Heartbreaker

MOSCOW — At the end of a thrilling, emotional game which saw 970 yards gained and 16 touchdowns scored, the state 5A football championship was decided by a play that needed only 3 yards to be successful.

Coeur d’Alene’s defense had come up big in clutch situations already in the playoffs, and the Vikings were confident they could make yet another big play. And they just about made the stop this time.

But Brigham Youngstrom of Rigby crashed over the left side and just across the goal line for a two-point conversion for the winning points in double overtime — a gutsy call by the Trojans — lifting Rigby to a wild 57-56 victory over Coeur d’Alene in a remarkable, draining title game Saturday afternoon before an estimated 5,000 at the Kibbie Dome.

It was a play, more than three hours into an exhausting contest, which left the Trojans in part celebration and part relief afterward, and the Vikings slowly trudging off the field at the end of an epic battle.

“It sucks,” said Coeur d’Alene senior wide receiver/safety Colbey Nosworthy, who was splendid in defeat with nine catches for 226 yards and three touchdowns. “Congrats to them. We went out there and battled for each other; we played our hardest. And obviously it feels bad to lose, but we all have no regrets. We played our hearts out.”

Rigby (10-1) rallied from 15 points down in the final four minutes to force overtime — scoring the tying touchdown and two-point conversion on the game’s final play — and went on to win its first state football title in its first title game appearance.

“It just came down to who had the ball last,” third-year Rigby coach Armando Gonzalez said. “That’s a credit to Coeur d’Alene — they didn’t lose that game.”

Coeur d’Alene (9-3) was playing in the state title game for the sixth time since 2010, trying to win its first state title since 2013, and sixth in school history.

“Both sides played their hearts out,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos, in his 23rd season as head coach of the Vikings, and coaching in his seventh state title game. “And they had the ball last, and they capitalized on it. Two really good football teams battling it out.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our kids, and Rigby, they did what they needed to do to win.”

Where do you start with this one?

Let’s jump to the end of regulation.

On third and goal from the Viking 20 and just 4 seconds left, Christian Fredericksen somehow hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Keegan Thompson. Rigby still had to go for two, and tight end Brycen Uffens took a shovel pass from Thompson and barreled up the middle and into the end zone.

Thus, the game went into overtime tied at 42-42.

Rigby had the ball first, starting at the Coeur d’Alene 10, and Fredericksen caught a 13-yard TD pass on third and goal, running a crossing pattern from the right.

Coeur d’Alene needed just one play to tie it, sophomore Cameren Cope making a leaping catch in the right corner of the end zone on a 10-yard pass from Jack Prka.

The Vikings had the ball first in the second overtime, and scored in two plays — Prka taking it over the right side from 2 yards out.

On Rigby’s turn, Thompson ran for 8 yards, and Youngstrom scored on the next play.

Rigby then decided to go for the win, and Youngstrom made it over the goal line — just barely.

“We couldn’t stop ’em,” Gonzalez said. “Twenty-one (Nosworthy) is one of the best high school football players I’ve ever coached against. There comes a certain point, and the defensive coordinator said ‘Coach, go for it, we can’t stop ‘em.

“So we went for it.”

“It did look like we were going to get the stop,” Amos said. “But they have good athletes, they played hard, and they made that play.

“They made the last play.”

On that two-point play, Rigby put Tanoa Togiai, its 6-foot-7, 295-pound star defensive lineman, on the right side of the line. The Trojans had brought him in on other short-yardage situations earlier in the game.

“We were going to run it to the right, but they shifted their entire defense to that side, because we normally go right,” Gonzalez said. “So we said, ‘What the hell, we’re going to go left.’

“It was time to end it.

“If we can’t get 3 yards, then we don’t deserve to win.”

Coeur d’Alene led most of the game, but could never put Rigby away.

Prka, the Vikings’ junior quarterback, passed for 323 yards and five touchdowns, four to Nosworthy, who had caught 13 passes against Rigby in Coeur d’Alene’s victory over the Trojans in the season opener in Cd’A.

