Lake City win Grant-ed
COEUR d’ALENE — After getting, as their coach put it, their “ever-loving butts kicked” last Saturday, the Lake City Timberwolves needed something, anything to get the wheels turning in the right direction.
It started on Monday at practice, and the next day, then the next, and on Thursday. Then snap by snap, behind a solid night from the Lake City offensive line, Grant Clark started rolling on Friday night.
The end result might have been 287 yards from the senior running back, but most importantly, it was something to build on.
And — a win.
Clark finished with three touchdowns as the Timberwolves beat the East Valley Knights 24-20 on homecoming at Lake City High.
“None of those yards could be gained without the effort of the offensive line,” Lake City coach Bryce Erickson said. “I’m proud of Kyle (Torres) and Brayden (Pollow). We were trying to save them some playing time just playing them on defense. And we played them on our “12” personel and they had a huge impact. But Grant ran his butt off tonight and just really proud of him.”
On its opening possession, Lake City drove down the field, but had a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown. East Valley struck again to take a 14-0 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run by Isaiah Ervin in the second quarter before Lake City rattled off 17 straight points to take its first lead of the game.
“It about these kids and what they’ve endured,” Erickson said. “All the challenges and adversity that they’ve been through. Especially the seniors, they haven’t had a lot of success as a group, and just coming off a game where we got our ever-loving butts kicked against Hillcrest. This week, probably the best leadership I’ve seen from our seniors in practice. It was the best week of practice we’ve had. The energy was good and getting those guys ready for the game and it reflected in the game tonight.”
Lake City had 17 first downs and forced a turnover in the end zone right before the end of the half. On its first snap of the night, Lake City was flagged for a false start, but finished with only two penalties.
“We made a lot of mistakes tonight, with turnovers and penalties,” Erickson said. “We’re not good enough to shoot ourselves in the foot, but our defense stepped up and tackled a lot better. We made plays when we needed to tonight.”
Clark had 168 yards rushing in the second half.
“We just tried to pick it up in the second half,” Clark said. “We had a rough first half and knew we had to pick it up. I am just kind of taking it all in. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it without the offensive line tonight. They do everything and that’s why I was able to do what I do tonight.”
East Valley (1-3) took the lead with 7:33 remaining on a 7-yard touchdown pass by Christian Johnston to Tallon Watson before Clark’s third score of the night put the T-Wolves ahead to stay with 4:49 remaining.
Lake City (1-3) travels to Sandpoint next Friday.
“This win was big for sure,” Clark said. “Next week isn’t going to be easy and we need to pick it up again next week.”
East Valley 8 6 0 6 — 20
Lake City 0 7 10 7 — 24
First quarter
EV — Tallon Watson 85 blocked kick return (Rodrick Fisher pass from Christian Johnson), 1:38
Second quarter
EV — Isaiah Ervin 3 run (pass failed), 1:30
LC — Grant Clark 1 run (Marco Rojo kick), 4.5
Third quarter
LC — Clark 51 run (Rojo kick), 11:45
LC — FG, Rojo 35, 4:30
Fourth quarter
EV — Watson 7 pass from Johnston (pass failed), 7:33
LC — Clark 1 run (Rojo kick), 4:49
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — EV, Ervin 21-82, Fisher 3-26, Watson 1-2, Johnston 2-2. LC, Clark 36-287, Lettau 5-19.
PASSING — EV, Johnston, 12-33-1-256. LC, Buttz, 9-23-0-101.
RECEIVING — EV, Morales 3-74. Fisher 6-125, Ervin 1-1, Scott 2-33, Watson 3-23. LC, Morrow 7-72, Felix 1-14, Briner 1-15.