Rapid response
From left, Post Falls players Jacob Rutherford (2), Kyle Young and Alex Horning celebrate Josiah Shields’ touchdown in the final seconds of Friday night’s state 5A first-round playoff game against Skyview. LOREN BENOIT/Press
Post Falls running back Eli Gondo celebrates his rushing touchdown with Austin Tipton (76) and Cameron Sessions in Friday night’s first round playoff game against Skyview. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Two Post Falls fans celebrate a Trojan touchdown in the final seconds of Friday night’s first round playoff game against Skyview. To read full story, see B1. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
POST FALLS — Playing in an up-tempo offense, you don’t have much time to panic.
You just go.
Whether a team is backed up on its 1-yard line in the fourth quarter, or needing 60 yards to save its season.
Post Falls went.
Then sophomore Josiah Shields finished it on Friday night.
Shields caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from junior Derek Pearse with 6.7 seconds remaining to lift the Trojans past the Skyview Hawks of Nampa 42-37 in an opening round game in the state 5A football playoffs at Trojan Stadium.
“I was just running a seam up the middle of the field,” Shields said. “I just saw that Derek had time and I had to go up and get it.”
Skyview took the lead with 34.2 seconds remaining on a Tyler Crowe 2-yard touchdown run. Post Falls got the ball at the 40-yard line on a squib kick, then marched right back down the field to end the game.
“I was looking at the left side the entire time,” Pearse said of the final touchdown by Shields. “I had my eyes on him the entire time and found him. And he just made a great play.”
It was the Trojans’ first playoff win since 1995, when they advanced to the state semifinals, losing to Lewiston.
Pearse had two touchdown passes to sophomore receiver Tommy Hauser in the second half.
“We’re young, but our young guys make plays on offense,” said Pearse, who finished with 287 yards passing and four touchdowns. “Our young guys block really well on the offensive line. We just make plays.”
Post Falls (5-4) travels to Mountain View of Meridian in a quarterfinal game next weekend.
“One thing about playing up-tempo offense is that you don’t need a lot of time,” Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. “We’re used to playing fast all the time, and we knew we had a few timeouts left. And the kids executed it well. A couple of those penalties helped, but the kids made some big plays when they had to. I thought Derek did a great job of managing the game at that point. It was really an awesome game in all three phases. It was a great win for our program.”
Shields sealed the win on the final play of the game with an interception of a Wyatt Storer pass at the Post Falls 40.
“Josiah Shields is a special player,” Bennett said. “And he showed it tonight. He’s a special kid, and he’s had a great season. We’re excited. We get to travel to Mountain View and do it one more time.”
Hauser caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Pearse with 4:56 remaining to give Post Falls its first lead of the game at 35-31.
“It was nice to have him (Hauser) back,” Bennett said. “We didn’t have him last week against Coeur d’Alene (due to concussion protocol). Cole Rutherford and Hauser, they’re two special sophomores. Our defense had some tough challenges tonight. No. 21 (Crowe) is a tough back. We’ve played some big teams, but thought our defense played well, even though it was a tough game for them.”
Crowe finished with 274 yards rushing for Skyview, which finished 5-5 in its first season since moving up to the 5A classification.
“We just needed to manage that final 30 seconds a little better,” Skyview coach David Young said. “If I do a better job of managing our timeouts, Post Falls doesn’t get the ball back. We got a little comfortable with the lead, Post Falls battled back — and hats off to them — and we called a couple of timeouts late, where we should have just ran the clock out to the last five seconds.”
Skyview 14 7 10 6 — 37
Post Falls 7 13 8 14 — 42
First quarter
Sky — Tyler Crowe 5 run (Drew Bingham kick), 5:41
PF — Eli Gondo 2 run (Josh Brisendine kick), 4:22
Sky — Wade Carpenter 40 pass from Wyatt Storer (Bingham kick), 1:59
Second quarter
PF — Carsen Daughenbaugh 60 punt block return (pass failed), 9:58
Sky — Carpenter 18 pass from Storer (Bingham kick), 8:05
PF — Cole Rutherford 3 pass from Derek Pearse (Brisendine kick), 32.3
Third quarter
Sky — Haydn Turner 20 pass from Storer (Bingham kick), 9:14
Sky — FG, Bingham, 20, 4:40
PF — Tommy Hauser 12 pass from Pearse (Gondo run), 1:18
Fourth quarter
PF — Hauser 6 pass from Pearse (Brisendine kick), 4:56
Sky — Crowe 2 run (kick failed), 34.2
PF — Josiah Shields 20 pass from Pearse (Brisendine kick), 6.7
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Sky, Crowe 41-274, Storer 3-(-1), Salois 4-9, Turner 3-5. PF, Gondo 14-51, Pearse 3-(-8), Hauser 2-10.
PASSING — Sky, Storer, 22-34-1-252. PF, Pearse, 22-28-0-287.
RECEIVING — Sky, Crowe 3-15, Medl 4-30, Carpenter 10-113, Smith 2-29, Salois 1-2, Turner 5-61. PF, Horning 1-9, J. Rutherford 5-62, Shields 3-79, Hauser 6-52, C. Rutherford 6-81, Gondo 1-4.