“We were on our heels (early), and couldn’t figure out a way to stop (Nosworthy),” Gonzalez said. “It’s not like we didn’t try. We came into this game saying, that’s the one guy we can’t let beat us.

“But their coaches did a great job scheming to free him up. We used double coverage at times on him, and he still beat that. We had no answers.”

Thompson, who has a scholarship offer from Idaho State, and a preferred walk-on offer from Washington, passed for 289 yards and six touchdowns, four to Fredericksen, who finished with 10 catches for 175 yards.

Youngstrom ran for 130 yards and two scores, and Thompson rushed for 122 yards. Rigby outgained Coeur d’Alene 547-423.

In the fourth quarter, Nosworthy streaked wide open down the middle of the field for a 65-yard catch-and-run touchdown from Prka, extending Coeur d’Alene’s lead to 42-27 with 4:17 to play.

But Rigby answered, then forced a Viking punt — one of the few times either team stopped the other, and drove to the tying score at the end of regulation.

Coeur d’Alene scored touchdowns on six of its nine drives in regulation.

Rigby lost a fumble deep in Viking territory in the second quarter, then turned the ball over on downs at the Cd’A 8 on a tackle by Nosworthy after a short pass completion. But the Trojans scored TDs on their final four drives in regulation.

Rigby’s 57 points was a record for a state 5A title game — Highland scored 56 in 2000. Nosworthy’s 226 receiving yards were just 20 short of the record 246 set by Dan Haynes of Lewiston in 2000. There is no state title game record for most TD passes.

“We had opportunities to put them away and we couldn’t put them away, and hats off to Rigby,” Amos said. “Both teams knew it was going to be.a four-quarter battle .. and it ended up being more than four quarters.”

Rigby 6 7 7 22 7 8 — 57

Coeur d’Alene 7 14 7 14 7 7 — 56

First quarter

Cd’A — Colbey Nosworthy 71 pass from Jack Prka (Eli Jolly kick), 9:46

Rig — Brycen Uffens 24 pass from Keegan Thompson (run failed), 5:26

Second quarter

Rig — Brigham Youngstrom 4 run (Brendan Behunin kick), 11:55

Cd’A — Nosworthy 15 pass from Prka (Jolly kick), 9:00

Cd’A — Jake Brown 16 pass from Prka (Jolly kick), :46

Third quarter

Cd’A — Gunner Giuliio 24 run (Jolly kick), 10:06

Rig — Christian Fredericksen 14 pass from Thompson (Behunin kick), 3:40.

Fourth quarter

Cd’A — Prka 1 run (Jolly kick), 10:54

Rig — Uffens 20 pass from Thompson (Behunin kick), 4:29

Cd’A — Nosworthy 65 pass from Prka (Jolly kick), 4:17

Rig — Fredericksen 30 pass from Thompson (Behunin kick), 2:39

Rig — Fredericksen 20 pass from Thompson (Uffens pass from Thompson), :00

First overtime

Rig — Fredericksen 13 pass from Thompson (Behunin kick)

Cd’A — Cameren Cope 10 pass from Prka (Jolly kick)

Second overtime

Cd’A — Prka 2 run (Jolly kick)

Rig — Youngstrom 2 run (Youngstrom run)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Rig, Youngstrom 22-130, Thompson 24-122, Falevai 3-5, McKinlay 1-1. Cd’A, Crawford 2-(minus 6), Prka 12-48, Elstad 2-20, Giulio 5-38.

PASSING — Rig, Thompson 20-32-0-289. Cd’A, Prka 24-29-0-323.

RECEIVING — Rig, Uffens 5-65, Fredericksen 10-175, Larsen 5-49. Cd’A, Nosworthy 9-226, Elstad 2-(minus 1), Giulio 4-13, Brown 4-45, Potenser 1-9, Crawford 2-14, Johnson 1-7, Cope 1-10.