Vikings sack Bengals

LEWISTON — If there was a loose football on the field in the first four minutes Friday night, chances are Coeur d’Alene High senior Ryan Linehan was there to pick it up.

Offense, defense — didn’t matter.

Linehan’s first fumble recovery helped give his team the momentum early in the game.

His second fumble recovery prevented Lewiston from snatching back the momentum, led to the game’s first score and, ultimately, a comfortable 49-13 victory for the Vikings (6-0) over the host Bengals (5-2) in the 5A Inland Empire League opener for both teams at Bengal Field.

The first fumble came on the game’s third play, recovered by Linehan, a defensive end, and returned a few yards to the Lewiston 34.

“I saw the quarterback fumble, so I tried pushing my guy into the quarterback,” Linehan said. “Then Nate comes off the edge, smacks the quarterback, I pick it up and go ‘Oh, there’s a lane, and I start running. Someone grabs my ankle and I fall down.”

Coeur d’Alene drove to the Bengal 1, where quarterback Kale Edwards fumbled trying to run around right end. Linehan, who also plays tight end, picked up the ball and nearly scored, getting tackled at the 1.

“I saw the ball on the ground and I said, ‘5 yards to go, I’m going, I’m going.” Linehan said. “Again I get grabbed by the ankle, and I’m like 2 yards away. I lunge and then the ref said my knee was down.”

Edwards plunged in from a yard out on the next play.

“The fumble on defense was a game changer,” Linehan said, “because they started with the ball, we got it back and scored right away. The fumble on offense, that could have swung it the other way, but since we got it back, that just showed that we could persevere and keep it going on offense.”

Coeur d’Alene led 21-0 at halftime and was never seriously threatened. The Vikings never punted and totaled 534 yards. Edwards passed for 368 yards and four touchdowns — to Shilo Morgan, Carter Friesz, Jake Brown and Logan Nosworthy — and ran for two more TDs.

Defensively, Coeur d’Alene sacked elusive Lewiston quarterback Tyson Wallace five times. Nate Burch had 2 1/2 sacks, Linehan 1 1/2 and Edwards one.

“People on our team always say we have the potential to be the best D-line in the state,” Lineman said. “And I think we’re trying our hardest to prove that right now. We game-planned for that quarterback; we had to watch out for him all night.”

“He’s kinda their cog, we had to make sure to limit him,” Amos said of Wallace. “He got away from us a couple of times, but we’re pretty lucky to have some speed guys on the ends. If you can get pressure without blitzing, that helps tremendously. Nate Burch and Linehan and (Joe) Laroque are just hard guys to handle one-on-one, so that allows us to play more guys in coverage. And some of those were coverage sacks.”

Lewiston didn’t threaten much, but did have the ball inside the Coeur d’Alene 5 twice in the first half. Both times, the Vikings were up to the challenge.

Early in the second quarter, trailing 14-0, Lewiston had second and goal at the 1. But Linehan and Edwards stopped Isaiah Walker for a 3-yard loss, and Edwards sacked Wallace for a 10-yard loss on a safety blitz. The Bengals then missed a 31-yard field goal.

Later in the half, Lewiston drove to the Viking 4. A second-down run lost a yard, an illegal procedure penalty pushed the Bengals back to the 10, Birch and Linehan teamed on a sack for a 10-yard loss, and Wallace threw incomplete on fourth down.

“I thought we played very well,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “The two goal-line stands by our defense in the first half really set the tone. That was pretty impressive, stopping them down there.”

Lewiston came in on a five-game winning streak, though its non league schedule was not as tough as Coeur d’Alene’s.

Edwards was not sacked, though it wasn’t for lack of trying by Lewiston. The Bengals seemingly had him in their sights several times, only to see him slip away and often complete a pass for a big play downfield.

“You see what they do to teams, and I’m not going to say they get you down a little bit, but ... they did it to Highland (two weeks ago), too,” Lewiston coach Matt Pancheri said of Coeur d’Alene. “They play as fast as anybody and across the board, they’re pretty dang good and that quarterback, we had him a few times in just horrendous positions and you think you’ve got a sack and somehow, he runs away from it, kept plays alive. And some of those plays were big third downs and you’ve got him bottled up, and think he’s going down and he makes a big play and your coverage breaks down after two minutes on a single play.”

Next Friday, Coeur d’Alene plays host to Lake City, and Lewiston visits Post Falls.

Coeur d’Alene 14 7 21 7 — 49

Lewiston 0 0 7 6 — 13

First quarter

Cd’A — Kale Edwards 1 run (Gabe Nazemi kick), 8:14

Cd’A — Shilo Morgan 25 pass from Edwards (Nazemi kick), 2:57

Second quarter

Cd’A — Carter Friesz 16 pass from Edwards (Nazemi kick), 4:13

Third quarter

Cd’A — Jake Brown 60 pass from Edwards (Nazemi kick), 11:04

Cd’A — Morgan 11 run (Nazemi kick), 7:46

Lew — Colt Jacobs 42 pass from Tyson Wallace (Harrison Smith kick), 5:19

Cd’A — Edwards 4 run (Nazemi kick), 3:27

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Logan Nosworthy 10 pass from Edwards (Nazemi kick), 8:58

Lew — Jacobs 47 pass from Wallace (kick failed), 4:52

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Cd’A, Edwards 9-45, Linehan 1-4, Morgan 9-67, Garitone 2-9, Elstad 6-23, Friesz 3-18. Lew, Bramlett 6-10, Wallace 18-30, Holscher 4-13, Walker 2-1, Spencer 1-13, Alford 1-5.

PASSING — Cd’A, Edwards 23-31-0-368. Lew, Wallace 10-15-0-203.

RECEIVING — Cd’A, Dixon 1-8, C. Nosworthy 4-27, Morgan 3-35, Hagel 4-83, Linear 1-18, Fries 2-23, Kay 2-41, Baritone 2-32, Brown 2-65, L. Nosworthy 2-36. Lew, Bradley 1-14, Jacobs 4-102, Stamper 1-12, Carpenter 2-24, Spencer 1-36, Alford 1-15.