern for a 32-yard score and a 16-0 lead.
Moses Lake (1-2) then snapped the ball over the punter’s head, and Coeur d’Alene recovered at the Chiefs’ 5. One play later Yankoff dumped a screen pass to Caleb Beggerly, who took it in.
Late in the third quarter, Ramseyer reached back and caught a screen pass on his right him, shirked a couple tacklers and scored from 17 yards out.
“That was totally not supposed to look like that,” Ramseyer said. “I was supposed to wait for the linemen to go in front of me, but it took a while to develop, and it was a little different in practice” and he end up out ahead of where he was supposed to be.
“It worked out, so ... ”
Moses Lake’s only score came when the Vikings snapped the ball over the punter’s head, and the Chiefs’ Blake Pugh picked it up in the end zone.
“We had a lot of kids banged up,” said Amos, noting the Vikings were without one starter and several others played hurt. “We had some tough kids battle through some pain and injury, and that was very impressive. A laundry list of guys were playing hurt and toughed it out, and that was the difference. That’s what we need; we need some tough guys, and I think a lot of guys showed it tonight.”
Coeur d’Alene travels to Camas (Wash.) next Friday.
Moses Lake 0 0 0 7 — 7
Coeur d’Alene 22 0 13 0 — 35
First quarter
Cd’A — Shilo Morgon 2 run (Cole Ramseyer pass from Kyler Prendergast), 9:45
Cd’A — Ramseyer 32 pass from Yankoff (Morgon run), 3:25
Cd’A — Caleb Beggerly 5 pass from Yankoff (run failed), :56
Third quarter
Cd’A — Morgon 49 run (run failed), 8:27
Cd’A — Ramseyer 17 pass from Yankoff (Seth Harrison kick), 1:39
Fourth quarter
ML — Blake Pugh punt snap recovery in end zone (Spencer Skeesick kick), 7:22
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — ML, Swett 19-73, Mullin 3-(minus 2), Griffith 10-42, Signorelli 2-1, Fuchs 3-6. Cd’A, Yankoff 5-(minus 5), Beggerly 2-9, Morgon 4-51, Knox 2-15, Thompson 1-(minus 2), Crawford 1-1, Friesz 1-(minus 1).
PASSING — ML, Griffith 11-27-2-140, Signorelli 0-4-1-0. Cd’A, Yankoff 32-41-1-274, Thompson 3-4-0-4.
RECEIVING — ML, Haneberg 8-109, Mullin 3-31. Cd’A, Gove 8-56, Prendergast 3-17, Ramseyer 8-111, Morgon 3-17, Chadderdon 3-30, Matheson 2-17, Beggerly 2-6, Linehan 1-5, Kettell 2-10, Knox 2-5, Leifer 1-4.