THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Coeur d'Alene, Rocky have both been here before — many times

They haven't met enough over the last decade to make it a rivalry similar to, say, Coeur d'Alene vs. Highland.

But Coeur d'Alene vs. Rocky Mountain, a spectator-less state 5A football semifinal scheduled for Friday night on Rocky's artificial turf home field in Meridian, also pits two big-school teams who have been regulars in the playoffs over the past dozen years.

The Coeur d'Alene Vikings (8-0) and Rocky Mountain Grizzlies (7-0) have met just four times since Rocky opened in fall 2008 — the last three meetings coming in the state playoffs.

Coeur d'Alene won 37-24 in a regular-season meeting in 2011 at Rocky. In 2012, the Vikings whipped the Grizzlies 45-0 at home in the quarterfinals.

But Rocky has ousted Coeur d'Alene in their last two meetings, both at Rocky — 43-21 in the 2014 quarterfinals, and 42-14 in the 2018 semifinals.

"We’re excited," Coeur d'Alene coach Shawn Amos said. "Rocky is a great football team. We’re dying to play a program like that. We’re excited. We know it’s going to be a dogfight, a battle."

Ditto from down south.

"We’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for them; obviously they’ve won a lot of football games." Rocky Mountain coach Chris Culig said of Coeur d'Alene. "And you can tell they’re well-coached and have got good athletes. We always expect it to be a heck of a game."

COEUR d'ALENE is in the playoffs for the 12th straight season, and is in the semifinals for the ninth time during that span. The Vikings have won three state titles in the last decade, and have played in six state title games.

Rocky is in the playoffs for the 11th time in 13 seasons, and is in the playoffs for the eighth straight year.

"To have a successful program … it takes good players first," said Culig, in his fourth season as head coach after four years as defensive coordinator at Rocky under Scott Criner, who is the son of former Coeur d'Alene High coach Herb Criner. "It takes solid, good coaching, it takes families that are committed to a program that strives to be excellent, and support of your administration. I think we’ve had all four of those."

The Grizzlies have won in their only two appearances in the state title game, in 2015 and 2018.

If not for Highland, Rocky would have greater success in the postseason. Rocky lost to the Rams in the semis in 2013, ’14 and ’17. The Grizzlies beat Highland 24-22 in the 2018 title game, and they beat the Rams in the 2015 semis en route to their first state title.

Highland has played in 19 state title games, and won 11.

To earn Friday night's matchup with Coeur d'Alene, Rocky had to beat — you guessed it — Highland, last week in a quarterfinal matchup.

WHILE COEUR d'Alene played what turned out to be one less regular-season game when COVID-19 forced teams to re-do their schedules, Rocky missed out on three regular-season games — one vs. Thunder Ridge of Idaho Falls during Zero Week, and two vs. 5A Southern Idaho Conference schools. The Grizzlies had a bye in the middle of the season.

Rocky, along with many of the other Boise-area schools, opened its season on Sept. 4 — one week after most other schools in the state.

"We lost three games, but we all feel fortunate," Culig said. "It’s all been kinda weird and awkward, but I was just hopeful we were going to get to play. We’ve got a lot of seniors, just wanted to make sure we had a season. So far, fingers crossed, we’ve had almost a whole season.

"I tell the kids it’s like the Olympics — it’s once every four years. You might get one game and that would be it. You never know what’s going to happen from week to week."

ROCKY VS. Coeur d'Alene, in normal years, would be a matchup where thousands would want to attend.

But that won't happen this year.

While attendance at games in North Idaho has been limited somewhat, with Ada County back in the Red stage in Gov. Little's Idaho Rebounds plan, Culig said three of Rocky's games have been played with no fans. And the other games, players were allowed a couple family members each.

But no fans will be in the stands for Friday's game.

"I tell people it’s not any different in the middle of the game, really," Culig said. "Before the game it’s a little awkward, a little different, because there’s not as much pageantry. All the energy’s got to come from the sidelines, and from your team. It’s interesting."

And, unlike pro and college games, piped-in crowd noise is not allowed by the National Federation of High Schools.

Rocky is led by Jordan Erickson, a hybrid wide receiver/running back who had five catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns against Highland.

Coeur d'Alene has so many weapons that teams can't focus on stopping one or two players.

"They’re sharp, they’re crisp. They make you defend a lot of different things," Culig said of Coeur d'Alene. "For us, we’ve got to control the quarterback (Prka), 23 and 8 (running backs Gunner Giulio and Trent Elstad) and 84 (wide receiver Cameren Cope) … they got a lot of good athletes, they use a lot of players. We’ve got to do a good job of tackling."

Friday's game is at Rocky because of the randomness of the 5A playoff bracket, where semifinal matchups rotate and who hosts who is largely determined by where the region's top seed sits on the bracket.

5A is one of two of the six divisions in Idaho that still use predetermined brackets for its playoffs. There has been talk of using some sort of rankings — like MaxPreps — to seed the playoffs.

Had rankings been used this year, Friday's game could have been at Coeur d'Alene. But we'll never know.

"People get caught up in that stuff, and I don’t care," Amos said. "You’ve got to go on the road and play good teams to win a state championship. It’s not like we haven’t experienced all those different scenarios. And typically the best team wins, so I guess I really don’t care."

"We’re obviously glad we’re not driving up there to play," Culig said. "I always tell people the trip down isn’t as bad as the trip back. Whether you win or lose, that trip home is a grinder, and then you’ve got a short turnaround for the next week (if you win); that always seems to grab you."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.