Little margin for error left for Vandals

Idaho football coach Paul Petrino has been to Hillsboro Stadium before.

Many times.

Just not for football.

“I’ve been to a lot of softball tournaments there,” Petrino said with a laugh earlier this week, in his weekly meeting with area media. “My daughter Anne Mari (now playing at Montana) played a lot of travel softball tournaments there.”

Hillsboro Stadium itself is mostly used for football, which is where the Vandals (2-4, 0-2 Big Sky Conference) will find themselves on Saturday, trying to keep their postseason hopes alive in a matchup with the Portland State Vikings (3-3, 1-1).

Behind the bleachers on the home side of the artificial turf football field is the baseball stadium, Ron Tonkin Field, where the Hillsboro Hops of the short-season class A Northwest League play.

And surrounding those stadiums are six natural grass softball fields, part of the Gordon Faber Recreation Complex.

And aside from a little bit of seating behind each end zone in the 7,000-seat stadium, all of the seating is in the giant bleachers on the home side of the field.

“Behind our own bench is nothing,” Petrino said, other than a long strip of artificial turf where softball games can be played. “We have to bring our own fire, intensity and excitement.”

Portland State used to play its home football games at Providence Park in Portland, but growing conflicts with Portland Timbers soccer games in recent years caused PSU to move several of its football games out to Hillsboro. This year, the school decided to make Hillsboro Stadium its permanent home for football.

LITTLE MARGIN FOR ERROR: The Vandals likely need to win out, or perhaps go 5-1, over its last six games to have a shot at the posteason.

After Portland State, Idaho is home vs. Idaho State, then a bye, then home vs. Cal Poly, at Montana, vs. Sacramento State and at Northern Arizona.

“Definitely your back’s against the wall,” Petrino said. “We’ve got to go. I thought we practiced hard last week (before losing 41-35 at home to No. 4/5 Weber State); I thought we were ready to go. What we have to do is make sure we’re that ready to play this week. We can’t have a letdown.”

INJURIES: Petrino said Tuesday he probably wouldn’t know until today whether some of his players who left the Weber game early with injuries might be able to play against Portland State.

Two of those are wide receiver Jeff Cotton, Idaho’s leading receiver, and running back Aundre Carter, the Vandals’ top rusher.

“Mason, he took some big hits — luckily he’s got a hard head,” Paul Petrino said of his son and starting quarterback.

Paul Petrino said if Mason had to leave the game for only a few plays, redshirt freshman Nikhil Nayer would likely replace him. If Petrino was to be out an extended period, junior Colton Richardson would probably come in, he said.